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Urban Ecosystems

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17-07-2023

Urban yards as potential conservation space: large, diverse gardens may be valuable resource patches for butterflies

Authors: Lindsay D. Nason, Perri K. Eason

Published in: Urban Ecosystems | Issue 6/2023

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Abstract

Public and private flower gardens could be valuable for slowing pollinator decline in urbanized areas, as they can potentially provide crucial foraging and reproductive resources in fragmented landscapes. We conducted surveys of adult butterflies at 26 gardens that contained a majority of native species; we then evaluated how the impervious surface percentage (IS%) surrounding each site and the gardens’ local characteristics (garden area, plant species richness, and planting density) influenced butterfly communities. Butterfly diversity and abundance were strongly influenced by interactions between IS% and local characteristics. IS% interacted significantly with plant species richness to affect butterfly species richness (p = 0.027) and also interacted significantly with both garden area (p < 0.001) and planting density (p = 0.001) to affect butterfly abundance. In each of these interactions, increasing IS% had a negative effect on butterfly abundance, but that effect was mitigated by increases in the interacting factor. In all cases, the strength of this mitigation was greater in more urban gardens, i.e. those with higher IS%. For example, while larger gardens always had higher butterfly abundances, this difference was greatest when comparing large urban gardens with small urban gardens. Garden area is also critical; in addition to the interaction with IS%, garden area significantly affected butterfly species richness (p = 0.037). As gardens increased in size, so did butterfly species richness regardless of IS%. Our results show that gardens can positively affect urban butterfly diversity and abundance. Urban conservation efforts should focus on establishing new gardens/habitat patches, as well as increasing the size of currently established gardens.

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Title: Urban yards as potential conservation space: large, diverse gardens may be valuable resource patches for butterflies
Authors: Lindsay D. Nason
Perri K. Eason
Publication date: 17-07-2023
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Urban Ecosystems / Issue 6/2023
Print ISSN: 1083-8155
Electronic ISSN: 1573-1642
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-023-01406-z

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