Data showing improvements to wildlife due to new native gardens - Ask Extension
Hi,
I am a co-chair of a green team at my synagogue in Laurel, Maryland (Prince George's County). I live in Howard County.
We are looking for studie...
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Data showing improvements to wildlife due to new native gardens #819743
Asked February 04, 2023, 12:52 PM EST
Hi,
I am a co-chair of a green team at my synagogue in Laurel, Maryland (Prince George's County). I live in Howard County.
We are looking for studies that show the impact on the environment due to homeowners planting native plants.
Do you know of any studies that quantify the improvements ?
For example, more pollinators and bees in areas where homeowners planted natives? Or less pollution due to storm water runoff? Of course, that means these numbers were gathered before and after the improvements were made.
Thank you for your help.
Linda
Howard County Maryland
Expert Response
Hello Linda,
Although we have limited information about such studies, especially those performed locally, we'll share some resources that might be relevant and of interest. Many complicating factors can impact the collection of data like this plus interpretations of that data to look for trends, so it may be difficult for research to definitively prove that these efforts are having a measurable impact since the results could be skewed by unrelated conditions. Of course, since we can more easily detect a correlation between habitat degradation or loss, pesticide use, climate changes and other human behaviors to species declines, it is logical to assume that efforts towards reversing those negative impacts would boost wildlife diversity and health, even if it's hard to measure accurately.
Dr. Karin Burghardt, an entomologist with the University of Maryland, has published research on native plant use by arthropods compared to non-native plant species. Here is a paper published with Dr. Doug Tallamy while she was at Yale: "Plant origin asymmetrically impacts feeding guilds and life stages driving community structure of herbivorous arthropods."
She also published "Impact of native plants on bird and butterfly biodiversity in suburban landscapes," also with Dr. Tallamy and another researcher. Speaking of Dr. Tallamy, in recent years he has become quite well-recognized as a proponent of converting private yards to largely-native plantings to support the ecosystem (his focus included songbirds) and to help mitigate negative human impacts on species diversity, and he has published two or three popular books on the subject that include some study data regarding native plant support of biodiversity.
Dr. Paula Shrewsbury, also of UMD, has done research on floral diversity and plant structural diversity (such as trees, shrub layer, perennial and groundcover layers, etc.) and the positive effect on natural enemy (beneficial insects) abundance. She lists recent research publication information on her lab website. In one study, she evaluated 10 native plant species for attractiveness to natural enemies: Spatial and Temporal Variation in Natural Enemy Assemblages on Maryland Native Plant Species
Google Scholar contains links to some publications on the subject of measured or observed native plant impacts, such as this paper: "Native plants are the bee’s knees: local and landscape predictors of bee richness and abundance in backyard gardens," about the abundance and species diversity of bees in relation to native plants. Its study area was Ohio but the overall results likely apply here in the mid-Atlantic as well.
A post on our Maryland Grows blog in the past couple of years by UMD assistant professor in entomology Anahí Espíndola examines the question, "How do pollinators find plants and flowers?"
Sam Droege, a wildlife biologist with the USGS, works with bee identification and their relationships with native plants. His profile page may include useful resources, and he has been interviewed by and given presentations to various groups about native bees and the plants they use and where they can turn up when least expected as long as their pollen sources are available. A web search for videos containing his name, for example, may turn up some recorded webinars or other presentations.
Miri
Although we have limited information about such studies, especially those performed locally, we'll share some resources that might be relevant and of interest. Many complicating factors can impact the collection of data like this plus interpretations of that data to look for trends, so it may be difficult for research to definitively prove that these efforts are having a measurable impact since the results could be skewed by unrelated conditions. Of course, since we can more easily detect a correlation between habitat degradation or loss, pesticide use, climate changes and other human behaviors to species declines, it is logical to assume that efforts towards reversing those negative impacts would boost wildlife diversity and health, even if it's hard to measure accurately.
Dr. Karin Burghardt, an entomologist with the University of Maryland, has published research on native plant use by arthropods compared to non-native plant species. Here is a paper published with Dr. Doug Tallamy while she was at Yale: "Plant origin asymmetrically impacts feeding guilds and life stages driving community structure of herbivorous arthropods."
She also published "Impact of native plants on bird and butterfly biodiversity in suburban landscapes," also with Dr. Tallamy and another researcher. Speaking of Dr. Tallamy, in recent years he has become quite well-recognized as a proponent of converting private yards to largely-native plantings to support the ecosystem (his focus included songbirds) and to help mitigate negative human impacts on species diversity, and he has published two or three popular books on the subject that include some study data regarding native plant support of biodiversity.
Dr. Paula Shrewsbury, also of UMD, has done research on floral diversity and plant structural diversity (such as trees, shrub layer, perennial and groundcover layers, etc.) and the positive effect on natural enemy (beneficial insects) abundance. She lists recent research publication information on her lab website. In one study, she evaluated 10 native plant species for attractiveness to natural enemies: Spatial and Temporal Variation in Natural Enemy Assemblages on Maryland Native Plant Species
Google Scholar contains links to some publications on the subject of measured or observed native plant impacts, such as this paper: "Native plants are the bee’s knees: local and landscape predictors of bee richness and abundance in backyard gardens," about the abundance and species diversity of bees in relation to native plants. Its study area was Ohio but the overall results likely apply here in the mid-Atlantic as well.
A post on our Maryland Grows blog in the past couple of years by UMD assistant professor in entomology Anahí Espíndola examines the question, "How do pollinators find plants and flowers?"
Sam Droege, a wildlife biologist with the USGS, works with bee identification and their relationships with native plants. His profile page may include useful resources, and he has been interviewed by and given presentations to various groups about native bees and the plants they use and where they can turn up when least expected as long as their pollen sources are available. A web search for videos containing his name, for example, may turn up some recorded webinars or other presentations.
Miri
