Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
Environ Manage. 2011 Oct;48(4):808-24. doi: 10.1007/s00267-011-9723-3. Epub 2011 Aug 19.
Private domestic gardens contribute substantially to the biodiversity of urban areas and benefit human health and well-being. We previously reported a study of 267 gardens across five cities in the United Kingdom in which variation in geographical and climatic factors had little bearing on the richness, diversity and composition of plant species. We therefore hypothesise that garden management is an important factor in determining garden characteristics. Here, from the same sample of gardens, we investigate potential associations between the uses to which people put their gardens, the types of management activities they undertake, and the characteristics of those gardens. Householders (n = 265) completed a questionnaire detailing various aspects of garden use and management activities. The majority of respondents used their gardens chiefly for relaxation, recreation, and eating. Fewer than one fifth included "gardening" amongst their garden uses even though all performed some garden management, suggesting that not all management activity resulted from an interest in gardening. Garden-watering and lawn-mowing were the most prevalent activities and were predictors of other types of management including weeding, vegetation-cutting, leaf-collection, and dead-heading flowers. A number of these activities were associated with one another, the richness and composition of plant species, and the number of land uses in gardens. However, relationships between management activities and the amount of tall vegetation were less consistent, and garden management appeared to be independent of garden area. More species of amphibians, birds, and mammals were observed in gardens with ponds and in which efforts were made to attract wildlife, particularly by providing drinking water. This study supports the hypothesis that garden use and management is associated with garden characteristics.
私人住宅花园对城市生物多样性有重要贡献，有益于人类健康和福祉。我们之前报道过一项对英国五个城市的 267 个花园的研究，该研究表明地理和气候因素的差异对植物物种的丰富度、多样性和组成几乎没有影响。因此，我们假设花园管理是决定花园特征的一个重要因素。在这里，我们从同一批花园样本中，研究了人们使用花园的方式、他们进行的管理活动类型，以及这些花园特征之间的潜在关联。房主（n=265）填写了一份详细说明花园使用和管理活动各个方面的问卷。大多数受访者主要将花园用于放松、娱乐和就餐。尽管所有人都进行了一些花园管理，但将“园艺”列入花园用途的不到五分之一，这表明并非所有管理活动都源于对园艺的兴趣。给花园浇水和修剪草坪是最常见的活动，并且是其他管理活动的预测因素，包括除草、植被修剪、落叶收集和摘去凋谢的花朵。这些活动中的许多与彼此之间、植物物种的丰富度和组成以及花园中土地用途的数量有关。但是，管理活动与高大植被数量之间的关系不太一致，而且花园管理似乎与花园面积无关。在有池塘的花园和努力吸引野生动物的花园中，观察到更多的两栖动物、鸟类和哺乳动物，特别是通过提供饮用水。这项研究支持了这样一种假设，即花园的使用和管理与花园的特征有关。
