Title
Horticultural availability and homeowner preferences drive plant diversity and composition in urban yards
Published Date
2019-12-30
Authors
Group
Twin Cities Household Ecosystem Project
Author Contact
Cavender-Bares, Jeannine (cavender@umn.edu)
Type
Dataset
Field Study Data
Survey Data-Quantitative
Abstract
Understanding the factors that influence biodiversity in urban areas is important for informing management efforts aimed at enhancing the ecosystem services in urban settings and curbing the spread of invasive introduced species. We determined the ecological and socioeconomic factors that influence patterns of plant richness, phylogenetic diversity and composition in 133 private household yards in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan area, Minnesota, USA. We compared the composition of spontaneously occurring plant species and those planted by homeowners with composition in natural areas (at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve) and in the horticulture pool of species available from commercial growers. Yard area and fertilizer frequency influenced species richness of the spontaneous species but expressed homeowner values did not. In contrast, the criteria that homeowners articulated as important in their management decisions—including aesthetics, wildlife, neatness and food provision—significantly predicted cultivated species richness. Strikingly, the composition of plant species that people cultivated in their yards resembled the taxonomic and phylogenetic composition of species available commercially. In contrast, the taxonomic and phylogenetic composition of spontaneous species showed high similarity to natural areas. The large fraction of introduced species that homeowners planted was a likely consequence of what was available for them to purchase. The study links the composition and diversity of yard flora to their natural and anthropogenic sources and sheds light on the human factors and values that influence the plant diversity in residential areas of a major urban system. Enhanced understanding of the influences of the sources of plants—both native and introduced—that enter urban systems and the human factors and values that influence their diversity is critical to identifying the levers to manage urban biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Description
The files provide the plant species composition in 133 household yards in the Twin Cities including plants that are intentionally cultivated in yards and those that occur spontaneously. The native (N) and introduced (I) status of each species is given. Plant diversity metrics, calculated using a pruned phylogeny, are given for each yard, combined with survey responses of homeowners and other socioeconomic data.
Funding information
Sponsorship:
National Science Foundation EF-1638519; National Science Foundation DEB-1234162; NIFA McIntire-Stennis 1000343 MIN-42-051
Referenced by
Cavender-Bares, J., J. P. Cubino, W. D. Pearse, S. E. Hobbie, A. J. Lange, S. Knapp, and K. C. Nelson. 2020. Horticultural availability and homeowner preferences drive plant diversity and composition in urban yards. Ecological Applications.
Knapp, S., L. Dinsmore, C. Fissore, S. E. Hobbie, I. Jakobsdottir, J. Kattge, J. Y. King, S. Klotz, J. P. McFadden, and J. Cavender-Bares. 2012. Phylogenetic and functional characteristics of household yard floras and their changes along an urbanization gradient. Ecology 93:S83-S98.
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
Suggested Citation
Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; Padullés Cubino, Josep; Pearse, William D.; Hobbie, Sarah E.; Lange, A.J.; Knapp, Sonja; Nelson, Kristen C..
(2019). Horticultural availability and homeowner preferences drive plant diversity and composition in urban yards.
Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota,
https://doi.org/10.13020/89ae-2877.