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Meadowscaping in urban parks leads to a rapid increase in spider diversity
Laura J. Raymond-Léonard, I. Tanya Handa
In order to guide cities in their current ecological transition, there is a paramount need to consider urban soils, which are largely understudied despite providing multiple contributions to people. Meadowscaping (i.e. reducing mowing frequency) within parks, could potentially be a simple cost-effective strategy to better support soil biodiversity and associated ecological functions, but data remain scarce. Our study aimed to determine the short- (1 year, n = 10), mid- (2-4 years, n = 4) and long-term (6-10 years, n = 4) effects of reduced lawn mowing frequency on ground-dwelling spiders, in comparison to intensively mowed lawns (n = 10). During summer 2022, pitfall trap samples were collected in 11 sites (public parks and the botanical garden arboretum) across Rosemont La-Petite-Patrie borough (Montreal). In addition to providing rare species mentions for the province, our results demonstrate that spiders are 1.9 times more abundant and 1.7 times more diverse in unmowed lawns than in intensively mowed ones. Although time since establishment of a reduced mowing regime did not influence spider abundance and species richness, it modulated spider community composition. By demonstrating that spiders respond rapidly to reduced mowing, and that different species are favored by different lawn mowing regimes, our results highlight the potential of meadowscaping within urban green infrastructures as an efficient method to better support spider diversity, and potentially other soil-related taxa.
