The city as a refuge for insect pollinators

By Damon M. Hall, G. Camilo, Rebecca K. Tonietto, J. Ollerton, K. Ahrné, M. Arduser, J. Ascher, K. Baldock, Robert E. Fowler, G. Frankie and 13 more. Conservation Biology, 2017

599 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Research on urban insect pollinators is changing views on the biological value and ecological importance of cities. The abundance and diversity of native bee species in urban landscapes that are absent in nearby rural lands evidence the biological value and ecological importance of cities and have implications for biodiversity conservation. Lagging behind this revised image of the city are urban conservation programs that historically have invested in education and outreach rather than programs designed to achieve high‐priority species conservation results. We synthesized research on urban bee species diversity and abundance to determine how urban conservation could be repositioned to better align with new views on the ecological importance of urban landscapes. Due to insect pollinators’ relatively small functional requirements—habitat range, life cycle, and nesting behavior—relative to larger mammals, we argue that pollinators put high‐priority and high‐impact urban conservation within reach. In a rapidly urbanizing world, transforming how environmental managers view the city can improve citizen engagement and contribute to the development of more sustainable urbanization.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/044c5d8818bd6977884c2efe7692dc0533f2ad62

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Citations in the corpus

Psychological restoration in urban gardens related to garden type, biodiversity and garden-related stress (2020, background): “While urban greenspaces can harbor surprisingly high levels of biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services in cities (Hall et al., 2017; Sattler, Arlettaz, Duelli, Moretti, & Obrist, 2010), research also suggests that higher biodiversity of greenspaces such as parks has a positive impact o”
The origin of urban communities: From the regional species pool to community assemblages in city (2020, background): “And, cities can host species with high conservation value (Hall et al., 2017; Ives et al., 2016; Sattler, Obrist, Duelli, & Moretti, 2011).”
The relative performance of sampling methods for native bees: an empirical test and review of the literature (2020, background): “Alternatively, urbanization may provide benefits to bees, depending on type of urban habitat, the regional context, and local and landscape conditions (Hall et al. 2017).”
Quantifying the attractiveness of garden flowers for pollinators (2019, background): “There is mounting evidence that pollinators are in decline at a global scale (Goulson and Rotheray 2015; Rhodes 2018), and conservation organisations see an opportunity to use urban green spaces (gardens, parks, green roofs, allotments, churchyards and so on) to create a network of wildlife habitat ”
Plant-hummingbird interaction networks in urban areas: Generalization and the importance of trees with specialized flowers as a nectar resource for pollinator conservation (2019, background): “…revised form 1 December 2018; Accepted 10 December 2018 context, there has been a recent and increased concern over conservation of pollinators in urban environments, with the notion that pollination is one of the major ecosystem services provided by nature (Hall et al., 2017; Knight et al., 2018).”
Habitat restoration benefits wild bees: A meta‐analysis (2018, background): “To combat habitat loss, there has been considerable research evaluating the effectiveness of habitat enhancements for wild bees in otherwise developed landscapes, such as agricultural systems or cities (Dicks, Showler, & Sutherland, 2010; Grixti et al., 2009; Hall et al., 2016; MacIvor & Packer, 201”
Quantifying nectar production by flowering plants in urban and rural landscapes (2021, unknown): “We did not find clear evidence that urban areas act as resource-rich refuges for insect pollinators within agriculturally dominated rural landscapes, as other authors have suggested (Hall et al., 2017; Samuelson et al., 2018).”
Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda (2017, background): “2017); provide pollination services (Hall et al. 2017; Threlfall et al. 2015) and wildlife habitat (Alvey 2006; Murgui and Hedblom 2017); reduce urban noise (Margaritis and Kang 2017); and sequester and store carbon (Davies et al.”