{"title":"Adding a mosaic mowing regime to urban lawns is the key to city biodiversity management for pollinators","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.ufug.2024.128452","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>City populations are growing rapidly, with built-up areas occupying ever-larger areas within the cities. One of the last green places in a city is urban lawns. Our study aimed to investigate how lawn management changes can contribute to improving insect pollinator biodiversity at the city scale. Over two years, we studied dozens of urban lawns in Prague (Czech Republic) that were partially left unmown, and we selected three major groups of pollinators: Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. This study showed that leaving unmown lawn areas has a strong positive effect on insect biodiversity. The high intensity of lawn flowering through the vegetation season was also crucial. Our research showed that leaving unmown parts of urban lawns is one of the key amendments to maintain or even increase pollinator biodiversity in cities. It also appears to be the best way to attract red-listed species. A significant reducing mowing frequency to achieve a higher flowering intensity should be a positive solution. So-called insect gardening by reducing urban lawn mowing frequency or leaving parts of lawns completely unmown can help not only pollinators but also other animals that find food or shelter in them. This management will also enable the propagation of flowering plants. Additionally, biodiversity measures coincide with reducing evapotranspiration and thus cooling urban heat islands.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49394,"journal":{"name":"Urban Forestry & Urban Greening","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Urban Forestry & Urban Greening","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866724002504","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
City populations are growing rapidly, with built-up areas occupying ever-larger areas within the cities. One of the last green places in a city is urban lawns. Our study aimed to investigate how lawn management changes can contribute to improving insect pollinator biodiversity at the city scale. Over two years, we studied dozens of urban lawns in Prague (Czech Republic) that were partially left unmown, and we selected three major groups of pollinators: Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. This study showed that leaving unmown lawn areas has a strong positive effect on insect biodiversity. The high intensity of lawn flowering through the vegetation season was also crucial. Our research showed that leaving unmown parts of urban lawns is one of the key amendments to maintain or even increase pollinator biodiversity in cities. It also appears to be the best way to attract red-listed species. A significant reducing mowing frequency to achieve a higher flowering intensity should be a positive solution. So-called insect gardening by reducing urban lawn mowing frequency or leaving parts of lawns completely unmown can help not only pollinators but also other animals that find food or shelter in them. This management will also enable the propagation of flowering plants. Additionally, biodiversity measures coincide with reducing evapotranspiration and thus cooling urban heat islands.
期刊介绍:
Urban Forestry and Urban Greening is a refereed, international journal aimed at presenting high-quality research with urban and peri-urban woody and non-woody vegetation and its use, planning, design, establishment and management as its main topics. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening concentrates on all tree-dominated (as joint together in the urban forest) as well as other green resources in and around urban areas, such as woodlands, public and private urban parks and gardens, urban nature areas, street tree and square plantations, botanical gardens and cemeteries.
The journal welcomes basic and applied research papers, as well as review papers and short communications. Contributions should focus on one or more of the following aspects:
-Form and functions of urban forests and other vegetation, including aspects of urban ecology.
-Policy-making, planning and design related to urban forests and other vegetation.
-Selection and establishment of tree resources and other vegetation for urban environments.
-Management of urban forests and other vegetation.
Original contributions of a high academic standard are invited from a wide range of disciplines and fields, including forestry, biology, horticulture, arboriculture, landscape ecology, pathology, soil science, hydrology, landscape architecture, landscape planning, urban planning and design, economics, sociology, environmental psychology, public health, and education.