Not All Pollinator Gardens are Created Equally: Determining Factors Pertinent to Improving Pollinator Garden Effectiveness

Increasing evidence documenting the decline of insect populations, resulting from increasing human disturbances has resulted in efforts to establish pollinator gardens to provide additional resources for insect populations. However, our understanding of biotic and abiotic garden characteristics important for attracting and sustaining pollinator diversity is limited. Here, we evaluated 17 pollinator gardens to evaluate the effect of five biotic and three abiotic garden characteristics on pollinator species richness, abundance, and proportional representation of four pollinator functional groups. Plant species richness positively influenced pollinator richness and negatively influenced flower visitation. Bombus proportional abundance responded to several variables (distance to vegetation, plant species richness, floral symmetry, floral native status, habitat type), and decreases in their proportional representation were accompanied by increasing proportions of other insect groups. Our results suggest any size, diverse, native pollinator gardens can improve pollinator diversity, and small-scale pollinator gardens should favor functional groups adapted for the habitat type