Abstract:
Schoolyard gardens are increasing in cities to simultaneously provide students with
experiential learning opportunities and local communities with increased food security.
These gardens may also provide urban habitats for pollinators and opportunities for
students to interact with urban wildlife. Here we assess how schoolyard gardens may
provide habitat for large-bodied butterflies and discuss how they may be designed to
support more butterfly diversity. Due to their charismatic nature and presence in urban
spaces, butterflies can be a flagship species to reconnect urban residents with the natural
environment. Therefore, we designed the project to be student-led and assessed students’
participation in the data collection process. Three elementary schools with rising first and
third-grade students observe and capture large-bodied butterflies in their gardens during
the summer of 2022. The species richness and abundance at school gardens were
compared to butterflies caught by researchers in a corresponding natural area near each school. An N-mixture model was used to estimate the correlation between tree canopy,
site area, and impervious surface to eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)
abundance. Results showed that swallowtail abundance was negatively related to the
percent of impervious surface at a site regardless of the site’s area and proportion of tree
cover. Our results indicate that urban schools with limited green space can increase
butterfly abundance by planting more vegetation around the garden and decreasing
impervious cover. Student discussions provided program feedback and increased interest
in butterfly ecology within urban environments. These results indicate that involving K-
12 students in urban ecological research within their school grounds may increase their
awareness of interactions with nature.
