Enhancing gardens as habitats for soil-surface-active invertebrates: should we plant native or exotic species?
2020
Salisbury, Andrew | Al-Beidh, Sarah | Armitage, James | Bird, Stephanie | Bostock, Helen | Platoni, Anna | Tatchell, Mark | Thompson, Ken | Perry, Joe
Domestic gardens provide valuable ecosystem services including supporting biodiversity. These gardens typically consist of a mixture of native and non-native plants yet the relative value of these plants for invertebrates is largely unknown. To address this a replicated field experiment was established with plots planted with one of three assemblages of non-invasive perennial and shrubby garden plants (treatments), based on plant origin [British native, near-native (Northern Hemisphere) and exotic (Southern Hemisphere)]. Over 4 years soil-surface-active invertebrates were recorded by pitfall trap and canopy cover measured. The abundance of soil-surface-active invertebrates increased with canopy cover. Abundance was higher on the native treatment, but there were seasonal differences, with proportionately more invertebrates found on the exotic plots during the winter. Invertebrate herbivores, parasitoids and the Carabidae gave similar results to total abundance. Omnivores were most abundant on the near-native treatment and detritivores showed no difference between treatments. The abundance of the Araneae increased as canopy cover decreased. Analysis of diversity for groups meeting minimum data requirements indicated that abundance measures gave a good representation of diversity. The experiment demonstrated that gardens and other cultivated ornamental plantings support a wide range of soil-surface-active invertebrates regardless of the plants’ origin and the more plant matter (canopy cover) available the greater the abundance. More invertebrates will be supported by gardens and cultivated planting schemes that offer dense year-round vegetation cover combined with plantings biased towards native and near-native plants. Some areas of low vegetation cover will however, support some groups such as the Araneae.
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