Pollinators observed in gardens and lawns along an urbanization gradient in the Greater Chicago Area

With growing awareness of global declines in bee populations, bee
conservation has received increased attention from governmental agencies,
non-profit organizations, researchers, and the public. One popular
strategy involves pollinator garden registration programs that certify
gardens meeting required habitat provisioning criteria to motivate
gardeners to provide high-quality food and nesting resources. While
considerable financial and human resources are directed towards these
programs and there are now over one million pollinator gardens registered
globally, limited research has been conducted to verify their
effectiveness for bee conservation. This data set includes information
about bee visitation to pollinator gardens, ornamental gardens, and lawns
on an urban-rural gradient in the Greater Chicago Area, IL,
USA. Our results suggest that pollinator gardens may support bee
conservation by providing important floral resources. We observed more
bees visiting pollinator gardens than ornamental gardens or lawns across
the full urban-rural gradient, with this pattern being most pronounced for
honey bees. Based on these results, we suggest that a continued emphasis
on pollinator garden registration programs may be an effective strategy
for bee conservation, but recommend an increased focus on native bees.