Research & reports

Nguyen H., Schmack J., Egerer M. · Basic and Applied Ecology · Germany (Munich)

Conducted a pollination-exclusion experiment with two cultivated and two wild plant species across 13 Munich community gardens, finding cultivated-plant fruit and seed mass positively correlated with temperature and pollinator diversity.

Schäfer, Kleemann, Spyra · Sustainability · Germany (Leipzig)

Analyzes allotment garden products in Leipzig and their contribution to sustainable and resilient cities.

Haase · People and Nature · Germany (Berlin)

Assesses the social–environmental values of urban gardens for both gardeners and the wider public, using Berlin as an example.

Stefano Corsi, Marta Dell’Ovo, Catherine Dezio, Antonio Longo, Alessandra Oppio · Cities · Italy (Milan)

This contribution proposes the case study of a multifunctional farmhouse, Cascina Biblioteca, in the Milan suburban area of Italy, to test an integrated preliminary evaluation model. The model aims to support urban planning and design decisions by maximizing the performance of ecosystem services provided by multifunctional agriculture (MFA), which includes food production, environmental preservation, and social inclusion.

B. Wilkaniec, Agnieszka Wilkaniec, Beata Borowiak-Sobkowiak · Journal of Plant Protection Research · Poland

Winged morphs of aphids were monitored using Moericke traps in two large allotment gardens in Poznań, Poland, during four growing seasons in 2000-2001 and 2014-2015. A total of 113 aphid species or groups were captured, and major changes in the fauna structure were reported. These changes are thought to be primarily due to shifts in garden vegetation composition as the gardens' function changed from production to recreation.

Dilek SELÇUK, Mustafa Can KOÇ, Nurullah Emir Ekinci, Ersan Tolukan · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Turkey (Istanbul)

This study investigated the environmental interest of students who spend their leisure time in school gardens at Şehit Onbaşı Murat Şengöz Imam Hatip Secondary School in Arnavutköy district, Istanbul, Turkey. Data was collected online from 51 male and 229 female students. Findings showed no significant difference in environmental interest based on age or grade level, but a significant difference was observed in the biodiversity sub-dimension based on gender, with girls demonstrating more interest.

JC Niala · Ecozon European Journal of Literature Culture and Environment · United Kingdom (Oxford)

This essay explores a case study where an allotment in the style of 1918 was recreated at a charity allotment site in Oxford, United Kingdom, during the 2020-2021 growing season. The researcher planted open-pollinated non-hybrid heritage seeds from that era, reflecting on the soil as a repository of memory through academic and creative responses. The plot became a living memorial visited by diverse members of the public, engaging with themes such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, and the First World War.

David Adams, Peter J. Larkham, Michael Hardman · Land · United Kingdom

This paper explores how porous boundary treatments and plot layouts can encourage ecological exchanges in new urban and peri-urban developments, focusing on a large-scale residential development in the English midlands. It outlines the socio-economic, cultural, and ecological significance of embedding diverse hedgerow designs into early planning, revealing a need to move beyond current models. The study suggests these designs could encourage sustainable land use and scalable urban agricultural systems.

Joanna Ziemkowska · Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae · Poland

A historical outline of school gardens in Poland and their past and current possibilities of use were presented. In recent decades, school gardens had lost their educational appreciation, remaining in few schools primarily for aesthetic functions. This article discusses how school gardens may contribute to preventing "nature deficit" and provide a sense of closeness to nature even in urban realities, noting their re-emerging therapeutic potential (hortitherapy).

Purificación Marín Sanleandro, Ana María Gómez-García, M. Arantzazu Blanco Bernardeau, Juana María Gil-Vázquez, María Asunción Alías-Linares · Forests · Spain

This study in the mid-plain of the Segura River (SE Spain) assessed soil properties and agricultural potential by collecting 68 arable soil samples. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in organic carbon distribution between calcaric Fluvisols and calcaric Regosols, and among industrial, cultivated, and abandoned soil uses. Cultivated Fluvisols showed a higher average organic carbon content (11.35 g kg−1) compared to abandoned (9.33 g kg−1) and industrial (5.13 g kg−1) uses.

Maraike Probst, María Gómez‐Brandón, Cecilia Herbón, María Teresa Barral, Remigio Paradelo · Applied Soil Ecology · Spain

This study evaluated fungal and bacterial communities in 40 soil samples from 10 urban allotment gardens in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, using DNA sequencing. While microbial richness was comparable to less anthropogenically influenced urban soils, the deterministic effect of soil properties and geographical distances was negligible. Fungal and bacterial communities followed a random distribution and formed very small, often unconnected, microbial association modules, suggesting potential implications of anthropogenic activity for soil health and ecosystem functionality.

