Project Details
Projekt
Transform urban flowerbeds for future: sustainable use and pollinator conservation
Applicants
Professorin Dr. Monika Egerer; Ulrike Sturm
Subject Area
Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570639017
Given the global decline of pollinators over the past two decades, recent studies have suggested that urban green spaces could serve as refuges for pollinators. Ornamental flowering plants may attract various pollinator groups but they require frequent watering and may not adapt well to the Urban Heat Island effect and climate change. In European cities, the plant varieties offered in catalogs are often similar across cities with different climatic conditions and tend to prioritize aesthetic value over biodiversity benefits. Therefore, a shift in floral management practices is urgent, involving stakeholders from horticulturists to citizens. By adopting a co-constructed approach with local and regional stakeholders, our project explores creative and resilient future flowerbeds that aim to combine drought resistance, attractiveness to pollinators, social perception and sustainable management for effective urban biodiversity conservation. Specifically, our research questions are: 1. What quantitative floral traits do future flowerbeds exhibit compared to Business as Usual (BaU) ones? 2. How attractive are future flowerbeds to pollinators (using non-lethal protocols and citizen science)? 3. What impact does drought have on flowerbeds? 4. What changes in practices can be agreed upon by all stakeholders? 5. How can we evaluate future flowerbeds using a multi-criteria approach? For this, we will conduct experiments in public green spaces of nine European cities (France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany) representing three bioclimatic regions. During the first year, we will select approximately 10 plant species for BaU and future flowerbeds based on their ecological requirements by bioclimatic region, iterative surveys with local stakeholders and plant attractiveness to pollinators. Each site will feature replicates of a BaU flowerbed and a future flowerbed with two treatments: control and drought. For all species, we will measure different floral traits during the second year of the project: floral height, floral area, number of floral units, nectar tube depth, anther exertion, nectar sugar concentration and total pollen volume. We will observe plant-pollinator interactions using new non-lethal protocols and citizen science. We will identify the perceptions of managers and citizens of future flowerbeds, their implementation and care using a social science approach. Based on the obtained results we will assess each plant species’ potential as a flowerbed option using multi-criteria decision-making. We expect that our project will introduce a paradigm shift in urban landscaping by moving away from the traditional focus on visual aesthetics favored by humans to a functional approach that enhances biodiversity and adapts to future climate conditions.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
France, Spain, Switzerland
