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 than ornamental gardens or lawns across the full urban-rural gradient, with this pattern being most pronounced for honey bees. Based on these results, we suggest that a continued emphasis on pollinator garden registration programs may be an effective strategy for bee conservation, but recommend an increased focus on native bees.