IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i6p1829-d150163.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Context Matters: Contrasting Ladybird Beetle Responses to Urban Environments across Two US Regions

Author

Listed:
  • Monika Egerer

    (Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA)

  • Kevin Li

    (Department of Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen NI 37077, Germany)

  • Theresa Wei Ying Ong

    (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA)

Abstract

Urban agroecosystems offer an opportunity to investigate the diversity and distribution of organisms that are conserved in city landscapes. This information is not only important for conservation efforts, but also has important implications for sustainable agricultural practices. Associated biodiversity can provide ecosystem services like pollination and pest control, but because organisms may respond differently to the unique environmental filters of specific urban landscapes, it is valuable to compare regions that have different abiotic conditions and urbanization histories. In this study, we compared the abundance and diversity of ladybird beetles within urban gardens in California and Michigan, USA. We asked what species are shared, and what species are unique to urban regions. Moreover, we asked how beetle diversity is influenced by the amount and rate of urbanization surrounding sampled urban gardens. We found that the abundance and diversity of beetles, particularly of unique species, respond in opposite directions to urbanization: ladybirds increased with urbanization in California, but decreased with urbanization in Michigan. We propose that in California water availability in gardens and the urbanization history of the landscape could explain the divergent pattern. Thus, urban context is likely a key contributor to biodiversity within habitats and an important consideration for sustainable agricultural practices in urban agroecosystems.

Suggested Citation

  • Monika Egerer & Kevin Li & Theresa Wei Ying Ong, 2018. "Context Matters: Contrasting Ladybird Beetle Responses to Urban Environments across Two US Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1829-:d:150163
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1829/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1829/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zezza, Alberto & Tasciotti, Luca, 2010. "Urban agriculture, poverty, and food security: Empirical evidence from a sample of developing countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 265-273, August.
    2. Richard P. Cincotta & Jennifer Wisnewski & Robert Engelman, 2000. "Human population in the biodiversity hotspots," Nature, Nature, vol. 404(6781), pages 990-992, April.
    3. Sarah Taylor Lovell, 2010. "Multifunctional Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Land Use Planning in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(8), pages 1-24, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ishak Norziha & Abdullah Rosazlin & Rosli Noor Sharina Mohd & Majid Hazreenbdul & Halim Nur Sa’adah Abdul & Ariffin Fazilah, 2022. "Challenges of Urban Garden Initiatives for Food Security in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 41(4), pages 57-72, December.
    2. Muhammad Mumtaz Khan & Muhammad Tahir Akram & Rhonda Janke & Rashad Waseem Khan Qadri & Abdullah Mohammed Al-Sadi & Aitazaz A. Farooque, 2020. "Urban Horticulture for Food Secure Cities through and beyond COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.
    3. Leslie Gray & Laureen Elgert & Antoinette WinklerPrins, 2020. "Theorizing urban agriculture: north–south convergence," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 869-883, September.
    4. George Martin & Roland Clift & Ian Christie, 2016. "Urban Cultivation and Its Contributions to Sustainability: Nibbles of Food but Oodles of Social Capital," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-18, April.
    5. Oh, Joo-seok & Kim, Sei-yong, 2017. "Enhancing urban agriculture through participants’ satisfaction: The case of Seoul, Korea," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 123-133.
    6. Hilal Erkuş & Yavuz Selim Alkan & Gülşah Tırış, 2024. "Deliberative Democracy and Making Sustainable and Legitimate Development Plans: The Case of the Antalya Kırcami Agrihood," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-29, March.
    7. Chethika Gunasiri Wadumestrige Dona & Geetha Mohan & Kensuke Fukushi, 2021. "Promoting Urban Agriculture and Its Opportunities and Challenges—A Global Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.
    8. Poulsen, Melissa N. & McNab, Philip R. & Clayton, Megan L. & Neff, Roni A., 2015. "A systematic review of urban agriculture and food security impacts in low-income countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 131-146.
    9. Shahin Keynoush & Ehsan Daneshyar, 2022. "Defining a Pedagogical Framework for Integrating Buildings and Landscapes in Conjunction with Social Sustainability Discourse in the Architecture Graduate Design Studio," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-27, April.
    10. Marilyne Chicoine & Francine Rodier & Fabien Durif, 2023. "The bright and the dark side of commercial urban agriculture labeling," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1153-1170, September.
    11. Kazemi, Fatemeh & Hosseinpour, Nazanin, 2022. "GIS-based land-use suitability analysis for urban agriculture development based on pollution distributions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. Ayambire, Raphael Anammasiya & Amponsah, Owusu & Peprah, Charles & Takyi, Stephen Appiah, 2019. "A review of practices for sustaining urban and peri-urban agriculture: Implications for land use planning in rapidly urbanising Ghanaian cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 260-277.
    13. Shingo Yoshida & Hironori Yagi, 2021. "Long-Term Development of Urban Agriculture: Resilience and Sustainability of Farmers Facing the Covid-19 Pandemic in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-23, April.
    14. Wojciech Sroka & Jaroslaw Mikolajczyk & Tomasz Wojewodzic & Boguslawa Kwoczynska, 2018. "Agricultural Land vs. Urbanisation in Chosen Polish Metropolitan Areas: A Spatial Analysis Based on Regression Trees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-22, March.
    15. Jaiswal, Sreeja & Balietti, Anca & Schäffer, Daniel, 2023. "Environmental Protection and Labor Market Composition," Working Papers 0736, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    16. Agnieszka Stacherzak & Maria Hełdak & Ladislav Hájek & Katarzyna Przybyła, 2019. "State Interventionism in Agricultural Land Turnover in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-13, March.
    17. Kassis, Grâce & Bertrand, Nathalie, 2022. "Institutional changes in farmland governance emerging from a collective land preservation procedure upholding local food projects: Evidence from a French case study," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    18. Devi Buehler & Ranka Junge, 2016. "Global Trends and Current Status of Commercial Urban Rooftop Farming," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, October.
    19. Yuan Ma & Heng Liang & Han Li & Yaping Liao, 2020. "Towards the Healthy Community: Residents’ Perceptions of Integrating Urban Agriculture into the Old Community Micro-Transformation in Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-21, October.
    20. Lara Cockx & Nathalie Francken, 2016. "Evolution and impact of EU aid for food and nutrition security: a review," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 540512, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1829-:d:150163. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.