URBAN TREE CANOPY LOSS AND THE DECLINE IN INSECT POLLINATORS: IMPACTS ON URBAN AGRICULTURE

Abstract

It is highly crucial that the canopy of the tree in the urban areas avail and sustain the insect pollinators without which urban farming is unlikely to prosper.  This paper examines the issue of loss of a tree cover on the population of the pollinators and the volume of harvests produced by the urban agricultural networks. The analysis was a mixed-method approach involving satellite-derived analysis of canopy, in-field pollinators surveys, environmental sensors installations, and interviews with farmers.  We had collected the data of three urban regions having various covers of trees.  We considered how well pollination, fruit set and crop levels were doing in insects-dependent crops.  Regression analysis was done to estimate the pollinator numbers and visits per visit and canopy parameters. We also used qualitative data to perceive how much of local ecological knowledge existed using theme analysis. In locations where the canopy was eliminated, pollinator visits reduced by as much as 58 percent and yield in agriculture reduced by 41 percent.  The lowest number of species was recorded in the canopy-degraded areas including the native bees and butterflies.  An environmental sensor indicated that open-space areas experienced high temperatures and poor humidity, therefore, uninhabitable.  According to the farmers, they still needed to engage in more manual pollination and were poorer in terms of food security.  The meta-analysis revealed strong relationships between canopy decrease, the ecological instability, and decrease in productive agricultural systems. Disappearing of trees canopies in urban areas is also linked to the destruction of insect pollinators and low farm productivity.  To reduce such impacts, urban design techniques ought to consist of safeguarding trees, designing landscapes favorable to pollinators, and ensuring that agricultural lands in their entirety are ecologically linked with one another.