Characterization of pollinator and plant communities of the University of Aveiro: first step towards sustainable management

• Autor(a) principal: Alves, David da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/28015
• topic: Urban green spaces; Insect; Plants; Pollinators; University of Aveiro Campi

The creation of urban green spaces is one way to mitigate the impact of the human population and cities. Despite the benefits that urban green spaces have, these spaces are subject to constant disturbance, allowing only the survival of species that are adapted to such conditions. Proper management of these spaces is one of the ways to optimize and preserve their potential biodiversity and ecosystem services. The University of Aveiro Campi has several habitats that are subject to these disturbances. Thus, arose the need to characterize each habitat, namely the relationships between plants and insect pollinators, in order to provide a baseline for the elaboration of appropriate management plans to improve these habitats and its biodiversity. The main objective of this study was to characterize the plant and insect pollinator communities of three habitats of the University of Aveiro: the seminatural meadow of the Campus Universitário de Santiago, the salt pan of Santiago da Fonte and the artificial “pseudo-dune” formation of ECOMARE. As a secondary objective, this study aimed to analyse the threats of the three sampled habitats and provide possible management measures that could allow an improvement and a better conservation of these habitats and ecosystem services. We sampled 156 plant species and 194 insect species, in which 92 (47.4%) were classified as pollinators. The semi-natural meadow presented a greater floristic richness, as well as of insect pollinators. In this habitat, it was observed that of the 170 insect species found here, 43 showed preference for a specific group of plant species. The sampled habitats harbour distinct plant and insect pollinator communities, and several associations between insect and plant species, especially in the semi-natural meadow. As suggestions for sustainable management, we highlight the need to control invasive plants, as they pose a threat to local biodiversity, as well as to mow the vegetation in a heterogeneous manner, maintaining high vegetation mosaics with the permanence of flowering species, as well as places for egg deposition and shelter.