Shifts in host-parasitoid networks across community garden management and urban landscape gradients

Biological pest control relies on interactions between herbivores and their natural enemies. Maintaining this ecosystem service requires considering herbivore and natural enemy interactions and their response to anthropogenic change at multiple scales. In this study, we use ecological networks to quantify the network structure of interactions between herbivorous insects and their parasitoids. We examine how herbivore host abundance, parasitism rates, and shifts in network structure relate to changes in local habitat management and landscape context. We sampled herbivores and parasitoids in Brassica oleracea plants at 22 urban gardens on the California central coast. At each site, we measured local management characteristics (e.g. vegetation, ground cover, canopy cover) and quantified surrounding landscape composition (e.g. urban, natural, open, and agricultural cover). For the eight sites with large enough networks, we calculated three network structure metrics (interaction richness, vu..., The following datasets describe garden site characteristics, host insect abundance, host insect parasitism, and host-parasitoid network metrics sampled in urban community gardens on the California central coast in 2017 and 2018. We used generalized linear and mixed models to examine relationships between host abundance, host parasitism, garden site characteristics, and network metrics. We include a brief overview of the methods used to collect these datasets below. For more detailed methods, see the corresponding article describing this study published in Ecosphere. Details about each dataset are found in the README file.
Garden site characteristics: At each garden site, we sampled vegetation and ground cover each month within a 20 x 20 m plot at the center of each garden. We also measured the size of each garden site and determined the ecoregion each site was located within. Additionally, we characterized the landscape surrounding gardens using the 2016 National Land Cover Database (NC..., , # Shifts in host-parasitoid networks across community garden management and urban landscape gradients

[https://doi.org/10.7291/D1C97S](https://doi.org/10.7291/D1C97S)

These datasets are the summary data from the paper, \"Shifts in host-parasitoid networks across community garden management and urban landscape gradients,\" published in *Ecosphere* in 2024. They describe garden site characteristics, host insect abundance, host insect parasitism, and host-parasitoid network metrics sampled in urban community gardens on the California central coast in 2017 and 2018.

## Description of the data and file structure

We include the seven datasets that we analyzed in this study. Missing values are indicated by NA.

**1) HostAbundance_PopulationParasitism.csv**

This dataset includes host abundance and population-level parasitism for three focal host species, garden site and landscape characteristics, and network metrics.

Column Heads:

* Site
* EcoRegion (MBPlains = Monterey Bay Plains and ...