Data from: Increasing biodiversity in urban green spaces through simple vegetation interventions

1. Cities are rapidly expanding worldwide and there is an increasing
urgency to protect urban biodiversity, principally through the provision
of suitable habitat, most of which is in urban green spaces. Despite this,
clear guidelines of how to reverse biodiversity loss or increase it within
a given urban green space is lacking. 2. We examined the taxa- and
species-specific responses of five taxonomically and functionally diverse
animal groups to three key attributes of urban green space vegetation that
drive habitat quality and can be manipulated over time: the density of
large native trees, volume of understorey vegetation and percentage of
native vegetation. 3. Using multi-species occupancy-detection models we
found marked differences in the effect of these vegetation attributes on
bats, birds, bees, beetles and bugs. At the taxa-level, increasing the
volume of understorey vegetation and percentage of native vegetation had
uniformly positive effects. We found 30–120% higher occupancy for bats,
native birds, beetles and bugs with an increase in understorey volume from
10 to 30%, and 10–140% higher occupancy across all native taxa with an
increase in the proportion of native vegetation from 10 to 30%. However,
increasing the density of large native trees had a mostly neutral effect.
At the species-specific level, the majority of native species responded
strongly and positively to increasing understorey volume and native
vegetation, whereas exotic bird species had a neutral response. 4.
Synthesis and applications. We found the probability of occupancy of most
species examined was substantially reduced in urban green spaces with
sparse understorey vegetation and few native plants. Our findings provide
evidence that increasing understorey cover and native plantings in urban
green spaces can improve biodiversity outcomes. Redressing the dominance
of simplified and exotic vegetation present in urban landscapes with an
increase in understorey vegetation volume and percentage of native
vegetation will benefit a broad array of biodiversity.