Reinforcing urban biodiversity: flower strips and unmown meadows as tools for small scale habitat enhancement

Rosa Ranalli
1,2*
Andrea Galimberti
1,2
Massimo Labra
1,2
Paolo Biella
1
1
Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, Milano, MI - 20126, Italia
2
, National Biodiversity Future Center, Piazza Marina 61, Palermo, - 90133, Italia

Pollinators are facing dramatic declines worldwide, largely due to land-use change and urban expansion. However, urban areas can increasingly act as important refuges where targeted habitat restoration and enhancement counteract habitat loss, providing essential foraging and nesting resources. In this context, urban green spaces represent a practical opportunity to sustain pollinator populations and the vital ecosystem services they deliver. In this contribution, we show a novel framework for the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity at several trophic levels in cities, where coordinated actions are necessary, including the adoption of effective tools for habitat enhancement and restoration targeting adequate trophic and nesting resources. Then, the contribution focuses on insects as a group involved in ecosystem functioning: among the main strategies, sowing flower strips is a frequent small-scale habitat enhancement together with ecosystem restoration by maintaining unmown urban meadows. This study assesses the effectiveness of these practices, comparing mown and unmown meadows, the benefits of flower strips, and the coexistence of flower strips adjacent to unmown meadows. Fieldwork was conducted in the urban parks of the Milan metropolitan area during the years 2024 and 2025, where pollinators were monitored using standardised methods, and plant–pollinator interactions were analysed to evaluate their impact on biodiversity. The results show that unmown meadows host a greater number of individuals and support higher species diversity than frequently mown lawns. Flower strips also prove effective in attracting more pollinators in terms of both abundance and diversity. Moreover, the study highlights that combining flower strips with adjacent unmown meadows can further enhance pollinator presence. The findings aim to inform urban biodiversity conservation strategies, offering practical recommendations for city planners and policymakers to develop pollinator-friendly urban green spaces.

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