Progress 04/01/16 to 12/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Over the entire grant period, our target audience included the scientific community, individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening, and graduate and undergraduate students. The scientific community informed by our project includes colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, Reed College, U. of Texas Austin, and CSIRO (Australia), and colleagues and scientists we have reached at conferences in presentations. Over the lifetime of the grant, the PI, Co-PIs and our students have made 11 poster presentations and 19 oral presentations at regional, national, and international conferences and Department seminars including at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, and the International Association for Landscape Ecology Meeting. We have reached audiences across the US (from Florida to Maryland and California), as well as internationally (in Australia, Canada, Italy and Mexico). We have published 22 papers in peer reviewed journals, have seven more papers or book chapters in various stages of review and revisions, and have seven more manuscripts in late stages of prep. The project has also supported the completion of six undergraduate theses and two dissertations. Individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening are diverse and include government organizations (e.g. City of Santa Cruz, the City of San Jose, City of Sunnyvale), non-profit organizations (e.g. Mesa Verde Gardens, Homeless Garden Project, Mid County Senior Center, Salinas Chinatown Garden), church gardens (e.g. Aptos Community Garden), as well as school gardens (e.g. UC Santa Cruz Chadwick garden, Monterrey Institute of International Studies, MEarth Garden at Carmel Valley Middle School). The gardeners at those organizations are from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds including from Mexico and Central America (including both mestizo and indigenous populations), Arab, Assyrian, Bosnian, Caucasian, African American, and European-American gardeners. Our gardener surveys with 187 gardeners in 2017 revealed 36 nationalities and >25 languages represented in the gardens. This array of ethnic diversity is typical of urban gardens, and provides a unique opportunity for understanding variable management practices, even within a relatively small geographic area, and for sharing results with groups of people with family and cultural networks that expand far beyond the study region. We have reached this audience through informal discussions while conducting field research, as well as during formal presentations at gardener potlucks, farm docent meetings, and in presentations to Master Gardener groups. We estimate we have reached ~350 gardeners in presentations. We have shared our findings and management recommendations based on our findings with gardeners in annual reports. Our target audience also includes students and others at our institutions who have heard presentations and who have been trained by the project. UC Santa Cruz is a Hispanic Serving Institution. UT also serves a large Hispanic student population, currently representing 17.5% of the student body, and comprising a 10-year pattern of consecutive increase. Reed College is a small, liberal arts college, and is listed in Table 2 of the RFA as a school in the "Lowest One Third of Universities and Colleges Receiving Federal Funds". Thus Reed students are limited in research opportunities related to developing sustainable agriculture, and especially federally funded programs. Over the lifetime of the project, we have supported three PhD students (3 women, 1 student of color), 15 undergraduates (9 women, 9 students of color), and three high school students (1 woman, 1 student of color) at UC Santa Cruz. We have supported 2 undergraduates and 1 graduate student at U. of Texas (all women, 1 student of color). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The research has provided opportunities for training and professional development for 1 postdoc and 24students (4 PhD students, 16 undergraduates, and 4 high school). Most students are based in California, 3 students are based on U. of Texas. The four PhD students are all completing their dissertations in themes related to the research. One student examined how local and landscape management of urban gardens influences bee communities, pollination services, bee parasites and diseases, as well as the microbial communities associated with bees in gardens. This student worked in collaboration with the U. of Texas co-PD to complete the pollination limitation study on sunflowers, jalapeños, and beans in the greenhouse and in the field. She completed her dissertation in June 2018. The second graduate student examined how the local and landscape management of gardens, as well as the sociodemographic characteristics of gardens influences ecosystem services and gardener participation. Specifically, she examines how management influences: a) ladybeetle abundance, richness, community composition and dispersal, b) climate, temperature, and water use by gardeners, and c) soil properties, aphid densities, and aphid parasitism. She collaborated with the CSIRO co-PD and the Reed co-PD in three collaborative projects. She completed her dissertation in June 2019. A third student worked on the natural-enemy herbivore network field work and analysis. She collaborated with the Reed co-PD to work on data frameworks and analysis for this project. The fourth PhD student is working on the pollen collection and pollen deposition work and has mainly worked with the Texas co-PD. Thus the project has supported their research by providing a framework into which their research can fit, and has sharpened their skills in collaboration, field and lab work efficiency, data analysis, library research, manuscript preparation, and presentation skills. These students have also acted as mentors to the undergraduate students participating in the project. Three of these students are Caucasian women and one is Latina. Sixteen undergraduates have participated in the project so far. Of these, six have completed senior theses or internships related to the project; two of those won Outstanding Thesis Awards from the Division of Social Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. Others have completed independent projects related to the overarching goals of the grant. Several are authors on publications. Of the students, 65% are students of color, and 70% are women. Student theses have focused on a) examining the diversity of parasitoids in gardens, b) studying pollen collected by bumble bees across a local and landscape gradient, c) dispersal of ladybugs in and around gardens, d) examined the array of pest control methods reported by gardeners, the frequency with which they reported having pest problems, and examine whether pest problem perceptions or pest control techniques differed depending on socio-demographic features, e) a comparison of gardener survey demographics to neighborhood demographics to see if gardens are serving a distinct population, and f) examining how gardener motivations differ depending on gender and ethnicity. All thesis students presented their research at poster sessions on campus, both open to the public. All undergraduate students learned valuable skills in field methods (e.g. collecting vegetation data, insects, recognizing plant species, quantitative social research), and also in data entry, data analysis, presentation techniques, and collaboration. All undergraduates also participated in weekly lab meetings and were exposed to larger issues related to agroecology and temperate and tropical insect research. The students at the U. of Texas worked on developing the plant-pollinator network. They created a photographic pollen library, and worked to identify pollen grains collected from bumble bees. They learned valuable microscope and graphics skills, pollen identification, data entry and analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have distributed our research in both the scientific and gardener communities. For the scientific community, we have distributed our results in both written and presentation format. Over the lifetime of the project, we published 22 papers in a range of peer-reviewed journals, and we have another 7 papers in various stages of review, and 7 more in final prep for submission. Two students have completed dissertations related to the project, and six students have completed senior theses. We have presented 25 conference papers, posters, and departmental seminars (e.g., Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, Dig In: Cultivating Food Justice Conference in Santa Cruz, California) For the gardener community, we presented information at 13 workshops and potlucks that have reached ~350 gardeners, Master gardeners, and farm docents. We distributed an annual report of our findings to representatives from each garden; many informed us that they distributed the report to their email list, and some discussed the report at monthly meetings. We estimate that the written reports reached at least 100 gardeners, support staff, and managers annually. We maintain a project website, and report updates on the PD's lab web page. We also have distributed business cards for our project with links to our web page and contact information from the PD and project manager. Project Website: Our project website: www.urbangardenecology.com Project Website: Our lab website: https://philpottlab.sites.ucsc.edu/ Biodiversity in Urban Gardens Project Report Summer 2016. https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/ucsc_gardenresearchreport_2016.pdf Biodiversity in Urban Gardens Project Report Summer 2017. https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/bugs_ucsc_gardenerreport_2017.pdf Biodiversity in Urban Gardens Project Report Summer 2018. https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/bugs_ucsc_report2018.pdf What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Project Impact: We have collected and analyzed data on vegetation, biocontrol, pollination, plant-pollinator networks, natural enemy-herbivore networks, soil and water conservation, and gardener demographics, motivations, and food security. 1) Major activities completed. We continued field work, lab work, and dissemination of project findings. In the field, we a) sampled sample vegetation and ground cover, b) conducted an completed an extensive survey of herbivore, sun, and fungal disease damage on brassicas, tomatoes, squashes), and c) collected hundreds of ladybugs and brassica herbivores to rear them for parasitoids. In the lab, worked to identify >80,000 pollen grains from bumble bees and tomato stigmas and reared >300 parasitoids from captured pests. We worked with data sets on pollinator and natural enemy abundance and behavior and pollination and pest control services. We started two synthesis projects (one on trade-offs in ecosystem services, another on maintenance of rare species in gardens) using data from 2013 to present. We completed work the water conservation and soil components of the project. Finally, we completed a second project with gardener survey data focused on how demographic features of gardeners influence cultivated plant richness and composition in gardens. 2) Data collected. We collected data on plant cover, plant species, ground cover, floral abundance, canopy cover, and trees and shrubs within each garden. We assess herbivore and disease damage on brassicas, tomatoes, and cucurbits. We examined parasitism of ladybugs and brassica parasitoids. We collected data on pollen loads carried by bumble bees. We also worked to collected data on traits of birds, ladybugs, carabids (three groups of insectivores) as well as bees (pollinators) for papers examining how local and landscape characteristics influence traits and communities of these important ecosystem services providers. We completed two projects examining water use among gardeners, and how climate and conservation principles affect their decisions. Finally, we completed a survey with 190 gardeners asking about demographics, plants cultivated, pest management and food produced. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results Our pollination studies determined that 1) honey bee abundance is higher in sites with patchy floral resources, whereas bee species richness and bee diversity was higher in sites with more clustered floral resources; 2) phorid fly parasitism is higher in bumble bees than honey bees and parasitism of both species increased with honey bee abundance, and tree and shrub abundance; 3) natural habitat cover, floral resources, and bee richness influence orchard bee microbiome composition; 4) floral resources abundance increases prevalence of Apicystis spp. and the phorid flies in honey bees and also increases prevalence of Deformed Wing Virus and Acute Bee Paralysis Virus in bumble bees; bare soil cover negatively predicts prevalence of some parasites and pathogens in bumble bees; 5) bumblebees carry pollen from tomato, tomatillo, lavender, borage, and mints; bee pollen diversity and abundance increases with floral diversity and urban landscape cover; 6) pepper plants exhibit greater fruit and seed set by cross pollination and pepper plant fruit weight (but not fruit set) is higher in gardens with higher floral abundance; 7) Bumble bees carry more ornamental pollen in proportion to the ornamental plants available in the garden. Bees carry pollen from species found within the garden (about 1/3 of grains) and from species not found in the gardens (about 2/3 of grains) meaning that bees are influenced by surrounding areas; 8) the most common pollen deposited on tomato stigmas is from strawberry - a relatively rare crop in gardens, but a major agricultural crop in the region and that as pollinator richness increases, the fraction of tomato pollen (and thus likely tomato pollination) on stigmas is higher; and 9) that different factors drive turnover for different species (e.g. tomato, squash, peppers) and that number of conspecific plants and pollinator individuals boosts flower to fruit turnover. Our Natural enemies research shows that 1) adding flowers boosted numbers of parasitoid wasps, but did not affect ladybug populations or the time that ladybugs stayed in gardens. Ladybugs stayed longer in gardens with more natural habitat; 2) ladybeetle communities in urban gardens are not dispersal limited; community composition similarity between different gardens is not driven by geographic distances but by the proportion of natural areas in the landscape and local garden characteristics; 3) pests are abundant in gardens with high urban cover, more plant species, and in older gardens; beneficial insects are more abundant in gardens with more crop, weed, and ornamental plant species, with less leaf litter, and in gardens with less agriculture in the surrounding landscapes, 4) local and landscape determinants of plant damage depend on crop and damage type, and 5) networks of natural enemies and herbivores respond to flower species richness and the amount of agricultural habitat nearby; areas with high agriculture have less complex networks (and thus likely lower pest control). Our water conservation and soil research determined that vegetation and ground cover reduced temperatures; built environment factors increased temperatures; water use was positively correlated with ambient temperatures. We determined that greater mulch use increases soil fertility and water conservation services, and mulch is more common in high socio-economic neighborhoods. We determined that intensive (re)working of soils erases historical legacies of land use. Greater watering by gardeners drives faster soil moisture gain and loss rates. However, plots with more soil organic matter, soil water holding capacity, and straw cover maintained soil moisture longer, while greater crop cover increased loss rates. High ambient temperatures before watering events slowed gain rates, but did not affect loss rates. Finally, gardeners are generally unaware of or inaccurate in assessing how much water that they use; ironically those gardeners that are more concerned about water conservation tend to use more water, but garden rules limiting water are effective in limiting gardener water use. Our research on gardeners and food production finds that gardeners are diverse (60% immigrants from >30 countries, with a wide range in education, income, and education level). Gardeners report growing a high number of plants: >120 crops and >70 ornamentals and harvest lots of food from small plots - 68% harvest between 5-10 lbs. and 14% harvest >20 lbs. weekly. Many gardeners (especially low-income and people of color) still suffer from food insecurity. All (100%) gardeners surveyed report gardening has improved their well-being. Benefits reported include food, mental health benefits, having a place to spend time with family, etc. We found improvements in gardener well-being through gardening across social and biophysical landscape gradients. Gardeners that live in highly urban neighborhoods spend more time in gardens than gardeners who live in neighborhoods with more natural habitat. Moreover, gardeners that live in areas with little housing opportunity spend more time in gardens. Finally, gardener demographics, and in particular nationality, gender, and motivations for gardening have strong influences on plant richness and plant composition, indicating that gardens with diverse human populations likely have more diverse plant communities. 4) Key outcomes. Thus far we have published 22 peer-review journal articles, 2 PhD dissertations, and 6 undergraduate theses. We have made 25 presentations and posters at conferences. In addition, we have 7 more manuscripts in review and revisions, and 7 in final stages of preparation to submit for review.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer M, Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2017). The effect of local and landscape scale land cover on microclimate and water use in urban gardens. Oral presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, OR.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere H, Bichier P, Egerer M, Jha S, Lin BB, Philpott SM. (2017). Herbivore regulation in urban community gardens: Direct and indirect pathways of control. Oral presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, OR.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer M, Ossola A, Lin BB. (2017). Community garden soils as foundations for novel agro-ecosystems in cities. Oral presentation at the International Annual Landscape Ecology Meeting in Baltimore, MD.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Ong T, Vandermeer J. (2017). Agro-ecological transitions and hysteresis: Combining experiment with theory. Oral presentation at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, OR.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Philpott SM. (2018). Impacts of local, landscape, and gardener characteristics on biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban agroecosystems. Department Seminar in Dept. of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Liere H. (2018). Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in Agroecosystems: from coffee farms to urban gardens. Department Seminar at the Department of Entomology, University of Maryland.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere, H (2017) Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in Agroecosystems: from coffee farms to urban gardens. Department Seminar in Environmental Studies. Seattle University.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Philpott, S (2018) Impacts of local, landscape, and gardener characteristics on biodiversity, ecological networks, and ecosystem services in urban agroecosystems. Department Seminar in Biodiversity Center, University of British Columbia.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM (2018) Soil management is key to maintaining soil moisture in urban gardens facing climatic conditions. Oral Presentation at the Ecological Society of Australia Annual Meeting in Brisbane, QLD.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Li K, Ong T (2018) Context matters: Contrasting ladybird beetle responses to urban environments across two US regions. Oral presentation at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Cohen H, McFrederick QM, Philpott SM (2018). Environmental drivers of microbiome composition in the Blue Orchard Bee, Osmia lignaria. Oral presentation at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong T (2018) Dynamic Urban Gardens. Oral presentation at Boundary Spanning: Advances in Socio-Environmental Systems Research (SESYNC) in Annapolis, MD
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong T, Vandermeer J (2018) Autonomous biological control: Chaos and complex hysteric patterns. Oral presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Philpott SM, Egerer M, Bichier P, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S. (2019). Local and landscape drivers of ecosystem services trade-offs and synergies in urban agroecosystems. Symposium presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Egerer M, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2019). Local and landscape drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem service trade-offs in urban agricultural landscapes. Symposium presentation at the International Association for Landscape Ecology Congress in Milan, Italy.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Liere H, Lucatero A, Bichier P, Egerer M, Lin B, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2019). Changes in natural enemy-herbivore networks along local and landscape gradients in urban agroecosystems. Oral presentation at Entomological Society of America Conference in St. Louis, MO.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Biodiversity in Urban Gardens Project Report Summer 2018. https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/bugs_ucsc_report2018.pdf
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Philpott SM, Bichier P, Egerer M, Cohen H, Cohen R, Liere H, Jha H, Lin BB. (2019). La demograf�a y motivaciones de los agricultores influyen en la riqueza y composici�n vegetal en huertos urbanos. Oral presentation at 1ra Congreso Mexicano de la Agroecologia in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Egerer M, Ariel C, Bichier P, Otoshi M, Quistberg R, Philpott SM. (2016). Urban arthropods respond variably to changes in landscape context and spatial scale. Poster presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Fr. Lauderdale, FL
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Philpott SM, Jordan Z, Bichier P, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S (2017). Bumblee bee pollen abundance and richness along a urban garden management gradient. Poster presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, OR.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere H, Bichier P, Egerer M, Jha S, Lin BB, Philpott SM. (2017). Community distribution, composition, and function of ladybeetles in urban community gardens. Poster presentation at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver, CO.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer M. (2017). Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision through urban food cultivation. Poster presentation at the Annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium in Santa Cruz, CA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Byun Y, Philpott SM, Sanchez C, Milz T. (2018). Unique characteristics of gardeners in California central coast community gardens. Poster presentation at Dig In: Cultivating Inclusive Approaches to Food Justice in Santa Cruz, CA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sanchez C. (2018). Demographics in urban garden pest management: Analysis of gardener characteristics in relation to pest vulnerability. Poster presentation at Dig In: Cultivating Inclusive Approaches to Food Justice in Santa Cruz, CA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Milz T. (2018). Ideology and California central coast community gardens: Effects on food systems discourse. Poster presentation at Dig In: Cultivating Inclusive Approaches to Food Justice in Santa Cruz, CA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Lucatero, A (2018) Ecological networks and ecosystem services across urban agroecological landscapes. Poster presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong T, Vandermeer J (2018) Multiple hysteretic patterns from elementary population models. Poster presentation at Gordon Research Conference: Predator-Prey Interactions in Ventura, CA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong T, Vandermeer J (2018) Multiple hysteretic patterns from elementary population models. Poster Presentation at EEB Scholars Symposium, Princeton, NJ.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Lucatero A, Philpott SM (2019). Influence of leaf architecture and two natural enemies on aphid population regulation. Poster presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Ong TW-Y, Lin BB, Philpott SM, Barthel S, Levin S. (2019). A model for growing and shrinking cities: Urban gardens as a bridge. Oral presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Project Website: Our project website: www.urbangardenecology.com
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Our lab website: https://philpottlab.sites.ucsc.edu/
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Biodiversity in Urban Gardens Project Report Summer 2016. https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/ucsc_gardenresearchreport_2016.pdf
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Biodiversity in Urban Gardens Project Report Summer 2017. https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/bugs_ucsc_gardenerreport_2017.pdf
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2017) Biodiversity conservation, agroecology and ecosystem services. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 41: 723-760
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Philpott SM, Bichier P. (2017) Local and landscape drivers of predation services in urban gardens. Ecological Applications 27: 966-976.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Plascencia M, Philpott SM. (2017) Influences of floral abundance, richness, and spatial distribution on urban garden bee communities. Bulletin of Entomological Research 107: 658667
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer M, Arel C, Otoshi MD, Quistberg RD, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2017) Urban arthropods respond variably to changes in landscape context and spatial scale. Journal of Urban Ecology, 3(1). DOI: 10.1093/jue/jux001.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Cohen H, Quistberg RD, Philpott SM. (2017) Vegetation management and host density influence bee-parasite interactions in urban gardens. Environmental Entomology 46: 13131321
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Morales H, Ferguson B, Mar�n L, Guti�rrez D, Bichier P, Philpott S. (2018). Agroecological pest management in the city: Experiences from California and Chiapas. Sustainability 10: 2068
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer MH, Liere H, Jha S, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2018) Local- and landscape-scale land cover affect microclimate and water use in urban gardens. Science of the Total Environment. 610-611: 570-575
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2018) Herbivore regulation in urban agricultural systems: direct and indirect effects. Basic and Applied Ecology. 29: 44-54.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Philpott SM, Liere H, Jha S, Bichier P, Lin BB. (2018) People or Place? Neighborhood opportunity influences community garden soil properties and soil-based ecosystem services. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 14(1): 32-44.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer M, Philpott SM, Bichier P, Jha S, Liere H, Lin BB. (2018) Gardener well-being along social and biophysical landscape gradients, Sustainability 10(96):114.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer M, Ossola A, Lin BB (2018) Creating socioecological novelty in urban agroecosystems from the ground up. Bioscience 68:2534.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Liere H, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2018) Cityscape quality and resource manipulation affect natural enemy biodiversity and dispersal in urban agroecosystems. Landscape Ecology 33:985998
