Native plants inexperimental urban green roofs sustainmore diverse communities of Hemiptera than exotics

HERNÁN BECCACECE; ADRIANA SALVO; MARIA S. FENOGLIO; DIEGO FABIAN; ESTALLO ELIZABET LILIA; JULIA TAVELLA; MARIA. L MORENO; ANA CALVIÑO

Congreso; Entomology 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting; 2020

Entomological Society of America

Green roofs could promote insect biodiversity conservation in cities, but the effects ofroof vegetation origin on insect communities are still poorly understood. Weexperimentally evaluated the effect of native and exotic plant species on the speciesrichness, abundance, diversity, and composition of the mega diverse order Hemiptera,along an urbanization gradient. We installed, in each of 30 houses of Córdoba city,Argentina, two blocks of a modular extensive green roof system (3m each), with eithernative or exotic plant species (6 species each). In March 2019 we used pan yellow trapsto sample insects in each block, whereas the level of urbanization of each house wasestimated by NDVI in a 400m buffer. We registered a total of 1725 individuals belongingto 68 species from 20 taxonomic families, being Sternorrhyncha the most abundant anddiverse suborder. Species richness, abundance and diversity of total insects weresignificantly higher in native than exotic plants. The community composition ofHemiptera was also affected by plant origin. Orius insidiosus, the dominant predatorspecies, had a higher probability of occurrence in native plants. On the other hand,insect abundance decreases with higher NDVI, irrespective of plants' origin. Our resultshighlight the relevance of using native plant species in green roofs to enhanceHemiptera species diversity, which were mainly herbivores, in order to promote plantdiversity and sustain natural enemies. However, further analyses are needed to confirmif these new habitats could generate disservices since several species are potentialurban pests.