Urban ecology : More gardens, more pollinators

Arne Piepgras is not the only real estate developer, the urban gardens, especially as a potential building land. 400 000 homes could be created on the 3000 acres of country land in Berlin, expects Piepgras in an open letter to the Senate and calls for small gardens banish to the surrounding area. In the Canon of the arguments against these resettlement plans are also bees and other pollination play insects, the role that Inner-city small, are important refuges for bees, Bumble-bees were gardens, Hoverflies and other endangered species of insects.

In the garden-rich areas of the 52-times more bees than in built-up areas

a large-scale survey of 360 sites in four British cities Actually comes to the conclusion that in urban regions with many small gardens "Hotspots" are for pollinating insects, so there are more numerous and species-rich than in other city districts occur, such as in cemeteries or Parks. Up to 52-times more bees, the researchers included in the country regions compared to areas with a lot of industrial plants and car parks.

4996 insects from 347 flowers visited genera, the research team observed Katherine Baldock of the University of Bristol in the years 2012 and 2013 at the Fly of flowering plants from 326 genera. This plant developed for each of the 360 investigated areas in Edinburgh, Leeds, Reading and Bristol, a network of local pollinators and flowers.

study results apply to other cities

"The results from the four cities are remarkably similar, yet they are geographically so far apart", the researchers write in the journal "Nature, Ecology & Evolution". The conclusions therefore apply to other cities, for example, that in the case of development strategies, environmental key would have to functions, such as pollination, are taken into account – i.e., more gardens and more flowers to plant in Parks and on brownfield sites. "In view of the threat to pollinator insects on the Land for their preservation in urban areas are becoming increasingly important," according to the researchers.