Speaker
Description
Urbanisation increasingly threatens biodiversity, while cities simultaneously offer important opportunities for conservation and ecological restoration. Urban green spaces can provide refuges for diverse insect communities, including butterflies, which are highly suitable bioindicators due to their sensitivity to habitat change, environmental stressors, and landscape fragmentation. Their charisma and relative ease of identification also make them particularly well suited for citizen science approaches.
The citizen science project VielFalterGarten in Leipzig, Germany, demonstrates how transdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, citizens, local government, and NGOs can contribute to biodiversity science and urban governance. Through structured 15-minute butterfly counts conducted by volunteers in gardens, parks, and other urban green spaces, the project generates systematic biodiversity observations while simultaneously fostering environmental awareness and citizen engagement in urban nature stewardship.
Using validated observations of more than 6,000 individuals from 41 butterfly species, we analysed how urban structure, habitat characteristics, and management practices shape butterfly abundance and diversity. We found that landscape-scale factors such as lower shares of built-up areas and higher proportions of shrubland positively affected butterfly abundance, while local measures such as flower strips and reduced mowing intensity supported species diversity and specialist species. Species traits, including voltinism, wing size, and diet specialisation, mediated responses to urban management.
The project illustrates how citizen science can support both biodiversity monitoring and evidence-based urban planning, while creating spaces for co-production of knowledge between science, policy, and civil society. Within the EU project Urban Nature Plans+ (UNP+), the approach is currently being expanded across Germany and Europe, highlighting the potential of citizen science to connect biodiversity monitoring, civic engagement, and urban governance.
| Status Group | Postdoctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | Undecided/No preference |