Projects per year
Abstract / Description of output
Urban areas are often perceived to have lower biodiversity than the wider countryside, but a few small-scale studies suggest that some urban land uses can support substantial pollinator populations. We present a large-scale, well-replicated study of floral resources and pollinators in 360 sites incorporating all major land uses in four British cities. Using a systems approach, we developed Bayesian network models integrating pollinator dispersal and resource switching to estimate city-scale effects of management interventions on plant-pollinator community robustness to species loss. We show that residential gardens and allotments (community gardens) are pollinator ‘hotspots’: gardens due to their extensive area, and allotments due to their high pollinator diversity and leverage on city-scale plant-pollinator community robustness. Household income was positively associated with pollinator abundance in gardens, highlighting the influence of socio-economic factors. Our results underpin urban planning recommendations to enhance pollinator conservation, using increasing city-scale community robustness as our measure of success
Original language | English |
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Article number | 17082547B |
Pages (from-to) | 363–373 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Nature Ecology & Evolution |
Volume | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Jan 2019 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- biodiversity
- ecological networks
- ecosystem services
- robustness
- urban ecology
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Dive into the research topics of 'A systems approach reveals urban pollinator hotspots and conservation opportunities'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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Urban Pollinators: Urban pollinators: their ecology and conservation
14/02/11 → 13/08/14
Project: Research
Profiles
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Graham Stone
- School of Biological Sciences - Personal Chair in Ecology
Person: Academic: Research Active