Poster: Socio-environmental variables influence conservation in cities

Many insect species including wild bees and lady beetles are in decline. These declines are often attributed to urbanization, but due to the anthropogenic nature of cities, the relationship between urban conservation and insect survival is not well-understood. Our goal was to determine what urban forces are influencing the ability of wild bees and lady beetles to utilize conservation spaces. We predicted that increased quantity of blooming vegetation and decreased impervious surface would predict higher abundance and species richness of our focal groups. We also expected to find support for the Luxury Effect, such that higher income areas would have more insects than lower income areas. We established 15 municipal greenspace plots across Columbus, Ohio, USA that varied in median household income. We collected insects monthly from May-August using pan traps and yellow sticky card traps and measured total insect abundance as the number of insects attached to each sticky card after 7 days. We counted and identified all coccinellids and identified each bee to species. Following our hypothesis, we found total insect abundance, lady beetle abundance, bee abundance, and species richness were positively associated with socioeconomic status and the former two were positively associated with impervious surface. Vegetation did not significantly predict insect communities. Our findings illustrate that the anthropogenic influence of wealth disparity and impervious surface had more of an effect on insect communities than vegetation. Our results suggest that greening investments to support insect conservation should focus on improving the habitat quality of lower income neighborhoods.