Raw data and code for: Drivers of nocturnal and diurnal pollinating insect declines in urban landscapes
Data files
May 28, 2025 version files 25.74 KB
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Ellis_et_al_2025.zip
24.15 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
Insect pollinators are essential for the health and resilience of terrestrial ecosystems, delivering key ecosystem services in the face of anthropogenic disturbance. Urbanisation may be a key threat to pollinator diversity and abundance. However, the scale of the threat remains unknown due to an overwhelming research emphasis on bees and a lack of comparative studies of hyper-diverse taxa such as nocturnal moths. Consequently, the question of which pollinator groups will be more affected by urbanisation remains unknown, and the habitat features that support key taxa remain controversial. We conducted the first large-scale assessment of the negative effects of increasing urbanisation on the diversity of bee, hoverfly and nocturnal moths across three cities. We report up to a 43\% reduction in species richness along replicated urbanisation gradients, suggesting that a wide range of pollinators are limited due to abiotic stresses and limited resources in urban environments. Landscape mapping indicated that these effects are driven by the reduction of tree cover and semi-natural habitat; however, the specific landscape drivers were taxon-specific, suggesting that urban insect conservation depends on the preservation or expansion of habitat features specific to different threatened taxa. In the first empirical comparison of three major pollinator taxa, we show that, relative to bees, moths and hoverflies are particularly sensitive to urbanisation, and we highlight the importance of including these frequently overlooked pollinator groups when assessing the biodiversity impacts of environmental change.
Raw data and code for: Drivers of nocturnal and diurnal pollinating insect declines in urban landscapes
Description of the data and file structure
This repository contains the data and code used to run all models featured in the manuscript. It includes 2 datasets. The R script conducts the full analysis as described in the manuscript. Including VIF examination, model selection, model fitting, and adjusting p-values:
Data file:
Ellis_et_al_2025/final_data/1_raw_insect_data.csv
- Insect: Taxonomic group of the observed insect (e.g., Bee).
- City: City where the observation was recorded.
- Site: Unique identifier for the site where data was collected.
- Species: Scientific name of the observed species (e.g., Apis mellifera).
- Obs: Count of individuals observed during the session.
Ellis_et_al_2025/final_data/2_meta_data.csv
- MM_250m: Area (in square meters) of man-made structures within a 250m buffer zone.
- Garden_250m: Area (in square meters) of garden spaces within a 250m buffer zone.
- Natural_250m: Area (in square meters) of semi-natural habitats within a 250m buffer zone.
- MM_500m: Area of man-made structures within a 500m buffer zone.
- Garden_500m: Area of garden spaces within a 500m buffer zone.
- Natural_500m: Area of semi-natural habitats within a 500m buffer zone.
- MM_1000m: Area of man-made structures within a 1000m buffer zone.
- Garden_1000m: Area of garden spaces within a 1000m buffer zone.
- Natural_1000m: Area of semi-natural habitats within a 1000m buffer zone.
