Date: October 3, 2016
Source: Plymouth University
Residents living in towns and
cities can play a major role in ensuring insect pollinators survive and thrive around
them, a team of international scientists has said.
With global bee and butterfly
populations in decline, the nature of cities is shifting so that they often
contain more diverse and abundant populations of native bees than nearby rural
landscapes.
However, urban conservation
programmes are largely lagging behind, in that they continue to invest in
education and outreach rather than programs designed to achieve high-priority
species conservation.
In an essay to be published in
Conservation Biology, the academics -- including researchers from the
University of Northampton and the University of Plymouth -- said new research
into urban ecology is changing how we view the biological value and ecological
importance of cities globally.
But in order to ensure this has a
recognisable effect on issues such as global food security and ecosystem
service provision, policies now need to be better aligned with this newly
unfolding image of urban landscapes.
Jeff Ollerton, Professor of
Biodiversity at the University of Northampton, and Dr Mick Hanley, Reader in
Plant-Animal Interactions at the University of Plymouth, were among the
report's authors.
Dr Hanley said: "Previous
work conducted in Plymouth has shown that urban gardens in the UK are
increasingly being recognised for their potential to maintain or even enhance
biodiversity. And by growing a variety of plants from around the world,
gardeners can play an important role in ensuring that a range of food sources
is available for many different pollinators. This international collaboration
demonstrates those theories can also be applied globally, to the potential
benefits of people and communities across the world."
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