Abstract
Growing interest in urban agriculture has increased demand for pollination services. Most studies map pollination supply broadly, and do not consider the impacts of fine-scale urban land-use practices on the dynamics of pollination delivery, leaving a critical gap in our understanding of the pollinator supply-demand balance in urban landscapes. This study demonstrates a spatially-explicit framework, using Iowa City, IA (USA) as the case study region, for assessing the capacity of urban ecosystems to produce pollinator services in support of demand from urban agriculture. We estimate pollinator supply using the InVEST pollination model with detailed land-cover data produced through field survey and Bayesian hierarchical analysis, and we validate modeling results with bee abundance and richness data. We map social demand for pollinators using a kernel density estimation of urban agricultural sites and evaluate supply-demand budgets through spatial overlay analysis. Our results show that incorporating high-thematic-resolution urban land-use data substantially improves the performance of pollination supply modeling. Pollinator supply meets demand in 72% of the city. Surpluses occur in natural areas and heavily-vegetated, established residential neighborhoods, whereas deficits occur in resource-poor lawns. Our mapping framework stresses the key role of humans in modifying resource availability and pollinator services, and demonstrates the effectiveness of using disaggregated socio-economic data in urban land-cover classification for predicting pollinator supply. Our improved ability to identify spatial congruence and disparities in urban pollinator supply and demand can be used to inform pollinator conservation to support sustainable urban agriculture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahrne K, Bengtsson J, Elmqvist T (2009) Bumble bees (Bombus spp) along a gradient of increasing urbanization. PLoS One 4:e5574
Armar-Klemesu M (2000) Urban agriculture and food security, nutrition and health. In: Bakker N, Dubbeling M, Guendel S et al (eds) Growing cities, growing food: urban agriculture on the policy agenda. DSE, Fefdafing, Germany
Cane JH, Minckley RL, Kervin LJ, Roulston T'H, Williams NM (2006) Complex responses within a desert bee guild (Hymenoptera : Apiformes) to urban habitat fragmentation. Ecol Appl 16:632–644
Chapin SJ (2014) The application of spatial modeling tools to predict native bee abundance in Maine’s lowbush blueberries. Dissertation, University of Maine
Cook EM, Hall SJ, Larson KL (2012) Residential landscapes as social-ecological systems: A synthesis of multi-scalar interactions between people and their home environment. Urban Ecosystems 15(1):19–52
Davis JD, Hendrix SD, Debinski DM, Hemsley CJ (2008) Butterfly, bee and forb community composition and cross-taxon incongruence in tallgrass prairie fragments. J Insect Conserv 12:69–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-006-9063-4
Davis AY, Lonsdorf EV, Shierk CR, Matteson KC, Taylor JR, Lovell ST, Minor ES (2017) Enhancing pollination supply in an urban ecosystem through landscape modifications. Landsc Urban Plan 162:157–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.02.011
Frankie GW, Thorp RW, Hernandez J, Rizzardi M, Ertter B, Pawelek JC, Witt SL, Schindler M, Coville R, Wojcik VA (2009) Native bees are a rich natural resource in urban California gardens. Calif Agric 63:113–120
Grafius DR, Corstanje R, Warren PH, Evans KL, Hancock S, Harris JA (2016) The impact of land use/land cover scale on modelling urban ecosystem services. Landsc Ecol 31:1509–1522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0337-7
Greenleaf SS, Williams NM, Winfree R, Kremen C (2007) Bee foraging ranges and their relationship to body size. Oecologia 153:589–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0752-9
Groff SC, Loftin CS, Drummond F, Bushmann S, McGill B (2016) Parameterization of the InVEST crop pollination model to spatially predict abundance of wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) native bee pollinators in Maine, USA. Environ Model Softw 79:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.01.003
Grove JM, Troy AR, O’Neil-Dunne JPM, Burch WR Jr, Cadenasso ML, Pickett STA (2006) Characterization of households and its implications for the vegetation of urban ecosystems. Ecosystems 9:578–597. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10021-006-0116-Z
Hendrix SD, Kwaiser KS, Heard SB (2010) Bee communities (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of small Iowa hill prairies are as diverse and rich as those of large prairie preserves. Biodivers Conserv 19:1699–1709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9797-x
Hope D, Gries C, Zhu W et al (2003) Socioeconomics drive urban plant diversity. PNAS 100:8788–8792. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73412-5_21
Iowa Geological and Water Survey (2010) Three Meter Digital Elevation Model of Johnson County Iowa as an Imagine 16-bit Integer Raster .Iowa Department of Natural Resources, DesMoines