Shivant Jhagroe · Urban Studies · Netherlands

A study of the Gandhi-garden, a community garden in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, that is part of the global Transition Towns movement, drawing on participatory ethnography, interviews, and online documents. Challenging the anthropocentrism common in research on urban sustainability and resilience, the paper analyses everyday acts such as weeding and permacultural planting as "more-than-human assemblage" place-making practices involving insects, plants, soil, and fences that challenge urban neoliberalism. It also examines expressions of solidarity with Palestine through olive trees and non-violence thinking, alongside tensions between humans and non-humans over dog waste and birds that take harvested produce.

Emanuela Granata, Paolo Pedrini, Luigi Marchesi, Chiara Fedrigotti, Paolo Biella, Silvia Ronchi, Mattia Brambilla · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · Italy

This study investigated the environmental and management factors influencing bird communities, pollinating insects, and two ecosystem services — pollination and nature-based recreation — along an urban-natural gradient dominated by agricultural areas (vineyards, apple orchards, and grasslands) in northern Italy. Flower-visiting insects were mainly affected by management and environmental-climatic variables, with flowers at field margins and within vineyard and apple-orchard inter-rows best predicting pollinator and flower-visiting-insect abundance; sward height and grassland cover promoted insect abundance, while vineyards and apple orchards had a negative effect on it. Bird communities were mainly shaped by land-use/land-cover and management variables, with landscape heterogeneity and linear elements having a major positive effect; apple orchards negatively affected the richness and abundance of most bird species, and vineyards negatively affected overall bird abundance, while hedgerows had a positive effect on richness. Nature-based recreation was greater in areas with low or intermediate vineyard or urban cover, with apple orchards and intensively managed grasslands having negative effects and waterways a positive effect. The study concludes that apple orchards and large vineyards are largely unsuitable for biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Borja Ferrández-Gómez, Juana D. Jordá, Antonio Sánchez‐Sánchez, Mar Cerdán · Sustainability · Europe

A study of nine soils (Technosols) developed over construction debris in Alicante, southeast Spain, analyzing mineralogy, elemental composition and metal availability over two consecutive years, 2019 and 2020. The soils were similar to forest soils in the same area, with no evidence of asbestos clays or excess harmful elements, though DTPA extraction revealed high levels of Mn and Zn in some soils. Organic carbon and DTPA-extracted metal content differed between the two years with no clear relationship observed between them; organic matter content was higher and DTPA-extracted elements were lower in 2019, which the authors attribute to above-average rainfall that year possibly washing away dissolved materials and fine soil particles while promoting natural vegetation growth that increased organic matter and immobilized elements. The study concludes that because metal mobility varies with weather and soil characteristics, and because urban soils develop on materials that require attention despite the benefits of green space, annual monitoring plans for heavy-metal availability are needed, particularly where plants are grown for human consumption, along with controls on vegetables grown in these soils and restricted garden use if problems are found.

Martin Šlachta, Tomáš Erban, Alena Votavová, Daniela Tomešová, Marta Václavíková, Taťána Halešová, Elena Shcherbachenko, Tomáš Bešta, Magda Edwards‐Jonášová, Renata Včeláková, Vladana Procházková, Pavel Cudlín · Journal of Apicultural Research · Europe

This study investigated pesticide contamination using larval food provisions (a mix of pollen and nectar) of mason bees (Osmia spp.) nesting in artificial shelters at twelve allotment garden sites in Prague and Brno, with seven commercial croplands (fruit orchards, oilseed rape fields) selected for comparison. In total, 79 samples of larval provisions were analyzed using a validated UPLC-MS/MS method covering 262 pesticides and related metabolites. Fifty-six pesticide residues were detected in the allotments and 74 in cropland sites, with 50 compounds common to both; fewer residues were found in allotments (mean 14.3±0.9) than in croplands (21.5±1.1; df=17.4, t=-2.9), though some residues exceeded 10 ppb. The highest levels were observed for the fungicide pyrimethanil (mean 1,989 ppb, maximum 3,983 ppb) and, among insecticides, thiacloprid (mean 136 ppb, maximum 170 ppb). The results supported the view of a lower risk of pesticide exposure in urban allotment gardens than in croplands, though given limited knowledge of sublethal effects of pesticides, and especially pesticide mixtures, on solitary bee development, the study recommends regulation or control of pesticide use in allotment gardens.

Elsa Blareau, Pauline Sy, Karim Daoud, Fabrice Réquier · Insects · France

A study near Paris, France, evaluated the effects of insect-mediated pollination service and potential pollination deficit on fruit set, seed set, and fruit quality (size, weight, malformation) in strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa) growing in an urban area, using flower-visitor observations and pollination experiments. Flower-visitor observations found that the pollinator community consisted solely of unmanaged (wild) pollinators, despite beehives being present in the surrounding landscape. Pollination experiments showed that wild-insect pollination improved fruit size as a qualitative measure of production but did not improve fruit set, and no evidence of pollination deficit was found in this urban environment.

