What factors drive arthropod communities on extensive green roofs of Central Argentina?

GONZALEZ, E.; FABIAN, D. ; SALVO, A.; BIKIC, B. ; SANCHEZ, V.; FENOGLIO, M.S.

Congreso; 6th European Congress of Conservation Biology; 2022

Green roofs are among the recommended green infrastructures to support biodiversity in cities, where impervious surfaces, pollution, and warming jeopardize wildlife. However, the effectiveness of green roofs to provide habitat for arthropods is still poorly known, particu-larly for Latin American cities. Therefore, we investigated how differ-ent structural and environmental characteristics of extensive green roofs influence flying and ground–dwelling arthropod communities. We collected arthropods using yellow pan traps and pitfall traps in 30 green roofs located in different urbanization contexts in Córdo-ba, Argentina. In addition, a subset of green roofs was compared to their neighbour ground–level habitats. Despite that green roofs sup-ported, on average, half the diversity and abundance of ground–level habitats, we found diverse communities on green roofs, with more than 600 morphospecies and 20,000 individuals. Flying arthropods were mainly positively linked to green roof area and variables such as green cover in the landscape and plant richness. In contrast, ground–dwelling arthropods were affected by plant composition, and their abundance and richness increased with irrigation and soil depth. These results represent the first assessments of arthropods on green roofs of a Latin American region and provide valuable information to guide the design of biodiverse green roofs.