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Local and landscape drivers of arthropod abundance, richness, and trophic composition in urban habitats

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Abstract

Urban green spaces, such as forest fragments, vacant lots, and community gardens, are increasingly highlighted as biodiversity refuges and are of growing interest to conservation. At the same time, the burgeoning urban garden movement partially seeks to ameliorate problems of food security. Arthropods link these two issues (conservation and food security) given their abundance, diversity, and role as providers of ecosystem services like pollination and pest control. Many previous studies of urban arthropods focused on a single taxon (e.g. order or family), and examined either local habitat drivers or effects of landscape characteristics. In contrast, we examined both local and landscape drivers of community patterns, and examined differences in abundance, richness, and trophic structure of arthropod communities in urban forest fragments, vacant lots, and community gardens. We sampled ground-foraging arthropods, collected data on 24 local habitat features (e.g., vegetation, ground cover, concrete), and examined land-cover types within 2 km of 12 study sites in Toledo, Ohio. We found that abundance and richness of urban arthropods differed by habitat type and that richness of ants and spiders, in particular, varied among lots, gardens, and forests. Several local and landscape factors correlated with changes in abundance, richness, and trophic composition of arthropods, and different factors were important for specific arthropod groups. Overwhelmingly, local factors were the predominant (80 % of interactions) driver of arthropods in this urban environment. These results indicate that park managers and gardeners alike may be able to manage forests and gardens to promote biodiversity of desired organisms and potentially improve ecosystem services within the urban landscape.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a grant from the University Research Award and Fellowship Program of the University of Toledo and a Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant and School of Natural Resources and Environment Opus Award from of the University of Michigan. M. Szuberla, ToledoGROWS, and the City of Toledo helped with site selection and access. We thank A. Bobak for assisting with field and lab work. R. Becker and R. John provided assistance with the GIS and land-cover classification. B. Nichols assisted with the spatial autocorrelation test. H. Cohen, T. Cornelisse, K. Ennis, D. Gonthier, E. Jimenez-Soto, D. Letourneau, and E. Olimpi provided helpful feedback on the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Stacy M. Philpott & Peter Bichier

    Present address: Environmental Studies Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

  2. Julie Cotton

    Present address: Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

  3. Russell L. Friedrich

    Present address: USDA-ARS, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

  4. Leigh C. Moorhead

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

  5. Shinsuke Uno

    Present address: Ichigaya Liberal Art Center, Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft St., MS 604, Toledo, OH, 43606, USA

    Stacy M. Philpott, Peter Bichier, Russell L. Friedrich, Leigh C. Moorhead & Monica Valdez

  2. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, 440 Church St., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Julie Cotton & Shinsuke Uno

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  1. Stacy M. Philpott
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Correspondence to Stacy M. Philpott.

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Philpott, S.M., Cotton, J., Bichier, P. et al. Local and landscape drivers of arthropod abundance, richness, and trophic composition in urban habitats. Urban Ecosyst 17, 513–532 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-013-0333-0

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