Author:
Arjona José Manuel,Ibáñez-Álamo Juan Diego,Sanllorente Olivia
Abstract
Human population growth is causing an expansion of urban areas, a phenomenon known to deeply impact on the Earth’s biodiversity. Therefore, it is key to understand how to conceal urban development with biodiversity conservation. In this context, university campuses can play an important role as they usually present a large array of different environments and green areas, crucial aspects for promoting urban biodiversity as well as human-nature interactions. Several studies have analyzed the biodiversity of university campuses, however, there are still important taxonomic (e.g., insects) and geographical biases (e.g., Mediterranean hotspot) in our current understanding of these urban areas. Insects are fundamental in many ecosystems as pollinators, prey, pest controllers or decomposers among others. This further increases the need to study this group in the urban context. In this study, we have investigated diurnal Lepidoptera and ground-dwelling Coleoptera in three university campuses and three non-campus areas of the city of Granada (Spain). We used spatial and temporal replicates for each area in order to explore whether university campuses hold higher levels of insect biodiversity (e.g., species richness or common species) than other nearby urban areas. In addition, we investigated the potential influence of several additional predictors on insect diversity such as type of land cover, vegetation origin, management intensity, and distance to the outskirts. Our results suggest that Lepidoptera species and Coleoptera families are more diverse in university campuses than in other urban areas, showing also a positive association with the proportion of bare soil and herbaceous cover. Furthermore, they also seem to be benefited from low vegetation management intensity whereas Coleoptera are favored by native vegetation providing clear management recommendations in order to promote such animal groups in cities. Our study indicates that university campuses are important urban areas to preserve insect biodiversity but also highlights the heterogeneity of response among insect groups.
Subject
Ecology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference99 articles.
1. Butterfly diversity along the elevation gradient of eastern Himalaya, India.;Acharya;Ecol. Res.,2015
2. Auswirkungen der wiesenmahd auf verschiedene käferarten ausgewählter grünflächen im stadtgebiet tübingens.;Ade;Jahresh. Ges. Naturkd. Württ.,2012
3. Urban Ecosystems
4. Diversity and abundance of butterflies of Kerala university campus, Kariavattom Thiruvananthapuram.;Antony;J. Entomol. Zool. Stud.,2016
5. The distribution of people and the dimension of place: Methodologies to improve the global estimation of urban extents;Balk;Proceedings of the international society for photogrammetry and remote sensing, urban remote sensing conference,2005
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献