The Influence of Garden Size and Floral Cover on Pollen Deposition in Urban Community Gardens

Werrell, Peter A.; Langellotto, Gail; Morath, Shannon U.; Matteson, Kevin C.

doi:10.15365/cate.2162009

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…To some degree, the facilitative, neutral, or inhibitive effects of other floral resources are likely to depend on context, such as spatial distribution of resources and other neighborhood effects (Werrell et al 2009;Seifan et al 2014;Waters et al 2014). The legal boundaries of backyards are not a meaningful barrier to bees.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of wild bees supports pollination services in an urbanized landscape

2015

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Plantings in residential neighborhoods can support wild pollinators. However, it is unknown how effectively wild pollinators maintain pollination services in small, urban gardens with diverse floral resources. We used a 'mobile garden' experimental design, whereby potted plants of cucumber, eggplant, and purple coneflower were brought to 30 residential yards in Chicago, IL, USA, to enable direct assessment of pollination services provided by wild pollinator communities. We measured fruit and seed set and investigated the effect of within-yard characteristics and adjacent floral resources on plant pollination. Increased pollinator visitation and taxonomic richness generally led to increases in fruit and seed set for all focal plants. Furthermore, fruit and seed set were correlated across the three species, suggesting that pollination services vary across the landscape in ways that are consistent among different plant species. Plant species varied in terms of which pollinator groups provided the most visits and benefit for pollination. Cucumber pollination was linked to visitation by small sweat bees (Lasioglossum spp.), whereas eggplant pollination was linked to visits by bumble bees. Purple coneflower was visited by the most diverse group of pollinators and, perhaps due to this phenomenon, was more effectively pollinated in florally-rich gardens. Our results demonstrate how a diversity of wild bees supports pollination of multiple plant species, highlighting the importance of pollinator conservation within cities. Non-crop resources should continue to be planted in urban gardens, as these resources have a neutral and potentially positive effect on crop pollination.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of wild bees supports pollination services in an urbanized landscape

2015

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“…The map was created using data provided by the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station gardening recreation. Common crop plants grown in these community garden study sites include hot and sweet peppers, mints and other herbs, kale and collards, tomatoes and tomatillos, strawberries, and cucumbers (for the full list, see Matteson and Langellotto 2009). Specific locations (street addresses and GPS coordinates) of these gardens are presented in Matteson et al (2008).…”

Section: Harlem Gardensmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…cucumbers, squashes) or to benefit from (e.g. tomatoes, raspberries) insect pollination (Matteson and Langellotto 2009). Therefore, a diversity of pollinating insects may increase crop yield and contribute to urban agriculture, providing food security for residents of inner city neighborhoods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, a diversity of pollinating insects may increase crop yield and contribute to urban agriculture, providing food security for residents of inner city neighborhoods. For example, the floral area of urban gardens was positively associated with deposition of conspecific pollen in cucumbers (Werrell et al 2009), presumably because increased floral cover attracted a greater number of pollinators into urban gardens. Second, gardens include a variety of flowering plants (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determinates of inner city butterfly and bee species richness

2010

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Although urbanization is increasing worldwide, relatively few studies have investigated patterns of urban biodiversity outside of city parks and reserves, in urban neighborhoods where people live and work. We evaluated models including local and landscape factors that might influence the bee and butterfly richness of community gardens located within densely populated neighborhoods of the Bronx and East Harlem in New York City (>10,000 people/km 2 ). The gardens were surrounded by buildings and limited amounts of green space (3,600-17,400 building units and 10-32% green space within a 500 m radius). Contrary to our initial prediction that landscape green space might be especially influential in this heavily urbanized setting, the most highly supported models for both bee and butterfly richness (based on Akaike Information Criterion) included just the local, within-garden variables of garden floral area and sunlight availability. There was marginal support for models of bee richness including the number of building units surrounding gardens within a 500 m radius (which exhibited a negative association with bee richness). In addition, perhaps because bees are central place foragers that may nest within or near gardens, supported models of bee species richness also included total garden area, canopy cover, and the presence of wild/unmanaged area in the garden. Generally, our findings indicate that sunlight and floral abundance are the major factors limiting local pollinator diversity in this setting. This suggests that rooftop and other "open" urban habitats might be managed to increase local pollinator diversity, even if seemingly "isolated" within heavily developed neighborhoods.

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“…Finally, urban plant–pollinator interactions provide pollination services to urban crops (Werrell et al . ) and wild plants (Andrieu et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban drivers of plant‐pollinator interactions

2015

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Summary1. Plant-pollinator interactions are affected by global change, with largely negative impacts on pollination and plant reproduction. Urban areas provide a unique and productive study system for understanding the impacts of many global change drivers on plant-pollinator interactions. 2. We review the mechanistic pathways through which urban drivers alter plant-pollinator interactions. The literature on urban drivers of plant-pollinator interactions is small but growing and has already produced exciting insights about how population processes or pollinator behaviour interacts with landscape urban drivers to affect pollination outcomes. 3. Habitat loss and fragmentation can change flower visitation rates and pollination success through changes in pollinator foraging behaviour or through population-level effects on pollinators. Urban environments, where impermeable surface provides an inhospitable matrix, may allow researchers to identify habitat fragments more clearly than in many other environments. 4. Recent studies have found that non-native plants are not differently preferred by pollinators relative to native plants, therefore removing the basis for expecting pollinator-mediated competition between native and non-native plants in urban habitats. However, non-native species together with managed vegetation may have powerful effects in urban habitats via changes in community-level plant phenology and consequent changes in pollinator phenology. 5. The current level of climate warming has not caused plants and pollinators to become detectably temporally separated, although at the same time, diversity among species' phenological responses could buffer plant-pollinator interactions from climate variation. Due to the urban warming effect, cities provide a promising system for better understanding the warming effects on plant-pollinator interactions. 6. Environmental contaminants such as soil nitrogen and heavy metal pollution have been examined with respect to plant-pollinator interactions in small-scale, mechanistic studies. The extent to which environmental contaminants drive plant-pollinator interactions in actual urban landscapes is, however, currently unknown. 7. Important knowledge gaps that require research attention include understanding the consequences of plant and pollinator trait filtering on plant-pollinator interactions, and expanding the literature to include underrepresented biomes and pollinator taxa.

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The Influence of Garden Size and Floral Cover on Pollen Deposition in Urban Community Gardens

Cited by 14 publications

References 21 publications

Diversity of wild bees supports pollination services in an urbanized landscape

Diversity of wild bees supports pollination services in an urbanized landscape

Determinates of inner city butterfly and bee species richness

Urban drivers of plant‐pollinator interactions

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