Iowa Department of Natural Resources (2012) High Resolution Landcover of Johnson County Iowa, 2009. Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Des Moines
Kendal D, Williams NSG, Williams KJH (2012) Drivers of diversity and tree cover in gardens, parks and streetscapes in an Australian city. Urban For Urban Green 11:257–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2012.03.005
Kennedy CM, Lonsdorf E, Neel MC, Williams NM, Ricketts TH, Winfree R, Bommarco R, Brittain C, Burley AL, Cariveau D, Carvalheiro LG, Chacoff NP, Cunningham SA, Danforth BN, Dudenhöffer JH, Elle E, Gaines HR, Garibaldi LA, Gratton C, Holzschuh A, Isaacs R, Javorek SK, Jha S, Klein AM, Krewenka K, Mandelik Y, Mayfield MM, Morandin L, Neame LA, Otieno M, Park M, Potts SG, Rundlöf M, Saez A, Steffan-Dewenter I, Taki H, Viana BF, Westphal C, Wilson JK, Greenleaf SS, Kremen C (2013) A global quantitative synthesis of local and landscape effects on wild bee pollinators in agroecosystems. Ecol Lett 16:584–599. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12082
Kinzig AP, Warren P, Martin C et al (2005) The effects of human socioeconomic status and cultural characteristics on urban patterns of biodiversity. Ecol Soc 10:23
Klein A-M, Vaissière BE, Cane JH, Steffan-Dewenter I, Cunningham SA, Kremen C, Tscharntke T (2007) Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops. Proc Biol Sci 274:303–313. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3721
Koh I, Lonsdorf EV, Williams NM, Brittain C, Isaacs R, Gibbs J, Ricketts TH (2016) Modeling the status, trends, and impacts of wild bee abundance in the United States. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113:140–145. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517685113
Kremer P, DeLiberty TL (2011) Local food practices and growing potential: mapping the case of Philadelphia. Appl Geogr 31:1252–1261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2011.01.007
Lonsdorf E, Kremen C, Ricketts T, Winfree R, Williams N, Greenleaf S (2009) Modelling pollination services across agricultural landscapes. Ann Bot 103:1589–1600. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcp069
Lovell ST (2010) Multifunctional urban agriculture for sustainable land use planning in the United States. Sustainability 2:2499–2522. https://doi.org/10.3390/su2082499
Lowenstein DM, Matteson KC, Xiao I, Silva AM, Minor ES (2014) Humans, bees, and pollination services in the city: the case of Chicago, IL (USA). Biodivers Conserv 23:2857–2874. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0752-0
Lowenstein DM, Matteson KC, Minor ES (2015) Diversity of wild bees supports pollination services in an urbanized landscape. Oecologia 179:811–821. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3389-0
Luck GW, Smallbone LT, O’Brien R (2009) Socio-economics and vegetation change in urban ecosystems: patterns in space and time. Ecosystems 12:604–620. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-009-9244-6
Maes J, MML P, Zulian G (2011) A European assessment of the provision of ecosystem services. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxemborg
Martin CA, Warren PS, Kinzig AP (2004) Neighborhood socioeconomic status is a useful predictor of perennial landscape vegetation in residential neighborhoods and embedded small parks of Phoenix, AZ. Landsc Urban Plan 69:355–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2003.10.034
Matteson KC, Langellotto GA (2010) Determinates of inner city butterfly and bee species richness. Urban Ecosyst 13:333–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-010-0122-y
Matteson K, Ascher J, Langellotto G (2008) Bee richness and abundance in New York City urban gardens. Ann Entomol Soc Am 101:172–180. https://doi.org/10.1603/0013-8746(2008)101
Mennis J (2003) Generating surface models of population using dasymetric mapping. Prof Geogr 55:31–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/0033-0124.10042
Mennis J (2006) Socioeconomic-vegetation relationships in urban , residential land: the case of Denver, Colorado. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 72:911–921
Michener CD, McGinley RJ, Danforth BN (1994) The bee genera of north and Central America (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C
Olsson O, Bolin A, Smith HG, Lonsdorf EV (2015) Modeling pollinating bee visitation rates in heterogeneous landscapes from foraging theory. Ecol Model 316:133–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.08.009
Polce C, Termansen M, Aguirre-Gutiérrez J, Boatman ND, Budge GE, Crowe A, Garratt MP, Pietravalle S, Potts SG, Ramirez JA, Somerwill KE, Biesmeijer JC (2013) Species distribution models for crop pollination: a modelling framework applied to Great Britain. PLoS One 8:e76308. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076308
Potter A, LeBuhn G (2015) Pollination service to urban agriculture in San Francisco, CA. Urban Ecosyst 18:885–893. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-015-0435-y
