Insects, Trees, and Trails: effects of urbanization and vegetation on flying insect communities of temperate forests

Insects, Trees, and Trails: effects of urbanization and vegetation on flying insect communities of temperate forests | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Insects, Trees, and Trails: effects of urbanization and vegetation on flying insect communities of temperate forests Harlee A. Rush, Mark W. Kershner, Oscar J. Rocha This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8059895/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Understanding how urbanization and human disturbances shape invertebrate communities is essential for managing biodiversity in urban green spaces. This study examined the effects of urbanization, trail proximity, and vegetation composition on flying invertebrate communities in urban and rural parks in northeastern Ohio. Flying invertebrates were sampled using fermented bait traps during summer and fall 2021, and vegetation surveys quantified tree and understory composition to assess habitat differences. We hypothesized that invertebrate communities would differ across an urban-to-rural gradient, vary with proximity to trails, and respond to differences in woody and understory plant composition. Overall, urbanization did not influence overall diversity of invertebrates but did alter community composition, favoring disturbance-tolerant taxa such as Scatopsidae, Tephritidae, and Ichneumonidae. Notably, the influence of habitat type and trail proximity on invertebrate abundance varied seasonally, suggesting that these effects fluctuate with changes in resource availability and environmental conditions over time. Rural parks supported more structurally complex, native-dominated vegetation, while urban parks had higher invasive plant cover. Overall, our results indicate that urban and rural parks contribute to biodiversity in complementary but different ways. Urban parks tend to promote generalist-dominated communities and can serve as refuges that help maintain biodiversity. In contrast, rural parks support native biodiversity and sustain key essential ecosystem functions. Maintaining structurally complex, native vegetation within urban parks may further improve invertebrate diversity and ecosystem function in urban forests. Urbanization gradient Insect diversity Vegetation diversity Urban parks Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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