DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxq33
title: Rapid responses of bees and butterflies but not birds to targeted urban road verge habitat enhancements

description: Cities provide opportunities for biodiversity conservation through the
 design of urban greenspaces as wildlife habitat. A significant proportion
 of urban public land is narrow linear road verges, though their small size
 and harsh environmental conditions (e.g. high soil temperatures) may limit
 their ability to support plants and animals. We worked with a municipal
 government in a highly urbanised area to test whether conversion of
 standard road verges (e.g. lawn) to predominantly native understorey
 plants (forbs, grasses, and shrubs) selected for their abilities to
 tolerate harsh growing conditions and provide habitat increased the
 abundance and richness of bees, butterflies, and birds. We used a
 before-after-control-impact experiment and characterised temporal dynamics
 of biodiversity responses one year prior to planting and four years post
 planting. We also tested whether traits known to influence species
 responses to urbanisation (body size and feeding specialisation) mediated
 responses to road verge plantings. Bee species richness and abundance
 increased at experimental plantings in the first post-planting year and
 remained stable thereafter despite fluctuations at control sites.
 Butterfly abundance but not richness increased, and there was no evidence
 of bird responses to plantings. Larger bee species, which are known to be
 most negatively impacted by urbanisation, benefited more from the road
 verge plantings, while there was no effect of feeding specialisation. Bird
 and butterfly traits did not mediate responses to plantings. 
 Synthesis and applications: Road verges comprise a significant proportion
 of urban green spaces, and our results suggest that despite their small
 sizes and harsh environmental conditions they can provide habitat for bees
 and to a lesser extent butterflies. We demonstrated that habitat value can
 be rapidly enhanced by converting standard road verges to native
 understorey plants, and that these benefits may be greatest for the bee
 species most negatively impacted by urbanisation. Modifications such as
 additional plant species or wider verges may be required for urban road
 verges to provide habitat for a greater range of taxa including birds and
 butterflies.
description: # Rapid responses of bees and butterflies but not birds to targeted urban
 road verge habitat enhancements
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxq33](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxq33) These data comprise estimates of native bee, butterfly, and bird abundance and richness across 16 sites in Melbourne surveyed over four years, once before four of the sites received a habitat enhancement treatment and three times after the treatment. ## Description of the data and file structure The data is structured as follows: Each row is a set of values measured (or estimated) for a single site in a single year, so there are 16 (sites) x 4 (years) = 64 rows. Each column is a set of values for one variable across all site-by-year rows, including site name, survey year, biodiversity measures, landscape variables, and survey information (e.g. number of survey hours). Variables are as follows: site = the name of the site at which data were collected tot.native.bee.abundance = the abundance of native bees summed across all species native.bee.richness = the number of native bee species native.bee.chao1 = the estimated number of native bee species, using the chao1 estimator total.native.butterfly.abundance = the abundance of native butterflies summed across all species native.butterfly.richness = the number of native butterfly species native.butterfly.chao1 = the estimated number of native butterfly species, using the chao1 estimator tot.native.bird.abundundance = the abundance of native butterflies summed across all species native.bird.rich = the number of native bird species native.bird.chao1 = the estimated number of native bird species, using the chao1 estimator year = the year in which the data were collected year.cat = year as a categorical variable treatment = whether the site was subject to the biodiversity planting treatment (impact site) or not (control site) prop.impervious.surface = the proportion of impervious surface (e.g. concrete, asphalt, buildings) cover with 200 m of the site prop.canopy = the proportion of tree canopy cover within 200 m of the site (not used in the final analysis) insect.survey.hrs = the total number of survey hours for bees and butterflies bird.start.time.from5 = the start time of bird surveys as number of hours since 5 am no.bird.surveys = the total number of bird surveys that were conducted site.area = the area of the site in square meters