Ricketts TH, Regetz J, Steffan-Dewenter I, Cunningham SA, Kremen C, Bogdanski A, Gemmill-Herren B, Greenleaf SS, Klein AM, Mayfield MM, Morandin LA, Ochieng' A, Potts SG, Viana BF (2008) Landscape effects on crop pollination services: are there general patterns? Ecol Lett 11:499–515. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01157.x
Roulston TH, Goodell K (2011) The role of resources and risks in regulating wild bee populations. Annu Rev Entomol 56:293–312. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-120709-144802
Saha M, Eckelman MJ (2017) Growing fresh fruits and vegetables in an urban landscape: a geospatial assessment of ground level and rooftop urban agriculture potential in Boston, USA. Landsc Urban Plan 165:130–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.04.015
Schaeg NL (2017) People, vegetation, and wild bees in St. Louis, Missouri: Spatially characterizing the demographic and vegetation patterns of residential neighborhoods for urban bee conservation. Dissertation, Saint Louis University
Schulp CJE, Alkemade R (2011) Consequences of uncertainty in global-scale land cover maps for mapping ecosystem functions: an analysis of pollination efficiency. Remote Sens 3:2057–2075. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs3092057
Schulp CJE, Lautenbach S, Verburg PH (2014) Quantifying and mapping ecosystem services: demand and supply of pollination in the European Union. Ecol Indic 36:131–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.07.014
Sharp R, Tallis HT, Ricketts T, Guerry AD, Wood SA, Chaplin-Kramer R, Nelson E, Ennaanay D, Wolny S, Olwero N, Vigerstol K, Pennington D, Mendoza G, Aukema J, Foster J, Forrest J, Cameron D, Arkema K, Lonsdorf E, Kennedy C, Verutes G, Kim CK, Guannel G, Papenfus M, Toft J, Marsik M, Bernhardt J, Griffin R, Glowinski K, Chaumont N, Perelman A, Lacayo M, Mandle L, Hamel P, Vogl AL, Rogers L, Bierbower W (2016) InVEST 3.3.3 User’s Guide. The Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, University of Minnesota, The Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund
Silverman BW (1986) Density estimation for statistics and data analysis. Chapman & Hall/CRC, London
Stange E, Zulian G, Rusch G, Barton D, Nowell M (2017) Ecosystem services mapping for municipal policy: ESTIMAP and zoning for urban beekeeping. One Ecosyst 2:e14014. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.2.e14014
Taylor JR, Lovell ST (2012) Mapping public and private spaces of urban agriculture in Chicago through the analysis of high-resolution aerial images in Google earth. Landsc Urban Plan 108:57–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.08.001
Thompson K, Hodgson JG, Smith RM, Warren PH, Gaston KJ (2004) Urban domestic gardens (III): composition and diversity of lawn floras. J Veg Sci 15:373–378. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2004.tb02274.x
Tonietto R, Fant J, Ascher J, Ellis K, Larkin D (2011) A comparison of bee communities of Chicago green roofs, parks and prairies. Landsc Urban Plan 103:102–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.07.004
Troy AR, Grove JM, O’Neil-Dunne JPM, Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML (2007) Predicting opportunities for greening and patterns of vegetation on private urban lands. Environ Manag 40:394–412. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-006-0112-2
Winfree R, Williams NM, Gaines H, Ascher JS, Kremen C (2008) Wild bee pollinators provide the majority of crop visitation across land-use gradients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, USA. J Appl Ecol 45:793–802. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2007.01418.x
Wojcik V (2011) Resource abundance and distribution drive bee visitation within developing tropical urban landscapes. J Pollinat Ecol 4:48–56
Zhao C, Sander HA (2015) Quantifying and mapping the supply of and demand for carbon storage and sequestration service from urban trees. PLoS One 10:e0136392. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136392
Zulian G, Maes J, Paracchini M (2013) Linking land cover data and crop yields for mapping and assessment of pollination services in Europe. Land 2:472–492. https://doi.org/10.3390/land2030472
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the residents in the study area for their generous permission to conduct the urban pollinator survey. Special thanks to Cameron Agan, Ashley Neece, Samantha Moser, William Ruth, and Alexander Cooper for their contribution to the collection of urban bee data, as well as Leigha Meredith, Zachery Love and Spencer Gibson for their assistance with the herbaceous plant and vegetable garden survey. Thanks go to Cody B. Hodson for his valuable advice on dasymetric mapping. We also thank the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their helpful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 1991 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhao, C., Sander, H.A. & Hendrix, S.D. Wild bees and urban agriculture: assessing pollinator supply and demand across urban landscapes. Urban Ecosyst 22, 455–470 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-0826-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-0826-6