Urbanization is recognized as an important driver of the diversity and abundance of tree associated insect herbivores, but its consequences for insect herbivory are controversial. A likely source of variability among studies is the insufficient consideration of intra-urban variability in forest cover. With the help of citizen scientists, we investigated the independent and interactive effect of urbanization and local canopy cover on insect herbivory in the pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) throughout most of its geographic range in Europe. We found that the damage caused by chewing insect herbivores as well as the incidence of leaf-mining and gall-inducing herbivores consistently decreased with increasing urbanization around focal oaks. Herbivory by chewing herbivores increased with increasing forest cover, regardless of urbanization. In contrast, an increase in local canopy cover buffered the negative effect of urbanization on leaf-miners and strengthened its effect on gall-inducers. These results show the complexity of plant-herbivore interactions in urbanized areas, highlighting that the presence of local canopy cover within cities has the potential to attenuate or modify the effect of urbanization on biotic interactions.

Variables included in the dataset:

Authors:

Elena Valdés-Correcher¹, Anna Popova², Andrea Galmán^{3, 4}, Andreas Prinzing⁵, Andrey V. Selikhovkin⁶, Andy G. Howe^{7, 8}, Anna Mrazova^{9, 10}, Anne-Maïmiti Dulaurent¹¹, Arndt Hampe¹, Ayco Jerome Michel Tack¹², Christophe Bouget¹³, Daniela Lupaștean¹⁴, Deborah Harvey¹⁵, Dmitry L. Musolin⁶, Gábor L. Lövei¹⁶, Giada Centenaro¹⁷, Inge Van Halder¹, Jonas Hagge^{18, 19}, Jovan Dobrosavljević²⁰, Juha-Matti Pitkänen^{21, 22}, Julia Koricheva¹⁵, Katerina Sam^{9, 10}, Luc Barbaro^{23, 24}, Manuela Branco²⁵, Marco Ferrante^{16, 26}, Maria Faticov¹², Markéta Tahadlová^{9, 10}, Martin Gossner^{27, 28}, Maxime Cauchoix²⁹, Michał Bogdziewicz^{30, 31}, Mihai-Leonard Duduman¹⁴, Mikhail V. Kozlov³², Mona C. Bjoern⁷, Nikita A. Mamaev⁶, Pilar Fernandez-Conradi³³, Rebecca L. Thomas¹⁵, Ross Wetherbee³⁴, Samantha Green³⁵, Slobodan Milanović^{20, 36}, Xoaquín Moreira³⁷, Yannick Mellerin¹, Yasmine Kadiri¹ and Bastien Castagneyrol¹.

Affiliations:

1 – Univ. Bordeaux, INRAE, BIOGECO, F-33612 Cestas, France

2 – A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia

3 – Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

4 – German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany

5 – Research Unit ECOBIO (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Evolution), UMR 6553, University of Rennes/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Campus Beaulieu, Bâtiment 14 A, 263 Av. du Général Leclerc, 35042 Rennes, France

6 – Department of Forest Protection, Wood Science and Game Management, Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia

7 – Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark

8 – Forest Industries Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia

9 – Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Sciences, Entomology Institute, Branisovska 31, Ceske Budejovice 370 05, Czech Republic

10 – Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 1760, Ceske Budejovice 370 05, Czech Republic

11 – UniLaSalle, AGHYLE, UP.2018.C101, SFR Condorcet FR CNRS 3417, FR-60026 Beauvais, France

12 – Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, 114 18 Stockholm, Sweden

13 – Forest Ecosystems' Research Unit – Biodiversity team Domaine des Barres, INRAE, Nogent-sur-Vernisson, France

14 – ”Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Forestry Faculty, Applied Ecology Lab. University Str. 13, Suceava, Romania

15 – Dept of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Surrey, UK 

16 – Department of Agroecology, Flakkebjerg Research Centre, Aarhus University, Slagelse, Denmark

17 – Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE

18 – Forest Nature Conservation, Northwest German Forest Research Institute, Prof.-Oelkers-Str. 6, 34346 Hann. Münden, Germany

19 – Forest Nature Conservation, Georg‐August‐University Göttingen, Büsgenweg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

20 – Department of Forest Protection, Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Kneza Višeslava 1, Belgrade, Serbia

21 – Forest Health and Biodiversity, Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Latokartanonkaari 9, 00790, Helsinki, Finland

22 – Spatial Foodweb Ecology Group, Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

23 – Dynafor, Univ. Toulouse, INRAE, Castanet-Tolosan, France

24 – CESCO, Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne-Univ., Paris, France

25 – Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal

26 – Azorean Biodiversity Group, cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, University of the Azores, Azores, Portugal

27 – Forest Entomology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland

28 – Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

29 – Station d’Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale du CNRS, Moulis, France

30 – Department of Systematic Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umutlowska 89, 61‐614 Poznan, Poland

31 – Laboratoire EcoSystèmes et Sociétés En Montagne, INRAE Univ Grenoble Alpes, 2 rue de la Papeterie, BP 76 F-38402 Saint-Martin-d’Hères cedex, France

32 – Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku 20014, Finland

33 – INRAE, UR629 Ecologie des Forêts Méditerranéennes (URFM), Avignon 84914, France

34 – Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway

35 – Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Ryton Organic Gardens, Coventry, CV8 3LG, UK

36 – Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska 3, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic

37 – Misión Biológica de Galicia (MBG-CSIC), Apdo. 28, 36080 Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain