Where is the UK's pollinator biodiversity? The importance of urban areas for flower-visiting insects.

ABSTRACT: Insect pollinators provide a crucial ecosystem service, but are under threat. Urban areas could be important for pollinators, though their value relative to other habitats is poorly known. We compared pollinator communities using quantified flower-visitation networks in 36 sites (each 1 km(2)) in three landscapes: urban, farmland and nature reserves. Overall, flower-visitor abundance and species richness did not differ significantly between the three landscape types. Bee abundance did not differ between landscapes, but bee species richness was higher in urban areas than farmland. Hoverfly abundance was higher in farmland and nature reserves than urban sites, but species richness did not differ significantly. While urban pollinator assemblages were more homogeneous across space than those i

SUBMITTER: Baldock KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4345454 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature