Where and what kind – a better understanding of local and landscape features in planning the urban flower meadows for supporting bee communities
Data files
May 16, 2025 version files 61.70 KB
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Data_landscape_UFMs.xlsx
32.96 KB
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Data_structure_UFMs.xlsx
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README.md
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Abstract
Cities are growing ecosystems in the modern world. Due to their heterogeneity, urban areas have multifaceted influences on organisms, including bees. However, in many specific city greenspace designs and management implementations, our understanding of their functionality remains limited. This is also true for urban flower meadows (UFMs).
We extensively examined UFMs in three large cities to answer the following question: What features of UFMs and their surroundings (urban matrix) are the most important in supporting bees in cities?
Our multifaceted approach revealed that the mosaics of habitats surrounding UFMs are at least as necessary to support bees as the local features of UFMs. An abundance of bees responded positively to the number of flowering units and to the blue and yellow colors of flowers, and increased cover of industrial areas, green urban areas, and pastures in a 100-m buffer. Increasing the cover of the continuous urban fabric in all buffer zones (100 m, 300 m, and 500 m) positively affected bee species richness and abundance.
Due to lack of the design guidelines of urban flower meadows, our results are helpful for the further planning of UFMs to optimize bee-friendly areas in the urban landscapes.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.z08kprrrc
Description of the data and file structure
The study was conducted in 2021 across all open green areas designated as urban flower meadows (n = 55) in three major Polish cities (each with >290,000 inhabitants): Białystok (BI) (53°07′59″N, 23°09′51″E), Bydgoszcz (CB) (53°07′24.6″N, 18°00′27.43″E), and Łódź (EL) (51°45′00″N, 19°28′00″E), located in the northern, central, and eastern parts of Poland, respectively. The dataset “Data_landscape” includes raw data on: 1) landscape variables, specifically features of the urban matrix, which were characterized based on Urban Atlas 2018 maps (Copernicus, 2020), which describe 20 different types of urban land use (Table – variable E-X). The area was analyzed within three buffers (100, 300, and 500 meters) around urban flower meadows.
The dataset “Data_structure” includes data that are based on a previous analysis of vegetation structure conducted both in the field and in the laboratory. Urban flower meadows varied in size ranging from approximately 80 m² to 5,000 m², and vegetation cover. The internal characteristics of the urban flower meadows were assessed within each area (variables B-I - v B-I) or they are based on an analysis of a fragment of the urban flower meadows (2x2m), representative of the entire area (variables J-W - v J-W).
Files and variables
File: Data_landscape_UFMs.xlsx
Description: Landscape variables, specifically features of the urban matrix surrounding urban flower meadows.
Variables
landscape variables, specifically features of the urban matrix, which were characterized based on Urban Atlas 2018 maps (Copernicus, 2020), which describe 20 different types of urban land use (Table – variable E-X). The abbreviation S.L. given in each land variable, is the "surface land" and it refers to the percentage of land cover by a particular type of urban land cover.
File: Data_structure_UFMs.xlsx
Description: Structural variables, area and vegetation structure of urban flower meadows.
Variables
The internal characteristics of the urban flower meadows were assessed within each area (variables B-I) or they are based on an analysis of a fragment of the urban flower meadows (2x2m), representative of the entire area (variables J-W).
Number of all plant species observed in a given time on the particular UFM, and distinguished in this pool of species: flowering/entomogamus plant species (vD) and anemogamus plant species (vE). The variables F-I described share of individual geographic-historical species groups in the pool of all observed species of plants: apophytes, archeophytes, diaphytes and neophytes.
Variables J and K gives naumer of species and number of individuals of observed bee species.
Variables L - T described the colors of UFMs: Nf – number of flower units; variables N-S – frequency of flower units in particular colours: Nfw - white, Nfy - yellow, Nfwy - white-yellow, Nfp - pink, Nfb - blue, Nfpu - purple, Nfr - red. Nc - the sum of all distinguishable colors on the UFM plot.
The variabes U-W described the overall structur of the UFMs: grasses (%) - percentage of surface cover by grasses, other (%) - percentage of surface cover by other then grasses plant species, bare soil (%) - percentage of surface cover by exposed soil, devoid of plant species.