Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP, UK.
Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP, UK.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Jun 15;929:171503. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171503. Epub 2024 Mar 6.
Insect declines are being reported worldwide and private, residential gardens could provide refugia for these species under increasing land use change. Interest in wildlife-friendly gardening has increased, but many management recommendations lack a scientific evidence-base. We used a large citizen science scheme, the Garden Butterfly Survey (GBS), with data from over 600 gardens across Great Britain (2016-2021) to determine how the surrounding landscape influences the abundance and species richness of butterflies in gardens and whether wildlife-friendly gardening practices, such as having long grass and providing nectar plants, benefit butterflies. First, we show that GBS provides reliable estimates of species abundances by comparing with results from standardised, long-term monitoring data. Garden size and surrounding land use had significant effects on butterfly abundance and richness in gardens, including positive relationships with garden size, woodland and arable farmland and negative relationships with urbanisation. Both the presence and area of long grass in gardens were positively related to higher butterfly richness and abundance, with the latter being driven by butterflies that use grasses as larval host plants. These effects differed depending on the surrounding landscape, such that long grass resulted in higher garden butterfly abundance in landscapes dominated by arable farming, and higher abundance and richness in highly urbanised areas. The presence of flowering ivy (Hedera spp.) in gardens resulted in higher abundance of Celastrina argiolus holly blue which uses ivy as a larval host, and of Vanessa atalanta red admiral and Polygonia c-album comma, which favour it as a nectar source. Our work provides evidence that undertaking simple wildlife-friendly garden practices can be beneficial for attracting butterflies, particularly in heavily modified areas. With over 728,000 ha of gardens in Great Britain, the cumulative effect of leaving areas of lawn uncut and providing nectar and larval host plants could be key for helping biodiversity.
昆虫数量的减少在全球范围内都有报道，而私人住宅花园可以为这些物种提供避难所，防止它们在不断增加的土地利用变化中灭绝。人们对野生动物友好型园艺的兴趣日益浓厚，但许多管理建议缺乏科学依据。我们利用一项大型公民科学计划——花园蝴蝶调查（GBS），该计划的数据来自英国各地的 600 多个花园（2016-2021 年），以确定周围景观如何影响花园中蝴蝶的数量和物种丰富度，以及是否野生动物友好型园艺实践（如留长草和提供花蜜植物）对蝴蝶有益。首先，我们通过与标准化的长期监测数据进行比较，表明 GBS 可以提供可靠的物种丰度估计。花园的大小和周围的土地利用对花园中蝴蝶的数量和丰富度有显著影响，包括与花园大小、林地和耕地呈正相关，与城市化呈负相关。花园中长草的存在和面积与较高的蝴蝶丰富度和数量呈正相关，后者受以草为幼虫宿主植物的蝴蝶驱动。这些影响因周围景观而异，例如，在以耕地为主的景观中，长草导致花园蝴蝶数量增加，而在高度城市化地区，蝴蝶数量和丰富度增加。花园中藤本月季（Hedera spp.）的存在导致 Celastrina argiolus holly blue 的数量增加，后者将其作为幼虫宿主，而 Vanessa atalanta red admiral 和 Polygonia c-album comma 则喜欢将其作为花蜜来源。我们的工作为简单的野生动物友好型园艺实践可以有益于吸引蝴蝶提供了证据，尤其是在高度受干扰的地区。在英国，有超过 72.8 万公顷的花园，留着草坪不修剪并提供花蜜和幼虫宿主植物的累积效应可能是帮助生物多样性的关键。