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer, M.; Li, K.; Ong, T.W. (2018) Context Matters: Contrasting Ladybird Beetle Responses to Urban Environments across Two US Regions. Sustainability 10, 1829.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong, T. W. , D. Allen, and J. Vandermeer. (2018). Huffaker revisited: spatial heterogeneity and the coupling of ineffective agents in biological control. Ecosphere 9:e02299.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong, T. W., and J. Vandermeer. (2018). Multiple hysteretic patterns from elementary population models. Theoretical Ecology 11:433439.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer M, Fairbairn M. (2018). Gated gardens: Effects of urbanization on community formation and commons management in community gardens. Geoforum 96: 61-69
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer MH, Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2019) Soil management is key to maintaining soil moisture in urban gardens facing climatic conditions. Scientific Reports, 8(1), p.17565.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Egerer M, Lin BB, Philpott SM. (2019) Water use behavior, learning and adaptation to future change in urban gardens, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.2:71. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2018.00071
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Egerer MH, Lin BB, Kendal D. (2019). Temperature variability differs in urban agroecosystems across two metropolitan regions. Climate 7:118.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Philpott SM, Albuquerque S, Bichier P, Cohen H, Egerer MH, Kirk C, Will KW. (2019). Local and landscape drivers of carabid activity, species richness, and traits in urban gardens in the California Central Coast. Insects, 10, 112; doi:10.3390/insects10040112
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Liere, H., M. Egerer, and SM. Philpott. (2019). Environmental and spatial filtering of ladybeetle community composition and functional traits in urban landscapes. Journal of Urban Ecology, 5: juz014. doi: 10.1093/jue/juz014
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer M. (2020). Global social and environmental change drives the management and delivery of ecosystem services from urban gardens: A case study from Central Coast, California. Global Environmental Change. 60: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.102006
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Cohen H, McFrederick Q, Philpott SM. Environmental drivers of microbiome composition in the Blue Orchard Bee, Osmia lignaria. In revisions for Molecular Ecology
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Egerer MH, Liere H, Lucatero A, Philpott SM. Local and landscape drivers of plant damage in urban agroecosystems. in revisions for Ecological Applications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Mayorga I, Bichier P, Philpott SM. Local and landscape drivers of bird abundance, species richness, and trait composition in urban agroecosystems. in review at Urban Ecosystems
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Philpott SM, Jha S, Lucatero A, MH Egerer, Liere H. Complex ecological interactions and ecosystem services in urban agroecosystems. In Egerer MH, Cohen H, editors. Urban Agroecology: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understand the Science, Practice, and Movement. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Cohen H, Philpott SM, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S. Delivery of pollination services in urban gardens is mediated by pollinator biodiversity and the interaction between local and landscape factors. in review at Urban Ecosystems
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Philpott SM, Lucatero A, Bichier P, Egerer MH, Lin BB, Jha S, Liere H. Natural enemy-herbivore networks along local management and landscape gradients in urban agroecosystems. in review at Ecological Applications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Philpott SM, Bichier P, Egerer M, Cohen H, Cohen R, Liere H, Jha S, Lin BB. Gardener demographics, experience, and motivations drive differences in plant species richness and composition in urban gardens. in review at Ecology and Society
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Cohen H, McFrederick Q, Russell K, Ponisio L, Philpott SM. Floral resource provisioning in urban gardens amplifies parasite and pathogen risk for bees. In prep for Basic and Applied Ecology. (manuscript in full draft - to be submitted Feb 2020)
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Jha S, Egerer M, Bichier P, Liere H, Lin BB, Philpott SM. Local and landscape drivers of ecosystem services trade-offs and synergies in urban agroecosystems. in prep for PNAS
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Jha S, Jordan Z, McGilvray E, Cohen H, Bichier P, Egerer M, Liere H, Lin BB, Philpott SM, Jha S. Urban garden fruit production and pollen deposition depends on both local and landscape management. in prep for Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. (manuscript in full draft - to be submitted Feb 2020)
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
O'Connell, M, Jordan Z, McGilvray E, Cohen H, Liere H, Lin BB, Philpott SM, Jha S. Local plant species composition drives pollinator foraging patterns within urban garden landscapes. in prep for Urban Ecology (manuscript in full draft - to be submitted Jan 2020).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Ong TW-Y, Philpott SM, Barthel S, Lin BB, Levin S. Complex adaptive landscapes: linking the growth and decline of cities. In prep for Ecological Economics. (manuscript in full draft - to be submitted Jan 2020).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Lin BB, Cohen H, Liere H, Lucatero H, Ong TW-Y, Bichier P, Jha S, Philpott SM. Does rarity beget rarity in urban gardens? in prep for Nature Sustainability
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Liere H, Egerer M, Philpott SM. Gardener demographic influences on pest management strategies in urban agroecosystems. in prep for Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Jordan Z. (2016). The buzz about urban gardens: effects of landscape and local management on Bombus vosnesenskii (Hymenoptera: Apidae) pollen abundance and richness. UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department, Undergraduate Thesis
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kirk C. (2017). Relationships among local and landscape habitat characteristics and Carabidae abundance and morphospecies richness in urban gardens. UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department, Undergraduate Thesis
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Hafalia-Yackel D. (2017). Ladybeetle (Hippodamia convergens) movement in an urban landscape. UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department, Undergraduate Thesis
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Milz T. (2018) Propagating Discourse: Community Gardener Motivations in the California Central Coast Undergraduate Thesis. Sociology Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz. (Won Dean's Award)
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Byun Y. (2018) People who garden: a closer look at urban community gardeners in the California central coast region. Undergraduate Thesis. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz. (Won Dean's Award)
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sanchez C. (2018) Pest management and gardener demographics in urban community gardens. Undergraduate Thesis. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Cohen H. (2018) Resource availability influences bee interactions with parasites, pathogens, and microbes in urban agricultural landscapes. PhD Dissertation. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Egerer M (2019) Local and landscape drivers of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being in urban agroecosystems. PhD Dissertation. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Ong T, Vandermeer J. (2016). Scaling from meta-populations to source-sinks: Taylors law and landscape structure. Oral presentation at Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
|
Progress 04/01/18 to 03/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Over the grant period, our target audience has included the scientific community, individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening, and graduate and undergraduate students. The scientific community informed by our project includes colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, Reed College, U. of Texas Austin, and CSIRO (Australia), and colleagues and scientists we have reached at conferences in presentations. Over the past year, we presented three Department Seminars (at U. of British Columbia, Princeton, Seattle University), three posters and four oral presentations at conferences (Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Ecological Society of Australia Annual Meeting in Brisbane, Entomological Society Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC, the Gordon Research Conference, and at SESYNC). During 2018 and 2019, we published 15 papers related to the grant in peer reviewed journals, and currently have 1 paper in final review (revisions already completed) and three more in review. In the past year, an additional PhD student completed her dissertation work related to the project goals; one PhD student project continues. Individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening are diverse and include government organizations (e.g. City of Santa Cruz, the City of San Jose, City of Sunnyvale), non-profit organizations (e.g. Mesa Verde Gardens, Homeless Garden Project, Mid County Senior Center, Salinas Chinatown Garden), church gardens (e.g. Aptos Community Garden), as well as school gardens (e.g. UC Santa Cruz Chadwick garden, Monterrey Institute of International Studies, MEarth Garden at Carmel Valley Middle School). The gardeners at those organizations are from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds including from Mexico and Central America (including both mestizo and indigenous populations), Arab, Assyrian, Bosnian, Caucasian, African American, and European-American gardeners. Our gardener surveys with 187 gardeners in 2017 revealed 36 nationalities and >25 languages represented in the gardens. This array of ethnic diversity is typical of urban gardens, and provides a unique opportunity for understanding variable management practices, even within a relatively small geographic area, and for sharing results with groups of people with family and cultural networks that expand far beyond the study region. We have reached this audience through presentations at gardener potlucks, and through casual conversations as we conduct field work. We have shared our findings and management recommendations based on our findings with gardeners in annual reports. Our target audience also includes students and others at our institutions who have heard presentations and who have been trained by the project. UC Santa Cruz is a Hispanic Serving Institution. UT also serves a large Hispanic student population, currently representing 17.5% of the student body, and comprising a 10-year pattern of consecutive increase. Reed College is a small, liberal arts college, and is listed in Table 2 of the RFA as a school in the "Lowest One Third of Universities and Colleges Receiving Federal Funds". Thus Reed students are limited in research opportunities related to developing sustainable agriculture, and especially federally funded programs. In the past year, we have supported 5 undergraduates at UCSC (all women, 3 from underrepresented groups) and two graduate students (both women, 1 from an underrepresented group). We have also supported two undergraduates and 1 graduate student at U. of Texas on the project (all women, 1 from an underrepresented group). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The research has provided opportunities for training and professional development for 1 postdoc and 23 students (4 PhD students, 15 undergraduates, and 4 high school). Most students are based in California, 3 students are based on U. of Texas. The four PhD students are all completing their dissertations in themes related to the research. One student examined how local and landscape management of urban gardens influences bee communities, pollination services, bee parasites and diseases, as well as the microbial communities associated with bees in gardens. This student worked in collaboration with the U. of Texas co-PD to complete the pollination limitation study on sunflowers, jalapeños, and beans in the greenhouse and in the field. She completed her dissertation in June 2018. The second graduate student examined how the local and landscape management of gardens, as well as the sociodemographic characteristics of gardens influences ecosystem services and gardener participation. Specifically, she examines how management influences: a) ladybeetle abundance, richness, community composition and dispersal, b) climate, temperature, and water use by gardeners, and c) soil properties, aphid densities, and aphid parasitism. She collaborated with the CSIRO co-PD and the Reed co-PD in three collaborative projects. She has completed her dissertation project and will graduate in June 2019. The third student worked on the natural-enemy herbivore network field work and analysis. She collaborated with the Reed co-PD to work on data frameworks and analysis for this project. Thus the project has supported their research by providing a framework into which their research can fit, and has sharpened their skills in collaboration, field and lab work efficiency, data analysis, library research, manuscript preparation, and presentation skills. These students have also acted as mentors to the undergraduate students participating in the project. Two of these students are Caucasian women and one is Latina. The PhD student from U. of Texas has worked on identification of pollen and data analysis for the pollination projects. Fourteen undergraduates