Search

Cities are sometimes characterized as homogenous with species assemblages composed of abundant, generalist species having similar ecological functions. Under this assumption, rare species, or species observed infrequently, would have especially high conservation value in cities for their potential to increase functional diversity. Management to increase the number of rare species in cities could be an important conservation strategy in a rapidly urbanizing world. However, most studies of species rarity define rarity in relatively pristine environments where human management and disturbance is minimized. We know little about what species are rare, how many species are rare, and what management practices promote rare species in urban environments. Here, we identified which plants and species of birds and bees that control pests and pollinate crops are rare in urban gardens and assessed how social, biophysical factors, and cross-taxonomic comparisons influence rare species richness. We found overwhelming numbers of rare species, with more than 50% of plants observed classified as rare. Our results highlight the importance of women, older individuals, and gardeners who live closer to garden sites in increasing the number of rare plants within urban areas. Fewer rare plants were found in older gardens and gardens with more bare soil. There were more rare bird species in larger gardens and more rare bee species for which canopy cover was higher. We also found that in some cases, rarity begets rarity, with positive correlations found between the number of rare plants and bee species and between bee and bird species. Overall, our results suggest that urban gardens include a high number of species existing at low frequency and that social and biophysical factors promoting rare, planned biodiversity can cascade down to promote rare, associated biodiversity.

Gardening has the potential to improve health and wellbeing, especially during crises. Using an international survey of gardeners (n = 3743), this study aimed to understand everyday gardening experiences, perspectives and attitudes during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Our qualitative reflexive thematic and sentiment analyses show that during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, gardening seemed to create a safe and positive space where people could socially connect, learn and be creative. Participants had more time to garden during the pandemic, which led to enhanced connections with family members and neighbours, and the ability to spend time in a safe outdoor environment. More time gardening allowed for innovative and new gardening practices that provided enjoyment for many participants. However, our research also highlighted barriers to gardening (e.g. lack of access to garden spaces and materials). Our results illustrate the multiple benefits of gardening apparent during COVID-19 through a lens of the social-ecological model of health.

Nature experiences have been linked to mental and physical health. Despite the importance of understanding what determines individual variation in nature experience, the role of genes has been overlooked. Here, using a twin design (TwinsUK, number of individuals = 2,306), we investigate the genetic and environmental contributions to a person's nature orientation, opportunity (living in less urbanized areas), and different dimensions of nature experience (frequency and duration of public nature space visits and frequency and duration of garden visits). We estimate moderate heritability of nature orientation (46%) and nature experiences (48% for frequency of public nature space visits, 34% for frequency of garden visits, and 38% for duration of garden visits) and show their genetic components partially overlap. We also find that the environmental influences on nature experiences are moderated by the level of urbanization of the home district. Our study demonstrates genetic contributions to individuals' nature experiences, opening a new dimension for the study of human–nature interactions. Nature experiences have been linked to mental and physical health. This twin study reveals genetic influences on an individual's orientation towards nature and nature experiences, opening a new dimension to understanding human-nature interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although urban gardens are often celebrated for supporting bee abundance and diversity within cities, little is known about how garden management and urbanization levels influence bee foraging behavior and ability to utilize resources within these landscapes. Specifically, the preferences and diet breadth of bees may depend critically on local and landscape conditions in human-managed, urban environments. To understand how foraging patterns and pollen preferences are influenced by urban landscape composition, we first examined if bees visit plants grown within urban gardens and second assessed the relationships between local floral resources, urban land cover, and pollen collection patterns, focusing on 20 community gardens across 125 km of the California central coast. We targeted a well-studied, essential native pollinator in this ecoregion, Bombus vosnesenskii, and analyzed pollen on the bodies of individuals collected in our study gardens to compare their contents to local and landscape garden composition factors. We found that greater landscape-level urban cover and greater plant species richness in the garden both drove higher within-garden pollen collection. We also found that B. vosnesenskii preferred ornamental plant species over highly available crop species in the gardens. Our study indicates that landscapes that support plant diversity, including both ornamental plants and sustenance-oriented food crops, promote greater within-garden pollen collection patterns, with likely benefits for urban garden food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 gardening could herald a greener, healthier future However, these countries represent approximately 81% of the global COVID-19 reported infections (on 22 Oct 2020) with clear initial COVID-19 infection peaks at different times of the year. We found that the pattern in gardening interest was strongly synchronized with the first-wave infection peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure 1; I F i = 64.29, I R i SP 2 sp = 0.64; I P i < 0.001), showing strong cross-country interest in gardening as lockdowns became more widespread. The world is currently experiencing major public health and socioeconomic crises, as COVID-19 impacts the way we live, work, and interact (Lambert I et al i . 2020). [Extracted from the article]

