Description: Urbanization affects ecological communities but urban ecology has mostly focused on large and charismatic species. Water-filled tree holes and other ephemeral small standing waters in cities constitute unique but inconspicuous breeding habitats for a range of insects. Their biodiversity is not well known and how their communities respond to increased urbanization in particular, has rarely been studied. Using a Citizen Science Project, we investigated how urbanization (measured as imperviousness, human population density and altered temperature), additional environmental parameters (pH, electric conductivity) and detritus serving as a food source affected larval insect communities in artificial aquatic microhabitats. We found that these habitats were colonized quickly by a range of insect taxa. Their community abundance, richness and decomposition rates were largely stable across different levels of urbanization. Fine detritus content increased larval abundance. Community composition shifted strongly with urbanization. The most abundant and frequent species in our study, the exotic mosquito species Aedes japonicus, responded negatively to imperviousness. Aquatic microhabitats could be shown to be important habitats for aquatic insects in cities. However, their community composition may change with increased urbanization. As our results showed, exotic species such as mosquitoes may dominate the communities in these habitats. In the case of vector species, high abundances may affect human and animal health via increased pathogen transmission. Therefore, we suggest raising awareness about potential risks of these habitats and possible measures preventing the establishment and spread of harmful species, while still supporting native biodiversity in urban spaces.
Global identifier:
Doi(
"10.1594/PANGAEA.994214",
)
DataMeasurements(
DataMeasurements {
domain: Unspecified,
station: None,
measured_variables: [
"Aedes geniculatus, larvae",
"Aedes japonicus, larvae",
"Aedes japonicus, pupae",
"Animals, terrestrial",
"Anopheles plumbeus/claviger, larvae",
"Building height, mean",
"Ceratopogonidae, exuviae",
"Chironomidae, larvae",
"Chironomidae, pupae",
"Chironomus riparius, larvae",
"Chironomus riparius, pupae",
"Chironomus sp., larvae",
"Clogmia albipunctata/Psychoda alternata, larvae",
"Coleoptera, larvae",
"Conductivity, electrical",
"Culex pipiens, pupae",
"Culex pipiens/torrentium/quinquefasciatus, larvae",
"Culicidae, exuviae",
"Culicidae, instar",
"Culicidae, pupae",
"Dasyhelea bilineata, larvae",
"Dasyhelea incisurata, larvae",
"Dasyhelea sp., pupae",
"Detritus, coarse, dry mass, size fraction > 2 mm",
"Detritus, fine, dry mass, size fraction 2.0-0.02 mm",
"Diptera larvae",
"Diptera, pupae",
"District",
"Ephemeroptera, larvae",
"Ephydridae, larvae",
"Event label",
"Experiment duration",
"Exuviae, unidentified",
"Fanniidae, larvae",
"Gastropoda",
"LATITUDE",
"LONGITUDE",
"Land cover, buildings",
"Land cover, surface sealed",
"Land cover, vegetated area",
"Leaf litter loss, dry mass",
"Limnophyes sp., larvae",
"Metriocnemus cavicola, larvae",
"Midges, adults",
"Myathropa florea, larvae",
"Phoridae, larvae",
"Population, human",
"Prionocyphon serricornis, larvae",
"Procladius, larvae",
"Psychoda sp., larvae",
"Sargus sp., larvae",
"Season",
"Sylvicola cinctus, larvae",
"Syrphidae, larvae",
"Tank number",
"Temperature, air, daily maximum",
"Temperature, water, daily mean",
"Treatment: leaf litter, dry mass",
"Type of study",
"Zavrelimyia sp., larvae",
"pH",
],
methods: [
"According to GeoSphere Austria (2020)",
"Black 1-L buckets, filled with botteled water (Volvic) and placed on the ground",
"Counted individuals per tank",
"Dried at 70°C for 48 h, sieved through 2 mm and weighed",
"Dried beech (Fagus sylvatica) leaves were in filled in mesh bags and added to each tank",
"Mass loss of dried beech (Fagus sylvatica) leaves in mesh bags of 2 mm mesh size",
"Mass loss of dried beech (Fagus sylvatica) leaves in mesh bags of 50 µm mesh size",
"Multiprobe, Hach Lange",
"Temperature logger, Thermochron, DS1921G Thermochron iButton",
"WGS84",
"Within a radius of 300 m; according to Open Street Map (2017)",
"Within a radius of 300 m; according to Urban Atlas Land Cover/Land Use (2018)",
"Within a radius of 300 m; according to imperviousness density available at the European Union's Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information (2018)",
],
},
)
Tags: Mücke ? Insekt ? Tierhaltungsanlage ? Stadtökologie ? Geografische Koordinaten ? Baum ? Detritus ? Wasserinsekten ? Wassertemperatur ? Stillgewässer ? Gefährdete Arten ? Habitat ? Laubblatt ? Lufttemperatur ? Temperatur ? Urbanisierung ? Höhle ? Anopheles ? Larve ? Baugebiet ? Bevölkerungsdichte ? Tier ? Risikobewusstsein ? Landbedeckung ? Tiergesundheit ? Studie ? Citizen Science ? Krankheitserreger ? Wasseraufbereitung ? Freilandversuch ? Urbaner Raum ? Biozönose ? Stadt ? Biodiversität ? artificial aquatic microhabitats ?
Region: Bad Reichenhall Hotel Austria Forst Hürtgen Salzburg city, Austria Gmerk, Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, Germany
Bounding boxes: 12.9165° .. 13.634856° x 47.628567° .. 48.068239° 12.87905° .. 12.87905° x 47.7242° .. 47.7242° 8.2628° .. 8.2628° x 50.0032° .. 50.0032° 6.3723° .. 6.3723° x 50.7511° .. 50.7511°
License: Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 (Data access requires registration)
Language: Englisch/English
Modified: 2026-05-12
Last harvest: 20.05.2026 01:52
Time ranges: 2021-04-01 - 2021-08-31
Accessed 1 times.