have participated in the project so far. Of these, seven have completed senior theses or internships related to the project; two of those won Outstanding Thesis Awards from the Division of Social Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. Others have completed independent projects related to the overarching goals of the grant. Several are authors on publications. Of the students, 65% are students of color, and 71% are women. Student theses have focused on a) examining the diversity of parasitoids in gardens, b) studying dispersal of ladybugs in and around gardens, c) examined the array of pest control methods reported by gardeners, the frequency with which they reported having pest problems, and examine whether pest problem perceptions or pest control techniques differed depending on socio-demographic features, d) a comparison of gardener survey demographics to neighborhood demographics to see if gardens are serving a distinct population, and e) examining how gardener motivations differ depending on gender and ethnicity. All thesis students presented their research at poster sessions on campus, both open to the public. All undergraduate students learned valuable skills in field methods (e.g. collecting vegetation data, insects, recognizing plant species, quantitative social research), and also in data entry, data analysis, presentation techniques, and collaboration. All undergraduates also participated in weekly lab meetings and were exposed to larger issues related to agroecology and temperate and tropical insect research. The students at the U. of Texas worked on developing the plant-pollinator network. They created a photographic pollen library, and worked to identify pollen grains collected from bumble bees. They learned valuable microscope and graphics skills, pollen identification, data entry and analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have distributed our research in both the scientific and gardener communities. For the scientific community, we have distributed our results in both written and presentation format. To date, our project has yielded 20 publications (10 in the past year) in a range of peer-reviewed journals, and we have another 4 papers in various stages of review. Two students have completed dissertations related to the project, and others have finished senior theses. We have presented 24 conference papers, posters, and departmental seminars (9 in the past year) (e.g., Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, Dig In: Cultivating Food Justice Conference in Santa Cruz, California) For the gardener community, we presented information at four workshops and potlucks that have reached >100 gardeners. We distributed an annual report of our findings to representatives from each garden; many informed us that they distributed the report to their email list, and some discussed the report at monthly meetings. We estimate that the report reached at least 100 gardeners, support staff, and managers. We maintain a project website, and report updates on the PD's lab web page: Our project website: www.urbangardenecology.com PD lab website: https://philpottlab.sites.ucsc.edu/ We also prepare an annual report for gardeners annually: the 2018 report can be found here: https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/bugs_ucsc_report2018.pdf What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our original grant end date was in March 2019, and we received a no cost extension until December 2019 in order to wrap up ongoing projects associated with the proposal. We will continue to work on all aspects of the project (pollination, pest control, water and soil conservation, gardener well-being and food production). Work will mainly involve data analysis and manuscript preparation. In our work on natural enemies and pest control, we will: Complete a manuscript describing the natural enemy-herbivore networks and how they differ along local and landscape gradients Complete a manuscript examining the vegetation, ground cover, and temperature drivers of plant damage from pests, diseases, and sun in urban gardens Begin to examine the richness and distribution of parasitoids of brassica herbivores and ladybugs in urban agroecosystems In our work on pollinators and pollination services we will: Complete data analysis and prepare a manuscript outlining the impacts of floral diversity and landscape surroundings on pollen collected from bumble bees Complete data analysis and prepare a manuscript examining patterns of pollen deposition on tomato stigmas Finish data analysis and prepare a manuscript examining the floral, bee community, and landscape drivers of turnover rates between flowers and fruits of tomato, squash, and cucurbit as well as fruit volume / yields produced in gardens Complete a manuscript examining changes in pollinator communities and traits along local and landscape gradients in urban agroecosystems All proposed work to better understand the relationships between local management of vegetation diversity and complexity, landscape diversity and composition and water storage and use in urban gardens, has been completed. Nonetheless, we will: Distribute a survey through our local urban extension agent to gardens in San Jose to understand how a relatively wet California winter (2018-2019) influences planting decisions of gardeners for this 2019 gardening season. Finally, to continue to understand relationships between urban garden social context, vegetation diversity and complexity, and contributions of urban gardens to food access), we will: Complete a manuscript examining how plant diversity and composition change with socio-demographic variables measured Continue to analyze gardener survey data specifically focused on food insecurity, food produced, and demographic variables. Complete two synthesis papers examining tradeoffs and synergies between ecological and social data in urban gardens We will continue to disseminate our work both in the scientific and gardener community. Over the next year, we plan to: Submit a total of 10 additional publications that are currently in various stages of prep Present a minimum of 5 posters, oral presentations at conferences Continue to train two new undergraduate students, 1 continuing PhD student, and 1 high school student Attend workshops and garden organization meetings and potlucks
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Project Impact: We have collected and analyzed data on vegetation, biocontrol, pollination, plant-pollinator networks, natural enemy-herbivore networks, soil and water conservation, and gardener demographics, motivations, and food security. 1) Major activities completed. We continued field work, lab work, and dissemination of project findings. In the field, we a) sampled sample vegetation and ground cover, b) conducted an completed an extensive survey of herbivore, sun, and fungal disease damage on brassicas, tomatoes, squashes), and c) collected hundreds of ladybugs and brassica herbivores to rear them for parasitoids. In the lab, worked to identify >80,000 pollen grains from bumble bees and tomato stigmas and reared >300 parasitoids from captured pests. We worked with data sets on pollinator and natural enemy abundance and behavior and pollination and pest control services. We started two synthesis projects (one on trade-offs in ecosystem services, another on maintenance of rare species in gardens) using data from 2013 to present. We completed work the water conservation and soil components of the project. Finally, we completed a second project with gardener survey data focused on how demographic features of gardeners influence cultivated plant richness and composition in gardens. 2) Data collected. We collected data on plant cover, plant species, ground cover, floral abundance, canopy cover, and trees and shrubs within each garden. We assess herbivore and disease damage on brassicas, tomatoes, and cucurbits. We examined parasitism of ladybugs and brassica parasitoids. We collected data on pollen loads carried by bumble bees. We also worked to collected data on traits of birds, ladybugs, carabids (three groups of insectivores) as well as bees (pollinators) for papers examining how local and landscape characteristics influence traits and communities of these important ecosystem services providers. We completed two projects examining water use among gardeners, and how climate and conservation principles affect their decisions. Finally, we completed a survey with 190 gardeners asking about demographics, plants cultivated, pest management and food produced. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results Our pollination studies determined that 1) honey bee abundance is higher in sites with patchy floral resources, whereas bee species richness and bee diversity was higher in sites with more clustered floral resources; 2) phorid fly parasitism is higher in bumble bees than honey bees and parasitism of both species increased with honey bee abundance, and tree and shrub abundance; 3) natural habitat cover, floral resources, and bee richness influence orchard bee microbiome composition; 4) floral resources abundance increases prevalence of Apicystis spp. and the phorid flies in honey bees and also increases prevalence of Deformed Wing Virus and Acute Bee Paralysis Virus in bumble bees; bare soil cover negatively predicts prevalence of some parasites and pathogens in bumble bees; 5) bumblebees carry pollen from tomato, tomatillo, lavender, borage, and mints; bee pollen diversity and abundance increases with floral diversity and urban landscape cover; 6) pepper plants exhibit greater fruit and seed set by cross pollination and pepper plant fruit weight (but not fruit set) is higher in gardens with higher floral abundance; 7) Bumble bees carry more ornamental pollen in proportion to the ornamental plants available in the garden. Bees carry pollen from species found within the garden (about 1/3 of grains) and from species not found in the gardens (about 2/3 of grains) meaning that bees are influenced by surrounding areas; 8) the most common pollen deposited on tomato stigmas is from strawberry - a relatively rare crop in gardens, but a major agricultural crop in the region and that as pollinator richness increases, the fraction of tomato pollen (and thus likely tomato pollination) on stigmas is higher; and 9) that different factors drive turnover for different species (e.g. tomato, squash, peppers) and that number of conspecific plants and pollinator individuals boosts flower to fruit turnover. Our Natural enemies research shows that 1) adding flowers boosted numbers of parasitoid wasps, but did not affect ladybug populations or the time that ladybugs stayed in gardens. Ladybugs stayed longer in gardens with more natural habitat; 2) ladybeetle communities in urban gardens are not dispersal limited; community composition similarity between different gardens is not driven by geographic distances but by the proportion of natural areas in the landscape and local garden characteristics; 3) pests are abundant in gardens with high urban cover, more plant species, and in older gardens; beneficial insects are more abundant in gardens with more crop, weed, and ornamental plant species, with less leaf litter, and in gardens with less agriculture in the surrounding landscapes, 4) local and landscape determinants of plant damage depend on crop and damage type, and 5) networks of natural enemies and herbivores respond to flower species richness and the amount of agricultural habitat nearby; areas with high agriculture have less complex networks (and thus likely lower pest control). Our water conservation and soil research determined that vegetation and ground cover reduced temperatures; built environment factors increased temperatures; water use was positively correlated with ambient temperatures. We determined that greater mulch use increases soil fertility and water conservation services, and mulch is more common in high socio-economic neighborhoods. We determined that intensive (re)working of soils erases historical legacies of land use. Greater watering by gardeners drives faster soil moisture gain and loss rates. However, plots with more soil organic matter, soil water holding capacity, and straw cover maintained soil moisture longer, while greater crop cover increased loss rates. High ambient temperatures before watering events slowed gain rates, but did not affect loss rates. Finally, gardeners are generally unaware of or inaccurate in assessing how much water that they use; ironically those gardeners that are more concerned about water conservation tend to use more water, but garden rules limiting water are effective in limiting gardener water use. Our research on gardeners and food production finds that gardeners are diverse (60% immigrants from >30 countries, with a wide range in education, income, and education level). Gardeners report growing a high number of plants: >120 crops and >70 ornamentals and harvest lots of food from small plots - 68% harvest between 5-10 lbs. and 14% harvest >20 lbs. weekly. Many gardeners (especially low-income and people of color) still suffer from food insecurity. All (100%) gardeners surveyed report gardening has improved their well-being. Benefits reported include food, mental health benefits, having a place to spend time with family, etc. We found improvements in gardener well-being through gardening across social and biophysical landscape gradients. Gardeners that live in highly urban neighborhoods spend more time in gardens than gardeners who live in neighborhoods with more natural habitat. Moreover, gardeners that live in areas with little housing opportunity spend more time in gardens. Finally, gardener demographics, and in particular nationality, gender, and motivations for gardening have strong influences on plant richness and plant composition, indicating that gardens with diverse human populations likely have more diverse plant communities. 4) Key outcomes. Thus far we have published 20 peer-review journal articles, 2 PhD dissertations, and 4 undergraduate theses. We have made 24 presentations and posters at conferences. In addition, we have 4 more manuscripts in review, 3 in final stages of preparation to submit, and roughly 5-6 more projects in various stages of analysis.