Julia M. Schmack, Monika Egerer · Urban Ecosystems · Germany

A study in 30 urban community gardens in Berlin and Munich, Germany, observed 20 focal plant species and 13 common bee and non-bee flower visitor groups, examining how landscape urbanization and the availability of floral and nesting resources within gardens affected the complexity (nestedness, linkage density, connectance) of pollinator interaction networks. Dominant flower visitors changed over the growing season, with non-bee visitors such as ants and flies dominant early in the season and bees becoming important later. Nestedness of the flower visitor network increased with floral richness within gardens, while floral abundance, the impervious surface surrounding gardens, garden size, and nesting resource availability did not strongly influence the networks. The findings indicate that high floral richness in community gardens can ensure the complexity and stability of flower visitor networks, that non-bee visitors play an important role especially in the shoulder seasons, and that urban gardeners play a key role in mediating flower visitor interactions through their gardening practices.

Tainan Messina, Rui Figueira, José M.L. Santos · Ecosystem Services · Europe

A study in intensive farming systems of Central Portugal developed a methodology integrating species, trait and crop data, pest predation indicators and local farmers' expertise to estimate pest consumption by birds. Using point count data and each species' energy requirements and life-cycle characteristics, it estimated birds' daily invertebrate consumption and examined the relationship between birds and service provision along a tree gradient. Relating habitat requirements to pest control services via species guilds, the study found higher predation in annual crops close to trees or woody vegetation than in crop-only plots. After analyzing the methodology's main challenges and strengths, the study concludes that farmers' participation improved the accuracy and results of the analysis and that the methodology's holistic character can guide stakeholders and policymaking more effectively.

D Kozáková, M. Jebavý, M. Kunt, K. Čechová · Scientia Agriculturae Bohemica · Europe

A study in Prague, Czech Republic (Scientia Agriculturae Bohemica, 2023) tested bulbous plant species for suitability in vertical and rooftop gardens under a temperate climate, recording bloom timing, duration, and resilience by cardinal direction across multiple years. Narcissus performed best in the south-facing section of the vertical garden and was found most suitable for both garden types; Scilla siberica was the worst choice for south-facing gardens in bloom length and quantity of flowering plants; Muscari armeniacum showed balanced bloom results across all cardinal directions; Galanthus woronowii did not show promise for either garden type; and Crocus 'King of Striped' was found unsuitable for vertical gardens.

Nancy Harlet Esquivel-Marín, Leticia Myriam Sagarnaga Villegas, Octavio T. Barrera-Perales, Juan Antonio Lugo Machado, José María Salas González · Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Agriculture and Environment · Europe

This bibliometric review analyzes the systemic structure of multifunctional agriculture (MFA) and its relationship to sustainability, based on a sample of 432 documents published on the Web of Science platform. Using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer to map scientific collaboration networks, the review identified the authors, journals, and countries shaping the current knowledge structure and four thematic clusters: (a) MFA and sustainability, (b) ecosystem services and biodiversity, (c) European public policies, and (d) governance and urban agriculture. It concludes that, despite an increase in publication rates, research remains concentrated in Europe with few collaborative networks across disciplines, indicating that SDG 17 (partnerships) is not being achieved.

Veronica Sebald, Julia M. Schmack, Monika Egerer · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Germany

This study surveyed the occurrence of poisonous plant species in 30 urban community gardens across two German cities, Berlin and Munich, and examined concerns around poisonous and highly poisonous plants in urban garden settings. It found that plants producing substances toxic to humans occur in these gardens while also potentially holding ecosystem-functioning and biodiversity-conservation value, creating a trade-off with the ecosystem service of human health promotion, and concludes that poisonous plants should be carefully monitored and managed—depending on garden participants and the goals of the garden organization—to mitigate health risks while still supporting biodiversity conservation.

Tripodi P., D'Alessandro A., Francese G. · Frontiers in Plant Science 13:1031776 · Italy

Integrated genomic and biochemical analysis of heirloom tomatoes linking fruit shape and size to sugars, organic acids, and aroma compounds. Demonstrates heirlooms as germplasm resources for high food quality and sustainable agriculture.

Seitz B., Buchholz S., Kowarik I., Herrmann J., Neuerburg L., Wendler J., Winker L., Egerer M. · Urban Ecosystems, 25(3):927-939 · Germany (Berlin)

A survey of cultivated and spontaneously occurring wild plants in 18 community gardens across metropolitan Berlin, classifying each species as native or non-native. It found that gardens host many plant species — especially wild ones, including some endangered natives — regardless of surrounding urbanization, and that more cultivated species co-occur with more wild species (land sharing). The authors argue urban gardens can be sites of 'reconciliation ecology' that combine food production with conservation of native and wild flora.

· Frontiers in Microbiology · Germany (Berlin)

Investigated how soil microbial communities shift along an urban gradient in Berlin, highlighting that microbial communities inhabiting urban soils govern nutrient cycling and support of plant communities.

Schittko C. · Journal of Ecology · Germany (Berlin)

Shows that biodiversity maintains soil multifunctionality and soil organic carbon in novel urban ecosystems studied in Berlin.