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 tha..., , , # Pollinators observed in gardens and lawns along an urbanization gradient in the Greater Chicago Area [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw39](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw39) ## Description of the data and file structure This dataset contains information about native bees and other pollinators observed in registered pollinator gardens, ornamental gardens, and lawns located along an urban-rural gradient in the Greater Chicago Area. For bees collected in bee bowls, counts of each species are provided. For pollinators observed through visual surveys, counts are provided of honey bees, bumblebee species, and several broad pollinator groups. Information about land use/land cover and impervious surface cover in the area surrounding study sites is also included. Additionally, site-level and observation-level covariates are included. The dataset is associated with a study that will be published in the journal Ecological Applications. ### Files and variables #### Data_Pollinator_..., ,