Publications
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Egerer M (2019) Local and landscape drivers of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being in urban agroecosystems. PhD Dissertation. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Morales H, Ferguson B, Mar�n L, Guti�rrez D, Bichier P, Philpott S. (2018). Agroecological pest management in the city: Experiences from California and Chiapas. Sustainability 10: 2068
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer, M.; Li, K.; Ong, T.W. (2018) Context Matters: Contrasting Ladybird Beetle Responses to Urban Environments across Two US Regions. Sustainability 10, 1829.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong, T. W. , D. Allen, and J. Vandermeer. (2018). Huffaker revisited: spatial heterogeneity and the coupling of ineffective agents in biological control. Ecosphere 9:e02299.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ong, T. W., and J. Vandermeer. (2018). Multiple hysteretic patterns from elementary population models. Theoretical Ecology 11:433439.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer M, Fairbairn M. (2018). Gated gardens: Effects of urbanization on community formation and commons management in community gardens. Geoforum 96: 61-69
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer MH, Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2019) Soil management is key to maintaining soil moisture in urban gardens facing climatic conditions. Scientific Reports, 8(1), p.17565.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Egerer M, Lin BB, Philpott SM. (2019) Water use behavior, learning and adaptation to future change in urban gardens, Ecology and Society, in review at Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.2:71. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2018.00071
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Egerer MH, Lin BB, Kendal D. (2019). Temperature variability differs in urban agroecosystems across two metropolitan regions. Climate 7:118.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Philpott SM, Albuquerque S, Bichier P, Cohen H, Egerer MH, Kirk C, Will KW. (2019). Local and landscape drivers of carabid activity, species richness, and traits in urban gardens in the California Central Coast. Insects, 10, 112; doi:10.3390/insects10040112
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Liere, H., M. Egerer, and SM. Philpott. Environmental and spatial filtering of ladybeetle community composition and functional traits in urban landscapes. In revisions at Journal of Applied Ecology
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Cohen H, McFrederick Q, Philpott SM. Environmental drivers of microbiome composition in the Blue Orchard Bee, Osmia lignaria. In reviw at Molecular Ecology
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Cohen H, McFrederick Q, Russell K, Philpott SM. Floral resource provisioning in urban gardens amplifies parasite and pathogen risk for bees. In review at Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Mayorga I, Bichier P, Philpott SM. Landscape diversity, garden size, and plant diversity promote abundance, diversity, and functional richness of insectivorous birds in urban agroecosystems. in review at Urban Ecosystems
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Cohen H, Philpott SM, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S. Delivery of pollination services in urban gardens is mediated by pollinator biodiversity and the interaction between local and landscape factors. in review at Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment.
|
Progress 04/01/17 to 03/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:In the first year of the grant period, our target audience included the scientific community, individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening, and graduate and undergraduate students. The scientific community informed by our project includes colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, Reed College, U. of Texas Austin, and CSIRO (Australia), as well as more widely at conferences and presentations. Over the past year, we presented six posters and seven oral presentations at conferences (Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon; Annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium in Berkeley, California; Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado; Dig In: Cultivating Food Justice in Santa Cruz, California) and departmental seminars at UC Santa Cruz, NC State University, U. of Maryland, and Seattle University. In the last year, we have published ten papers in peer-reviewed journals, and have currently have five other papers in review. Three undergraduates have completed theses related to the project, and one PhD student completed her dissertation. Individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening are diverse and include government organizations (e.g. City of Santa Cruz, the City of San Jose, City of Sunnyvale), non-profit organizations (e.g. Mesa Verde Gardens, Homeless Garden Project, Mid County Senior Center, Salinas Chinatown Garden), church gardens (e.g. Aptos Community Garden), as well as school gardens (e.g. UC Santa Cruz Chadwick garden, Monterrey Institute of International Studies, MEarth Garden at Carmel Valley Middle School). The gardeners at those organizations are from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds including from Mexico and Central America (including both mestizo and indigenous populations), Arab, Assyrian, Bosnian, Caucasian, African American, and European-American gardeners. Our gardener surveys with 187 gardeners in 2017 revealed 36 nationalities and >25 languages represented in the gardens. This array of ethnic diversity is typical of urban gardens, and provides a unique opportunity for understanding variable management practices, even within a relatively small geographic area, and for sharing results with groups of people with family and cultural networks that expand far beyond the study region. We have reached this audience through presentations at gardener potlucks, and through casual conversations as we conduct field work. We have shared our findings and management recommendations based on our findings with gardeners in annual reports. Our target audience also includes students and others at our institutions who have heard presentations and who have been trained by the project. UC Santa Cruz is a Hispanic Serving Institution. UT also serves a large Hispanic student population, currently representing 17.5% of the student body, and comprising a 10-year pattern of consecutive increase. Reed College is a small, liberal arts college, and is listed in Table 2 of the RFA as a school in the "Lowest One Third of Universities and Colleges Receiving Federal Funds". Thus Reed students are limited in research opportunities related to developing sustainable agriculture, and especially federally funded programs. At UC Santa Cruz, in the past year, we have supported 4 undergraduates (1 Salvadoran-American, 1 Serbian-American, 1 Korean-American, and 1 European-American) and three graduate students (2 European-American, 1 Mexican-American). Three of the undergraduates and one of the PhD students completed their thesis working during the past year. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The research has provided opportunities for training and professional development for seven students at UCSC (three PhD students and four undergraduate students) as well as three undergraduates and one high school student at U. of Texas. The three PhD students are all completing their dissertations in themes related to the research. One student is examining how local and landscape management of urban gardens influences bee communities, pollination services, bee parasites and diseases, as well as the microbial communities associated with bees in gardens. This student worked in collaboration with the U. of Texas co-PD to complete the pollination limitation study on sunflowers, jalapeños, and beans in the greenhouse and in the field. She completed her dissertation in June 2018. The second graduate student is examining how the local and landscape management of gardens, as well as the sociodemographic characteristics of gardens influences ecosystem services and gardener participation. Specifically, she examines how management influences: a) ladybeetle abundance, richness, community composition and dispersal, b) climate, temperature, and water use by gardeners, and c) soil properties, aphid densities, and aphid parasitism. She collaborated with the CSIRO co-PD and the Reed co-PD in three collaborative projects. The third student worked on the natural-enemy herbivore network field work and analysis. She collaborated with the Reed co-PD to work on data frameworks and analysis for this project. Thus the project has supported their research by providing a framework into which their research can fit, and has sharpened their skills in collaboration, field and lab work efficiency, data analysis, library research, manuscript preparation, and presentation skills. These students have also acted as mentors to the undergraduate students participating in the project. Two of these students are Caucasian women and one is Latina. Four undergraduates participated in the research during the first year of the grant. Of these, three completed theses (the fourth student completed a thesis during Y1 of the grant project). Three of the students are women (one Latina, one Asian-American, and one Caucasian). The fourth student is male, and Caucasian. The theses all focused on the gardener survey. One student examined the array of pest control methods reported by gardeners, the frequency with which they reported having pest problems, and examine whether pest problem perceptions or pest control techniques differed depending on socio-demographic features. She found that >30 different pest control methods are used in gardens, but hand removal of pests and homemade sprays are the most common. Older gardeners were more likely to report having pests, but pest perception did not differ with race, hours in the garden, or with other socio-demographic features. A second student examined whether or not the gardeners surveyed are representative of the neighborhoods in which the gardens are located using US census data. She compared the gardener survey data on age, ethnicity, and food security status. She found that gardeners are on average older than the surrounding population, but similar in other socio-demographic features. She found that food security differs among demographic groups, and increases as income decreases. The third student examined gardener motivations, and how those differ depending on gender and ethnicity. She found that all gardeners most often report food as a primary motivation, regardless of gender or race. However, secondary motivations (community, spending time outdoors or with family, mental health) did differ with race. All students presented their research at two poster sessions on campus, both open to the public. All undergraduate students learned valuable skills in field methods (e.g. collecting vegetation data, insects, recognizing plant species, quantitative social research), and also in data entry, data analysis, presentation techniques, and collaboration. All undergraduates also participated in weekly lab meetings and were exposed to larger issues related to agroecology and temperate and tropical insect research. The students at the U. of Texas worked on developing the plant-pollinator network. They created a photographic pollen library, and worked to identify pollen grains collected from bumble bees. They learned valuable microscope and graphics skills, pollen identification, data entry and analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have distributed our research in both the scientific and gardener communities. For the scientific community, we have distributed our results in both written and presentation format. Over the past year, we have published 10 papers in a range of peer-reviewed journals, and have submitted an additional 5 manuscripts for review. One student has completed her dissertation, and three others have turned in senior theses. We presented six posters and seven oral presentations at conferences (Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon; Annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium in Berkeley, California; Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado; Dig In: Cultivating Food Justice in Santa Cruz, California) and departmental seminars at UC Santa Cruz, NC State University, U. of Maryland, and Seattle University. For the gardener community, we presented information at four workshops and potlucks that have reached >100 gardeners. We distributed an annual report of our findings to representatives from each garden; many informed us that they distributed the report to their email list, and some discussed the report at monthly meetings. We estimate that the report reached at least 100 gardeners, support staff, and managers. The report is available at the following URL: https://www.urbangardenecology.