Journal article
Conserving herbivorous and predatory insects in urban green spaces
L Mata, CG Threlfall, NSG Williams, AK Hahs, M Malipatil, NE Stork, SJ Livesley
Scientific Reports | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.1038/srep40970
Abstract
Insects are key components of urban ecological networks and are greatly impacted by anthropogenic activities. Yet, few studies have examined how insect functional groups respond to changes to urban vegetation associated with different management actions. We investigated the response of herbivorous and predatory heteropteran bugs to differences in vegetation structure and diversity in golf courses, gardens and parks. We assessed how the species richness of these groups varied amongst green space types, and the effect of vegetation volume and plant diversity on trophic-and species-specific occupancy. We found that golf courses sustain higher species richness of herbivores and predators than pa..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Australian Research Council (LP110100686), the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology (ARCUE) and the Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association. Bob Carpenter provided assistance with the probabilistic programing language Stan, Briony Norton and Frances Alexander with fieldwork and insect sorting, and Melinda Moir with lacebug species identification. LM and CGT wish to acknowledge the support of funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Programme - Clean Air and Urban Landscapes (NESP-CAUL) hub. LM also wishes to acknowledge the support of funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED). AKH was supported by the Baker Foundation.