Local Habitat Complexity and Its Effects on Herbivores and Predators in Urban Agroecosystems

In urban community gardens, cultivated vegetation provides variable levels of habitat complexity, which can suppress pests by promoting predator diversity and improving pest control. In this study, we examine three components of the structural complexity of garden vegetation (cover, diversity, and connectivity) to investigate whether higher garden vegetation complexity leads to fewer herbivores, more predators, and higher predation. We worked in eight community gardens where we quantified vegetation complexity, sampled the arthropod community, and measured predation on corn earworm eggs. We found that plots with high vegetation cover supported higher species richness and greater abundance of predatory insects. High vegetation cover also supported a greater abundance and species richness of spiders. In contrast, high vegetation diversity was negatively associated with predator abundance. While high predator abundance was positively associated with egg predation, greater predator species richness had a negative impact on egg predation, suggesting that antagonism between predators may limit biological control. Community gardeners may thus manipulate vegetation cover and diversity to promote higher predator abundance and diversity in their plots. However, the species composition of predators and the prevalence of interspecific antagonism may ultimately determine subsequent impacts on biological pest control.

Promoting Beneficial Arthropods in Urban Agroecosystems: Focus on Flowers, Maybe Not Native Plants

(1) Urbanization threatens biodiversity, yet urban native plants support native biodiversity, contributing to conservation and ecosystem services. Within urban agroecosystems, where non-native plants are abundant, native plants may boost the abundance and richness of beneficial arthropods. Nevertheless, current information focuses on pollinators, with little attention being paid to other beneficials, like natural enemies. (2) We examined how the species richness of native plants, garden management, and landscape composition influence the abundance and species richness of all, native, and non-native bees, ladybeetles, ants, and ground-foraging spiders in urban agroecosystems (i.e., urban community gardens) in California. (3) We found that native plants (~10% of species, but only ~2.5% of plant cover) had little influence on arthropods, with negative effects only on non-native spider richness, likely due to the low plant cover provided by native plants. Garden size boosted native and non-native bee abundance and richness and non-native spider richness; floral abundance boosted non-native spider abundance and native and non-native spider richness; and mulch cover and tree and shrub abundance boosted non-native spider richness. Natural habitat cover promoted non-native bee and native ant abundance, but fewer native ladybeetle species were observed. (4) While native plant richness may not strongly influence the abundance and richness of beneficial arthropods, other garden management features could be manipulated to promote the conservation of native organisms or ecosystem services provided by native and non-native organisms within urban agroecosystems.

Multiple ecosystem service synergies and landscape mediation of biodiversity within urban agroecosystems

Ecosystem services (ESs) are essential for human well-being, especially in urban areas where 60% of the global population will live by 2030. While urban habitats have the potential to support biodiversity and ES, few studies have quantified the impact of local and landscape management across a diverse suite of services. We leverage 5 years of data (>5000 observations) across a network of urban community gardens to determine the drivers of biodiversity and ES trade-offs and synergies. We found multiple synergies and few trade-offs, contrasting previous assumptions that food production is at odds with biodiversity. Furthermore, we show that natural landscape cover interacts with local management to mediate services provided by mobile animals, specifically pest control and pollination. By quantifying the factors that support a diverse suite of ES, we highlight the critical role of garden management and urban planning for optimizing biodiversity and human benefit.

Rarity begets rarity: Social and environmental drivers of rare organisms in cities

Cities are sometimes characterized as homogenous with species assemblages composed of abundant, generalist species having similar ecological functions. Under this assumption, rare species, or species observed infrequently, would have especially high conservation value in cities for their potential to increase functional diversity. Management to increase the number of rare species in cities could be an important conservation strategy in a rapidly urbanizing world. However, most studies of species rarity define rarity in relatively pristine environments where human management and disturbance is minimized. We know little about what species are rare, how many species are rare, and what management practices promote rare species in urban environments. Here, we identified which plants and species of birds and bees that control pests and pollinate crops are rare in urban gardens and assessed how social, biophysical factors, and cross-taxonomic comparisons influence rare species richness. We found overwhelming numbers of rare species, with more than 50% of plants observed classified as rare. Our results highlight the importance of women, older individuals, and gardeners who live closer to garden sites in increasing the number of rare plants within urban areas. Fewer rare plants were found in older gardens and gardens with more bare soil. There were more rare bird species in larger gardens and more rare bee species for which canopy cover was higher. We also found that in some cases, rarity begets rarity, with positive correlations found between the number of rare plants and bee species and between bee and bird species. Overall, our results suggest that urban gardens include a high number of species existing at low frequency and that social and biophysical factors promoting rare, planned biodiversity can cascade down to promote rare, associated biodiversity.

Natural enemy-herbivore networks along local management and landscape gradients in urban agroecosystems

Ecological networks can provide insight into how biodiversity loss and changes in species interactions impact the delivery of ecosystem services. In agroecosystems that vary in management practices, quantifying changes in ecological network structure across gradients of local and landscape composition can inform both the ecology and function of productive agroecosystems. In this study, we examined natural-enemy-herbivore co-occurrence networks associated with Brassica oleracea (cole crops), a common crop in urban agricultural systems. Specifically, we investigated how local management characteristics of urban community gardens and the landscape composition around them affect (1) the abundance of B. oleracea herbivores and their natural enemies, (2) the natural-enemy : herbivore ratio, and (3) natural-enemy-herbivore co-occurrence network metrics. We sampled herbivores and natural enemies in B. oleracea plants in 24 vegetable gardens in the California, USA central coast region. We also collected information on garden characteristics and land-use cover of the surrounding landscape (2 km radius). We found that increased floral richness and B. oleracea abundance were associated with increased parasitoid abundance, non-aphid herbivore abundance, and increased network vulnerability; increased vegetation complexity suppressed parasitoid abundance, but still boosted network vulnerability. High agricultural land-use cover in the landscape surrounding urban gardens was associated with lower predator, parasitoid, and non-aphid herbivore abundance, lower natural-enemy : herbivore ratios, lower interaction richness, and higher trophic complementarity. While we did not directly measure pest control, higher interaction richness, higher vulnerability, and lower trophic complementarity are associated with higher pest control services in other agroecosystems. Thus, if gardens function similarly to other agroecosystems, our results indicate that increasing vegetation complexity, including trees, shrubs, and plant richness, especially within gardens located in intensively farmed landscapes, could potentially enhance the biodiversity and abundance of natural enemies, supporting ecological networks associated with higher pest control services.