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/bugs_ucsc_gardenerreport_2017.pdf. We also continue to update and manage a project-based website (http://ucscgardenresearch.weebly.com/) and have distributed project-specific business gardens to gardeners that we meet while doing our research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will continue data analysis, as well as observational and experimental studies to continue advancing our research goals and objectives. For objective 1 (Elucidate the relationships between local management of vegetation diversity and complexity, landscape diversity and composition, and pest control and pollination services in urban gardens), we will: Continue to monitor vegetation, ground cover, and landscape surroundings of gardens Continue analysis of the natural enemies-herbivore network from Brassica oleracea plants and examine how network diversity, structure, complexity, changes with local and landscape vegetation complexity Collect non-aphid herbivores from the field and rear for parasitoids to better understand the parasitoid-host relationships in our sites Assess plant damage on brassicas and tomatoes to better understand herbivory and how that varies with local and landscape complexity in urban systems Complete analysis of in-situ pollination study on tomatoes, peppers, and squashes at all gardens to determine how local site and landscape variables influence pollen deposition and fruit set Continue to analyze the bumblebee -pollen network from samples collected in 2016 For objective 2 (Determine the relationships between local management of vegetation diversity and complexity, landscape diversity and composition and water storage and use in urban gardens), we will: As all field work and analysis is complete for this objective, we will continue to revise and resubmit any manuscripts in review, as necessary. For objective 3 (Understand relationships between urban garden social context, vegetation diversity and complexity, and contributions of urban gardens to food access), we will: We will continue to analyze gardener survey data, and work to transform the undergraduate theses into manuscripts for peer review We will analyze plant diversity and trait data to see how plant communities change with socio-demographic variables measured Complete two synthesis papers examining tradeoffs and synergies between ecological and social data in urban gardens In order to move to achieve goal #3, we will continue to disseminate our work both in the scientific and gardener community. Over the next year, we plan to: Submit 5 publications that are currently in prep Write and submit 6-8 additional manuscripts Continue to train two new and two continuing undergraduate students, and 2 continuing PhD students Create and disseminate a 2018 garden research annual report in email and website format Attend workshops and garden organization meetings and potlucks
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Project Impact: Over the past year, we collected and analyzed data on vegetation, biocontrol, pollination, plant-pollinator networks, natural enemy-herbivore networks, soil and water conservation, and gardener demographics, motivations, and food security. To meet objective 1, we did the following: 1) Major activities completed Sampled vegetation, ground cover characteristics, landscape surroundings Analyzed data on pollinator, natural enemy abundance, richness, and behavior Examined plant-pollinator and natural enemy-herbivore networks Studied bee parasites, pathogens, microbes Studied pollination of three crop species Conducted ladybug mark-release-recapture experiment 2) Data collected Collected data on plant cover, plant species, ground cover (e.g. mulch, bare ground), floral abundance, canopy cover, and trees and shrubs within each garden. Counted flower buds, flowers, fruits, and fruit size for tomatoes, squash, and peppers to understand fruit set rates. Surveyed pollinator abundance. Enhanced pollen library from flowering plants, collected and extracted pollen from 200 bumblebees, identified pollen grains to assess the diversity and abundance of pollen on bees. Examined parasite, pathogen, microbiome loads in three bee species Collected specimens and assessed abundance for several groups of natural enemies and herbivores found on brassicas. Reared parasitoids from cabbage aphid mummies. Performed mark-release-recapture experiment in 12 sites (6 with floral addition); released marked ladybeetles and monitored for recaptures for 12 d. Also surveyed parasitoids. Analyzed ladybeetle and carabid abundance, diversity, and functional traits in gardens. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results Pollinator biology studies determined that 1) honey bee abundance is higher in sites with patchy floral resources, whereas bee species richness and bee diversity was higher in sites with more clustered floral resources; 2) phorid fly parasitism is higher in bumble bees than honey bees and parasitism of both species increased with honey bee abundance, and tree and shrub abundance; 3) natural habitat cover, floral resources, and bee richness influence orchard bee microbiome composition; 4) floral resources abundance increases prevalence of Apicystis spp. and the phorid flies in honey bees and also increases prevalence of Deformed Wing Virus and Acute Bee Paralysis Virus in bumble bees; bare soil cover negatively predicts prevalence of some parasites and pathogens in bumble bees; 5) bumblebees carry pollen from tomato, tomatillo, lavender, borage, and mints; bee pollen diversity and abundance increases with floral diversity and urban landscape cover. Our pollination services research shows that 1) pepper plants, while capable of self pollination, exhibit greater fruit and seed set by cross pollination and pepper plant fruit weight (but not fruit set) is higher in gardens with higher floral abundance, and 2) squash fruit production is relatively constant throughout the summer, pepper and tomato production increases in later summer, Natural enemies research shows that 1) adding flowers boosted numbers of parasitoid wasps, but did not affect ladybug populations or the time that ladybugs stayed in gardens. Ladybugs stayed longer in gardens with more natural habitat; 2) ladybeetle communities in urban gardens are not dispersal limited; community composition similarity between different gardens is not driven by geographic distances but by the proportion of natural areas in the landscape and local garden characteristics; 3) pests are abundant in gardens with high urban cover, more plant species, and in older gardens; beneficial insects are more abundant in gardens with more crop, weed, and ornamental plant species, with less leaf litter, and in gardens with less agriculture in the surrounding landscapes. 4) Key outcomes Published studies in Landscape Ecology, Bulletin of Entomological Research, J. of Urban Ecology, Environmental Entomology, and Basic and Applied Ecology Completed dissertation on bee parasitoids, pathogens, and microbes at UC Santa Cruz Submitted three manuscripts To meet objective 2, we did the following: 1) Major activities completed Conducted a participatory water-monitoring project with gardeners to collect information on soil and crop management, water use and water conservation. Conducted a study about factors driving soil physical properties. Monitored temperature in each garden. 2) Data collected Asked 20 gardeners in 4 gardens to record the liters of water used and water flow rate each time they watered. We installed temperature loggers to collect daily climate info. We asked if and how participating in the study influenced water use behavior or learning. Collected data on soil properties (structure, nutrients, water uptake/retention) and examined how these vary depending on groundcover management and sociodemographic characteristics. Collected temperature data with climate loggers and calculated mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for each 30 min. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results Vegetation and ground cover reduced temperatures; built environment factors increased temperatures; water use was positively correlated with ambient temperatures. Greater mulch groundcover increases soil fertility and water conservation services, and mulch cover is more common in neighborhoods of higher socio-economic status. Intensive (re)working of soils by gardeners may washout legacy signals typical of urban ecosystems. Gardens and their soils can be conceptualized as novel agroecosystems. Greater watering by gardeners drives faster soil moisture gain and loss rates. However, plots with better soil quality (soil organic matter and water holding capacity) and more straw cover maintained soil moisture longer, while greater crop cover increased loss rates. High ambient temperatures before watering events slowed gain rates, but did not affect loss rates. 4) Key outcomes Published papers in Science of the Total Environment, International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, Bioscience Submitted two manuscripts for review To meet objective 3, we did the following: 1) Major activities completed Created gardener survey, and surveyed 187 gardeners across 20 gardens 2) Data collected Using a survey-questionnaire, surveyed gardeners about socio-economic-cultural demographics, pest and soil management, and plant species grown, food produced, food security status, gardener motivations for gardening, and well-being gained from participation in gardening. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results Gardeners are very diverse representing at least 36 nationalities and 21 languages; 41% of gardeners are bilingual; Age range from 22 - 91; Income range from $0 to >$250,000; Education ranges from no school to PhD Gardeners grow >120 crops and >70 ornamentals; 68% harvest between 5-10 lbs. of food per week and 14% harvest >20 lbs. of food per week. Unfortunately, many gardeners still suffer from food insecurity (60% of Latino gardeners, 21% of Asian gardeners, 10% of Caucasian gardeners). Food insecurity increases as income decreases; 50% of gardeners earning less than $40,000 per year suffer from food insecurity. All (100%) gardeners surveyed report gardening has improved their well-being. Benefits reported include food, mental health benefits, having a place to spend time with family, etc. We found improvements in gardener well-being through gardening across social and biophysical landscape gradients. Gardeners that live in highly urban neighborhoods spend more time in gardens than gardeners who live in neighborhoods with more natural habitat. Moreover, gardeners that live in areas with little housing opportunity spend more time in gardens. 4) Key outcomes Published study on gardener well-being in Sustainability Three UCSC undergraduate theses completed with gardener survey data
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2017) Biodiversity conservation, agroecology and ecosystem services. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 41: 723-760
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Plascencia M, Philpott SM. (2017) Influences of floral abundance, richness, and spatial distribution on urban garden bee communities. Bulletin of Entomological Research 107: 658667
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer M, Arel C, Otoshi MD, Quistberg RD, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2017) Urban arthropods respond variably to changes in landscape context and spatial scale. Journal of Urban Ecology, 3(1). DOI: 10.1093/jue/jux001.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Cohen H, Quistberg RD, Philpott SM. Vegetation management and host density influence bee-parasite interactions in urban gardens. Environmental Entomology 46: 131313
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer MH, Liere H, Jha S, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2018) Local- and landscape-scale land cover affect microclimate and water use in urban gardens. Science of the Total Environment.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Philpott SM, Liere H, Jha S, Bichier P, Lin BB. (2018) People or Place? Neighborhood opportunity influences community garden soil properties and soil-based ecosystem services. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 14(1): 32-44.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Liere H, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2018) Cityscape quality and resource manipulation affect natural enemy biodiversity and dispersal in urban agroecosystems. Landscape Ecology 33:985998
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Milz T. (2018) Propagating Discourse: Community Gardener Motivations in the California Central Coast Undergraduate Thesis. Sociology Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Byun Y. (2018) People who garden: a closer look at urban community gardeners in the California central coast region. Undergraduate Thesis. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sanchez C. (2018) Pest management and gardener demographics in urban community gardens. Undergraduate Thesis. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer M, Philpott SM, Bichier P, Jha S, Liere H, Lin BB. (2018) Gardener well-being along social and biophysical landscape gradients, Sustainability 10(96):114.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer M, Ossola A, Lin BB (2018) Creating socioecological novelty in urban agroecosystems from the ground up. Bioscience 68:2534.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer MH, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S, Bichier P, Philpott SM. (2018) Herbivore regulation in urban agricultural systems: direct and indirect effects. Basic and Applied Ecology. 29: 44-54.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Cohen H. (2018) Resource availability influences bee interactions with parasites, pathogens, and microbes in urban agricultural landscapes. PhD Dissertation. Environmental Studies Department. U. of California, Santa Cruz.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Liere, H., M. Egerer, and SM. Philpott. Environmental and spatial filtering of ladybeetle community composition and functional traits in urban landscapes. In review at Journal of Applied Ecology