There is a significant amount of evidence highlighting the health, wellbeing and social benefits of gardening during previous periods of crises. These benefits were also evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper presents a narrative review exploring gardening during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand the different forms of gardening that took place during this crisis and key elements of this activity. Research about gardening during the pandemic focused on food (in)security and disrupted food systems, the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening, and the social dimensions of gardening. We offer three vignettes of our own research to highlight key insights from local, national and international perspectives of gardening during the pandemic. The paper's conclusion outlines how researchers, policy makers and public health practitioners can harness what has been learned from gardening during the pandemic to ensure these benefits are more widely available and do not exacerbate already entrenched health inequalities in society. • Gardening during times of crisis offers significant public health benefits. • Social and health benefits associated with gardening were evident during COVID-19. • This paper explores literature on what gardening during COVID-19 looked like. • There is a need to strengthen the role of gardening in policy to be prepared for future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardens in Central California are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, experiencing both extended high heat periods as well as water restrictions because of severe drought conditions. This puts these critical community-based food production systems at risk as California is expected to experience increasing weather extremes. In agricultural systems, increased vegetation complexity, such as greater structure or biodiversity, can increase the resilience of food production systems from climate fluctuations. We test this theory in 15 urban gardens across California's Central Coast. Local- and landscape-scale measures of ground, vegetation, and land cover were collected in and around each garden, while climate loggers recorded temperatures in each garden in 30 min increments. Multivariate analyses, using county as a random factor, show that both local- and landscape-scale factors were important. All factors were significant predictors of mean temperature. Tallest vegetation, tree/shrub species richness, grass cover, mulch cover, and landscape level agricultural cover were cooling factors; in contrast, garden size, garden age, rock cover, herbaceous species richness, and landscape level urban cover were warming factors. Results were similar for the maximum temperature analysis except that agriculture land cover and herbaceous species richness were not significant predictors of maximum temperature. Analysis of gardener watering behavior to observed temperatures shows that garden microclimate was significantly related to the number of minutes watered as well as the number of liters of water used per watering event. Thus gardeners seem to respond to garden microclimate in their watering behavior even though this behavior is most probably motivated by a range of other factors such as water regulations and time availability. This research shows that local management of ground cover and vegetation can reduce mean and maximum temperatures in gardens, and the reduced temperatures may influence watering behavior of gardeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A person's health and wellbeing are contingent on the amount of social support that they receive. Similarly, experiencing nature has been shown to improve people's health and wellbeing. However, we do not know how relationships between social cohesion, nature experiences and nature connection could interrelate and vary across different types of urban green spaces, and in non-Westernised cultures. We conducted a study on 1249 residents in Singapore, a tropical city-state, and measured three dimensions of social cohesion (i.e. general social cohesion; trust and sense of community; and social interactions), various types of nature experiences (i.e. amount of green space around one's residence; frequency and duration of urban green space visits; frequency and duration of visits to gardens), and three dimensions of one's connection to nature: self-identity with nature, desire to experience nature, and environmental concern (using the nature relatedness scale). We found that people who strongly identify with nature, who enjoy being in nature, and who had more frequent gardens visits were more likely to have a stronger sense of social cohesion across two dimensions. However, those with stronger environmental concern reported an overall weaker sense of social cohesion, possibly due to the perception that society's contributions to conserve environmental problems was insufficient. Further, people who gardened more frequently were also more likely to visit green spaces, self-identify with nature and exhibit a stronger desire to experience nature. We propose that strategies targeted at encouraging people to engage in nature-related, collaborative activities at the local community level, such as spending time in local gardens, will increase urban residents' daily nature experiences and its associated benefits such as improving social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]