Leong Misha, Bertone Matthew A, Bayless Keith M, Dunn Robert R, Trautwein Michelle D
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Biol Lett. 2016 Aug;12(8). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0322.
In urban ecosystems, socioeconomics contribute to patterns of biodiversity. The 'luxury effect', in which wealthier neighbourhoods are more biologically diverse, has been observed for plants, birds, bats and lizards. Here, we used data from a survey of indoor arthropod diversity (defined throughout as family-level richness) from 50 urban houses and found that house size, surrounding vegetation, as well as mean neighbourhood income best predict the number of kinds of arthropods found indoors. Our finding, that homes in wealthier neighbourhoods host higher indoor arthropod diversity (consisting of primarily non-pest species), shows that the luxury effect can extend to the indoor environment. The effect of mean neighbourhood income on indoor arthropod diversity was particularly strong for individual houses that lacked high surrounding vegetation ground cover, suggesting that neighbourhood dynamics can compensate for local choices of homeowners. Our work suggests that the management of neighbourhoods and cities can have effects on biodiversity that can extend from trees and birds all the way to the arthropod life in bedrooms and basements.
在城市生态系统中，社会经济因素影响着生物多样性模式。“奢侈效应”指的是较富裕的社区生物多样性更高，这种效应在植物、鸟类、蝙蝠和蜥蜴中都有观察到。在此，我们使用了对50所城市房屋内节肢动物多样性（在整个研究中定义为科级丰富度）调查的数据，发现房屋大小、周边植被以及社区平均收入最能预测室内发现的节肢动物种类数量。我们的研究发现，较富裕社区的房屋内节肢动物多样性更高（主要由非害虫物种组成），这表明奢侈效应可以延伸到室内环境。对于周边植被覆盖率低的独栋房屋，社区平均收入对室内节肢动物多样性的影响尤为显著，这表明社区动态可以弥补房主的局部选择。我们的研究表明，社区和城市的管理对生物多样性有影响，这种影响可以从树木和鸟类一直延伸到卧室和地下室中的节肢动物群落。