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Egerer M, Lin BB, Philpott SM. Water use behavior, learning and adaptation to future change in urban gardens, Ecology and Society, in review at Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer MH, Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM. Urban gardens under heat and drought in the Central Coast of California: local management is key to maintaining soil moisture during climate fluctuations, Regional Environmental Change, in review at PeerJ
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Cohen H, McFrederick Q, Philpott SM. Environmental drivers of microbiome composition in the Blue Orchard Bee, Osmia lignaria. In review at Molecular Ecology
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Cohen H, McFrederick Q, Russell K, Philpott SM. Floral resource provisioning in urban gardens amplifies parasite and pathogen risk for bees. In review at Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Lin BB, Egerer M, Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM (2017) The effect of local and landscape scale land cover on microclimate and water use in urban gardens. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere H, Bichier P, Egerer M, Jha S, Lin BB, Philpott SM (2017) Herbivore regulation in urban community gardens: Direct and indirect pathways of control. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer M (2017) Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision through urban food cultivation. Annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium, Berkeley
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Milz T (2018) Ideology in California Central Coast Community Gardens: Effects on Food Systems Discourse at Dig In: Cultivating Inclusive Approaches to Food Justice, March 2, at Santa Cruz, California
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Ong T, Vandermeer J (2017) Agro-ecological transitions and hysteresis: Combining experiment with theory. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer M, Ossola A, Lin B (2017) Community garden soils as foundations for novel agro-ecosystems in cities. International Annual Landscape Ecology Meeting. Baltimore, Maryland.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Byun Y (2018) California Community Gardeners and their Food Security at Dig In: Cultivating Inclusive Approaches to Food Justice, March 2, at Santa Cruz, California
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sanchez C (2018) Demographics in Urban Garden Pest Management at Dig In: Cultivating Inclusive Approaches to Food Justice, March 2, at Santa Cruz, California
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Philpott, Jordan Z, Bichier P, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S (2017) Bumblee bee pollen abundance and richness along a urban garden management gradient. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere H, Bichier P, Egerer M, Jha S, Lin BB, Philpott SM (2017) Community distribution, composition, and function of ladybeetles in urban community gardens. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Philpott SM (2018) Impacts of local, landscape, and gardener characteristics on biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban agroecosystems. Seminar at Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Liere H (2018) Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in Agroecosystems: from coffee farms to urban gardens. Seminar at Department of Entomology, U. of Maryland
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Liere H (2017) Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in Agroecosystems: from coffee farms to urban gardens. Seminar at Department of Environmental Studies, Seattle University.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Our project website: www.urbangardenecology.com
|
Progress 04/01/16 to 03/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:In the first year of the grant period, our target audience included the scientific community, individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening, and graduate and undergraduate students. The scientific community informed by our project thus far includes colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, Reed College, U. of Texas Austin, and CSIRO (Australia), as well as more widely at conferences and presentations. We have presented basic findings at seminars at the UC Santa Cruz and the U. of Michigan, and at the Landscape Ecology Society Annual Conference. We have also presented data at the Society for Conservation Biology regional conference in Santa Cruz.. We have submitted several abstracts for conferences to be presented this summer and fall (e.g. Ecological Society of America, Entomological Society of America). Two papers have been submitted and four more are currently in prep for submission to conservation, urban ecology, and entomology journals. Individuals and organizations involved in urban gardening are diverse and include government organizations (e.g. City of Santa Cruz, the City of San Jose, City of Sunnyvale), non-profit organizations (e.g. Mesa Verde Gardens, Homeless Garden Project, Mid County Senior Center, Salinas Chinatown Garden), church gardens (e.g. Aptos Community Garden), as well as school gardens (e.g. UC Santa Cruz Chadwick garden, Monterrey Institute of International Studies, MEarth Garden at Carmel Valley Middle School). The gardeners at those organizations are from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds including from Mexico and Central America (including both mestizo and indigenous populations), Arab, Assyrian, Bosnian, Caucasian, African American, and European-American gardeners. This array of ethnic diversity is typical of urban gardens, and provides a unique opportunity for understanding variable management practices, even within a relatively small geographic area, and for sharing results with groups of people with family and cultural networks that expand far beyond the study region. We have reached this audience through several presentations at gardener potlucks, at presentations to the City of San Jose garden steering committee, and through casual conversations as we conduct field work. We have shared our findings and management recommendations based on our findings with gardeners. Our target audience also includes students and others at our institutions who have heard presentations and who have been trained by the project. UC Santa Cruz is a Hispanic Serving Institution. UT also serves a large Hispanic student population, currently representing 17.5% of the student body, and comprising a 10-year pattern of consecutive increase. Reed College is a small, liberal arts college, and is listed in Table 2 of the RFA as a school in the "Lowest One Third of Universities and Colleges Receiving Federal Funds". Thus Reed students are limited in research opportunities related to developing sustainable agriculture, and especially federally funded programs. At UC Santa Cruz, we have involved 4 undergraduates (1 Filipino-American, 1 Mexican-American, 1 Japanese-American, and 1 European-American) and two graduate students (2 European-American). All students completed independent research projects and three finished undergraduate theses. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The research has provided opportunities for training and professional development for six UCSC students -- two PhD students and four undergraduate students -- during the first year. The two PhD students are both completing their dissertations in themes related to the research. One student is examining how local and landscape management of urban gardens influences bee communities, pollination services, bee parasites and diseases, as well as the microbial communities associated with bees in gardens. This student worked in collaboration with the U. of Texas co-PD to complete the pollination limitation study on sunflowers, jalapeños, and beans in the greenhouse and in the field. The other graduate student is examining how the local and landscape management of gardens, as well as the sociodemographic characteristics of gardens influences ecosystem services and gardener participation. Specifically, she examines how management influences: a) ladybeetle abundance, richness, community composition and dispersal, b) climate, temperature, and water use by gardeners, and c) soil properties, aphid densities, and aphid parasitism. She collaborated with the CSIRO co-PD and the Reed co-PD in three collaborative projects. Thus the project has supported their research by providing a framework into which their research can fit, and has sharpened their skills in collaboration, field and lab work efficiency, data analysis, library research, manuscript preparation, and presentation skills. These students have also acted as mentors to the undergraduate students participating in the project. Both of these students are Caucasian women. Five undergraduates participated in the research during the first year of the grant. Of these, three completed theses and one completed a senior internship. Two of these students are women, one is a Latina, two are Asian-American, one is a re-entry student. The theses covered research related to the larger project. One student completed the work on the bumblebee-pollen network within the gardens. He gained valuable skills in bee collection, pollen collection, lab work to extract pollen from bees and prepare stained slides with pollen samples, pollen identification, and data analysis. He wrote a thesis and made several presentations to our lab group. The pollen samples are going to be used over the next year at the U. of Texas for more complete analysis and to turn this thesis into a publication-quality study. The second student worked to examine the community of Carabidae ground beetles in the gardens. She used a previously-collected set of samples, pinned and identified all Carabids, identified them to species, conducted all data analysis and wrote a thesis. A third student examined the influence of landscape surroundings on ladybeetle movement into urban gardens. Working with one of the PhD students in a pilot study for her thesis, the student pained 30,000 ladybeetles with fluorescent powder, conducted lab assays to examine effects on behavior, and then released ladybeetles into areas surrounding seven urban garden sites. They later returned to examine the movement into the garden. They collected relatively few beetles, but determined that increases in floral abundance and increases in urban cover lead to increased recapture rates within gardens. The PhD student is currently conducting a large follow up study based on this pilot work. A fourth student conducted an independent study project looking at how soil disturbance in one of our study sites affected spider communities. All undergraduate students learned valuable skills in field methods (e.g. collecting pollen, insects, vegetation data), data entry, data analysis, presentation techniques, and collaboration. All undergraduates also participated in weekly lab meetings and were exposed to larger issues related to agroecology and temperate and tropical insect research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have distributed our research in both the scientific and gardener communities. For the scientific community, we have distributed our results in both written and presentation format. We have written three scientific manuscripts and three undergraduate theses that directly relate to the project. One paper has been published in Ecological Applications. One review (on ecosystem services in urban gardens) has been accepted at Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. Another paper is in review at Ecosystem Services. Five more papers are in the final stages of prep for submission to journals. Three undergraduate students have prepared theses about their projects relating to insect diversity, diversity, and mutualism networks. We have made oral presentations at UC Santa Cruz (2 department seminars, 10 lab meeting presentations), U. of Michigan (special symposium), Landscape Ecology Conference (1 presentation), have organized an oral session at the Ecological Society of America meeting, and have presented several abstracts for presentations to the Ecological Society of America and Entomological Society of America meetings for the summer of 2017. For the gardener community, we have made at least 10 presentations and workshops and special meetings that have reached at least 250 people and have also disseminated a summary of our findings in our annual report (http://ucscgardenresearch.weebly.com/uploads/6/8/7/8/68786455/ucsc_gardenresearchreport_2016.pdf) . We also continue to update a project-based website (http://ucscgardenresearch.weebly.com/) and alert gardeners to the presence of this website on business cards when we visit gardens. We presented some of our results at a special City of Santa Cruz City Council meeting (150 participants) where closure of a garden was being discussed. We were invited to present our findings on the water monitoring study to the Steering Committee of the City of San Jose gardens (30 participants); large interest was generated and we attracted many more volunteers to participate in the follow up study during 2017. We attended gardener potlucks and workdays at several gardens to present our research findings (e.g. Trescony Garden, Coyote Creek Garden, Aptos Garden, Senior Center Garden, Charles St. Garden). We have presented gardens with detailed information on the soil properties at each garden as part of our study on soil management and properties. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will continue observational and experimental studies to continue advancing our research goals and objectives. In order to move towards achieving goals #1 and #2 (understand connections between biodiversity and system functionality, productivity, and agroecosystem sustainability by determining the local management drivers of ecosystem services (pollination, pest control, water storage, and food access) within urban gardens, (b) to understand how the diversity and composition of landscapes surrounding urban gardens interacts with local management to alter ecosystem services), we will work towards our three project objectives. For objective 1 (Elucidate the relationships between local management of vegetation diversity and complexity, landscape diversity and composition, and pest control and pollination services in urban gardens), we will: Continue to monitor vegetation, ground cover, and landscape surroundings of gardens Collect information on natural enemies and herbivores present on Brassica oleracea plants within gardens to develop a natural enemy-herbivore network and examine how that network changes with local and landscape vegetation complexity Complete an in-situ pollination study on tomatoes, peppers, and squashes at all gardens to determine how local site and landscape variables influence pollen deposition and fruit set Develop a more detailed bumblebee -pollen network from samples collected in 2016 For objective 2 (Determine the relationships between local management of vegetation diversity and complexity, landscape diversity and composition and water storage and use in urban gardens), we will: We will continue the water monitoring PAR study this summer with three gardens in each of the three regions in which we work. Set out climate loggers and soil humidity sensors to gain a better understanding of daily and seasonal changes in temperature and humidity For objective 3 (Understand relationships between urban garden social context, vegetation diversity and complexity, and contributions of urban gardens to food access), we will: Conduct surveys with ~10 gardeners in each of our study sites in English and Spanish to determine how education level, income level, and social-cultural backgrounds relate to gardener motivations, food insecurity, garden management techniques In order to move to achieve goal #3, we will continue to disseminate our work both in the scientific and gardener community. We plan to: Submit publications that are currently in prep Write 3-5 additional scientific manuscripts Assist undergraduates to complete between 2-4 undergraduate theses based on the project Train 4 high school students in research work Create and disseminate a 2017 garden research annual report in email and website format Attend workshops and garden organization meetings and potlucks
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Project Impact: In our research,we are examining biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban agroecosystems to determine the production practices most essential for the sustained long-term production of agricultural goods and ecosystem services.Although they may appear unimportant in contributing calories, urban gardens contribute 15% of the global food supply and nutritional contributions to underserved, urban residents are critical. At the same time, safeguarding production, while protecting the environment, is necessary to achieve urban sustainability. Currently >80% of the US population lives in urban landscapes. Yet, many urban residents do not have adequate nutrition due to insufficient access to fresh produce. Our study is thus focused on understanding ecological and social sustainability of urban garden food systems. We collected data on vegetation, biological control, pollination, bee-pollen networks, soil and water conservation. We documented that garden management (e.g. mulch cover, vegetation complexity, floral abundance) and landscape surroundings (e.g. garden size, amount of urban or natural habitat in the landscape) affect pest control and that floral abundance influences pollination and pollen grains carried by bumblebees. We documented that increasing knowledge of water used motivates gardener desire to learn about water conservation strategies. We shared results with city officials, garden managers, and gardeners at outreach events. We presented scientific findings at conferences, and prepared several scientific manuscripts and theses. We trained five undergraduate students (2 underrepresented, 3 women, 1 re-entry) and trained two PhD students in research methods, outreach, and presentation skills. To meet objective 1, we did the following: 1) Major activities completed Collected data on vegetation and ground cover characteristics in each site and in the landscapes surrounding gardens. Completed aphid parasitism assessment and parasitism experiment Conducted a predation experiment with three species of sentinel pests Examined bumblebee-pollen networks across gardens Examined pollination of early jalapeno peppersto determine how local and landscape factors and bee communities influence pollination in field and greenhouse experiments. 2) Data collected Collected data on plant cover, plant species identity, ground cover (e.g. mulch, bare ground), floral abundance, canopy cover, and abundance of trees and shrubs within each garden. We also extracted NLCD data on land cover types surrounding gardens and calculated landscape diversity. Accessed population density and parasitism of cabbage aphids in 25 gardens as a proxy for biological control. Examined parasitism rates on aphids on bagged and open plants introduced into gardens. Examined removal rates of sentinel pests from 19 gardens on open and bagged plants. Then, we calculated effect sizes for removal and compared removal based on local and landscape characteristics of gardens. Created pollen library from flowering plants, collected and extracted pollen from 200 bumblebees, examined diversity, identity, and abundance of pollen on bees. Compared the fruit weight, and seed count, and total seed weight between pepper fruits from open, bagged, and hand cross treatments; Collected data on bee richness and abundance at each site with visual surveys. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results Aphid density is largely determined by vegetation (e.g. host plant density, floral abundance) and soil characteristics (e.g. water holding capacity). Relative importance of these factors changes with season. Gardeners potentially can limit aphid densities through vegetation and soil management. Found zero parasitism on aphid parasitism experiments after 24h; did not continue with this data analysis due to no parasitism Predation on all pests was high (~50-90% of pests removed in 24 h); predation was higher with higher vegetation complexity within gardens, but factors influencing removal differed with prey species (likely because each is predated by different natural enemies) Bumblebees carry pollen from tomato, tomatillo, lavender, borage, and mints; pollen diversity and abundance on bees increase with floral diversity in sites and with increases in urban developed cover in the landscape. Increases in flowering plant richness positively predicted jalapeno fruit weight and seed weight (p<0.002, p<0.05), but seed number was not predicated by any variable. 4) Key outcomes Manuscript on diversity of plant functional traits in prep for J. Applied Ecology. Parasitism manuscript is submitted to J. of Applied Urban Ecology. Predation study was published in Ecological Applications. Pollination manuscript in prep for J. Urban Ecology Three undergraduate theses at UCSC completed on a) bumblebee- pollen network study, b) ladybeetle dispersal, and c) carabid abundance and richness in gardens. To meet objective 2, we did the following: 1) Major activities completed Conducted a participatory water-monitoring project with gardeners and managers to collect information on soil and crop management, water use and water conservation. Conducted a study about factors driving soil physical properties. Monitored temperature in each garden. 2) Data collected For 2 weeks in Jul/Sept 2016, we asked 26 gardeners at 8 gardens to record the liters of water used and water flow rate each time they watered. We installed temperature loggers to collect daily climate info. We asked if and how participating in the study influenced water use behavior or learning. Collected data on soil properties (structure, nutrients, water uptake/retention) and examined how these vary depending on garden groundcover management and garden neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics. Collected continuous temperature data with climate loggers and calculated mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for each 30 min. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results The more water gardeners used per visit, the more water gardeners used. Water use increased with crop diversity. Gardeners who participated in the study in two months reduced their water consumption by nearly half. Increased use of mulch facilitates nutrient cycling and water retention and conservation in gardens. Neighborhood social opportunity is correlated with soil properties. Neighborhoods with higher mobility (e.g., greater vehicle availability), but poorer public/environmental health (e.g., poorer health care access) had more soil organic matter, higher soil nutrient content, and greater water holding capacity. To improve soil fertility and water use in gardens, gardeners should provide mulch and green waste to gardeners and support composting initiatives in gardens. Decreases in mulch cover (within a garden) and increases in urban developed cover (at the landscape level) correlated with increases in temperature within gardens. 4) Key outcomes We have drafted three papers: 1) on soil properties and sociodemographic factors and is in review at Ecosystem Services, 2) on local and landscape drivers of garden climate and watering, and 3) explores garden soils as novel ecosystems. To meet objective 3, we did the following: (gardener surveys and food access) 1) Major activities completed Tested a pilot survey in 2016 in three study sites and refined survey, translated it into Spanish. 2) Data collected Collected pilot data on demographic characteristics of gardeners, their motivations, and food access provided by gardens. 3) Summary Statistics and Discussion of results Preliminary results in 3 gardens, dominated by Latino farmworker families, show that most gardeners earn <$30,000 per year, experience food insecurity at least sometimes, and more frequently in the winter when picking jobs are scarce, and garden principally to improve the health and fresh food access of their families. 4) Key outcomes Pilot studies have yielded a refined gardener survey.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer MH, Ossola A, Lin B. Creating Socio-Ecological Novelty in Urban Agro-Ecosystems from the Ground Up. BioScience, in review
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer MH, Philpott SM, Liere H, Jha S, Bichier B, Lin BB. People or Place? Neighborhood opportunity influences community garden soil properties and soil-based ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services, submitted
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Egerer MH, Liere H, Lin BB, Jha S, Bichier P, Philpott SM. Herbivore regulation in urban agricultural systems: direct and indirect effects. Journal of Applied Ecology, submitted
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Liere H, Jha S, Philpott SM. (2017) Biodiversity conservation, agroecology and ecosystem services. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, in press.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Philpott SM, Bichier P. (2017) Local and landscape drivers of predation services in urban gardens. Ecological Applications, 27: 966-976.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Jordan Z. 2016. The buzz about urban gardens: effects of landscape and local management on Bombus vosnesenskii (Hymenoptera: Apidae) pollen abundance and richness. UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department, Undergraduate Thesis
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
" Kirk C. 2017. Relationships among local and landscape habitat characteristics and Carabidae abundance and morphospecies richness in urban gardens. UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department, Undergraduate Thesis
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
" Hafalia-Yackel D. 2017. Ladybeetle (Hippodamia convergens) movement in an urban landscape. UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department, Undergraduate Thesis
|
|