Abstract
The biodiversity conservation value of urban green spaces depends in part on design and management. The importance of habitat quality and complexity to species diversity has led to the suggestion that habitat design elements—varied substrate, greater plant diversity, logs or stones—would support invertebrate diversity on green roofs. To evaluate this possibility, we conducted pit-fall trap sampling on three green roofs of simple design (intended primarily for stormwater management), three habitat roofs, and five ground-level green spaces, in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Beetles (Coleoptera) were sampled as representatives of total invertebrate diversity. Diversity was compared using sample coverage and Hill numbers to account for differences in sample intensity and fundamental differences in species diversity. Both habitat roofs and ground sites consisted of just over 20% native species, while stormwater roofs had about 5% native species, all of which were considered pests. We collected a greater abundance of beetles on the ground compared to roof sites like others have shown. However, when sample completeness is taken into account, habitat roofs had greater Shannon diversity compared to both ground and stormwater roof sites. Habitat roofs had the fewest dominant species representing 5% or more of total abundance, but also the lowest percent of species represented by singletons (27%). These results indicate that green roofs can support different beetle communities compared to those present at ground-level urban green spaces; our results also support previous findings that biodiverse design can reliably increase green roof diversity compared to more simply designed roofs.
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Data from this work is provided in a supplemental file.
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12 August 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01155-x
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Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by a Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research and an Edward D. and Olive C. Bushby Scholarship. The authors would like to thank Dr. Andrew Moldenke (Oregon State University, retired) for his assistance in assigning beetle feeding groups; Drs. Catherine de Rivera and Amy Larson (Portland State University) for their graduate advisorship of Ms. Gonsalves, advice, and critical readings of early versions of this manuscript; and Dr. Susan Masta (Portland State University) for her advice and adoption of the green roof spiders we collected. We thank the following individuals for contributing to lab and field work: Daniel Dayrit, Aramee Diethelm, Maggie Gardner, Whitney McClees, Danielle Miles, Konrad Miziolek, Matt Przyborski, Vanessa Robertson-Rojas, Jacob Stone, Jessica Szabo, Amy Truitt. Additionally, Ms. Gonsalves would like to thank all members of the de Rivera-Larson lab for their helpful discussions and peer review during the course of this work.
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This research was partially supported by Sigma Xi Grants in Aid of Research and an Edward D. and Olive C. Bushby Scholarship.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Sampling methods were developed by Stephan Brenneisen. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Sydney Gonsalves and Olyssa Starry. Data analysis was performed by Sydney Gonsalves. Taxonomic identification was performed by Alex Szallies. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Sydney Gonsalves and reviewed by Olyssa Starry. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Gonsalves, S., Starry, O., Szallies, A. et al. The effect of urban green roof design on beetle biodiversity. Urban Ecosyst 25, 205–219 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01145-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01145-z