Flower richness is key to pollinator abundance: The role of garden features in cities

Urban areas can be both detrimental for pollinators or function as suitable habitats, depending on the land-use type, the urban context and the pollinator group in focus. Urban green spaces, including gardens, parks or cemeteries can provide essential resources for a wide range of pollinator groups, like wild bees, hoverflies and beetles. Urban community gardens can be particularly structurally complex and harbour a diverse range of nesting and food resources for pollinators. However, we know little about how garden features may vary with the urban context of gardens and which specific garden features can increase the abundance of pollinators in general and of different pollinator groups.

Over two summer seasons, we recorded garden features and pollinators using flower observations in 33 urban community gardens in Munich and Berlin, Germany. We examined how garden features differ amongst urban community gardens from three urbanisation categories, and analysed the effects of garden features such as floral and nesting resources and landscape imperviousness (as indicator of urbanisation) on pollinator abundance, richness and diversity.

In more urbanised gardens, flower richness and bare substrate were less prevalent. Flower richness was positively correlated with overall pollinator abundance, richness and diversity as well as with the abundances of all pollinator taxa excluding beetles. Landscape imperviousness was negatively correlated with hoverfly and beetle abundances. Hoverflies also decreased with increasing bare substrate and wasp abundance decreased with increasing deadwood availability. Our findings highlight the important role of flower richness for insect conservation in urban management and show that pollinator taxa react differently to garden features and urbanisation. To support pollinating insects, gardeners can increase flower richness, especially in highly urbanised areas.