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Vacant land conversion to community gardens: influences on generalist arthropod predators and biocontrol services in urban greenspaces

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Abstract

Due to economic decline and the recent rise in home foreclosure, many U.S. cities are faced with managing large acreages of vacant land. Interest in local food production on this land has the potential to dramatically reshape the composition of greenspace found within urban landscapes. This study examined how the conversion of vacant land to urban gardens and farms influenced arthropod generalist predator populations and their ability to support biocontrol services. We found that the abundance of Coccinellidae and Syrphidae, and the activity density of Carabidae, Formicidae, and Lycosidae were equivalent among vacant lot and urban garden sites. Dolichopodidae abundance and the activity density of Linyphiidae and Opiliones were reduced in urban gardens whereas Anthocoridae abundance and the activity density of Staphylinidae were greater within urban gardens relative to vacant lots. The biocontrol service supplied by generalist predators was measured using sentinel eggs (Helicoverpa zea (Noctuiidae)) and pupae (Sarcophaga bullata (Sarcophagidae) and Musca domestica (Muscidae)). We found no difference in the biocontrol of H. zea eggs or M. domestica pupae among the focal greenspaces. We found no difference in the removal of S. bullata pupae by predators in June 2010, whereas in August 2010 a greater proportion of pupae were removed in urban garden sites relative to vacant lots. Based on these findings, we discuss the potential of the urban landscape to support generalist predators and sustainable urban gardening and farming.

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Acknowledgments

This research was conducted as part of the Cleveland Urban Long Term Research Area Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex) Project. We thank Dr. Michael Walton and other ULTRA-EX collaborators for assisting with the establishment and maintenance of the field sites utilized in this project. We thank the OARDC Research Internship Program for providing funding support for two high school students (Shanaé Davis and Kojo Quaye) and one undergraduate student (Bethany Hunt) who collected data as part of this project. We thank Hillary Edgington and Ian McIlvaine who also assisted with the collection and processing of samples for this project. The Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Akron Grows Program, and Akron and Cleveland Land Banks provided access to urban gardens and vacant lot sites. Funding was provided by the North Central IPM Center Mini-Grant Program, the OARDC SEEDs Grant Program, and the National Science Foundation ULTRA-Ex Program.

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  1. Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University – OARDC, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA

    Mary M. Gardiner, Scott P. Prajzner, Caitlin E. Burkman & Parwinder S. Grewal

  2. The Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Sandra Albro

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  1. Mary M. Gardiner
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Correspondence to Mary M. Gardiner.

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Gardiner, M.M., Prajzner, S.P., Burkman, C.E. et al. Vacant land conversion to community gardens: influences on generalist arthropod predators and biocontrol services in urban greenspaces. Urban Ecosyst 17, 101–122 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-013-0303-6

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