SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores: VI - Inventory of Arthropods of Azorean Urban Gardens

Abstract Background The data we present are part of the long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) aiming to assess the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers on Azorean native biota, using long-term ecological data. Additionally to SLAM (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) traps, nocturnal Active Aerial Searching and nocturnal Foliage Beating methods were used to sample, between 2017 and 2018, the arthropod biodiversity on two historical urban gardens of Azores, the “Jardim Botânico” of Faial Island and “Jardim Duque da Terceira” of Terceira Island. New information We provided an inventory of arthropods collected between 2017 and 2018 in two urban gardens of Faial and Terceira Islands (Azores). A total of 8342 specimens were collected, in which 7493 specimens were identified to species/subspecies level (Faial n = 3296; Terceira n = 4197). The identified specimens belong to four classes, 15 orders, 80 families and 159 species and subspecies of arthropods. A total of 84 species and subspecies are considered introduced (n = 2454 specimens), 50 native non-endemic (n = 4444 specimens), eight endemic (n = 217) and 17 have an indeterminate origin (n = 378). This study also revises the arthropod inventory of these Azorean gardens, by adding/updating the taxonomic names of three orders, ten families and 22 species.


Introduction
Habitat loss, associated with landscape transformation, is one of the major causes of biodiversity loss worldwide (Diamond et al. 1989, Ntshanga et al. 2021).Particularly, the urbanisation process radically modifies the ecology of natural landscapes (Tratalos et al. 2007, Goddard et al. 2010).In addition to habitat loss, urbanisation also facilitates the introduction and establishment of exotic species and can affect the ecological interactions between local species (McKinney 2006).
In this context, urban gardens may play an important role in biodiversity conservation by provisioning a refuge for native biota and mitigating the effects of landscape fragmentation (Smith et al. 2005, Fuller et al. 2007, Goddard et al. 2010, Arteaga et al. 2020).Although the design and planning of urban gardens can affect positively native biodiversity, many urban gardens include exotic plant species that could facilitate the establishment of generalist introduced species (Matteson et al. 2008, Kowarik 2011).
This study complements the publication of Arteaga et al. (2020), which provides an inventory of arthropod diversity in Azorean urban gardens and studies the effect of plant species composition in the colonisation status of arthropods.Arteaga et al. (2020) demonstrated that, in general, arthropod communities are related with the plant species composition of gardens.More endemic and native arthropod species are found in gardens dominated by native plants, in comparison with gardens dominated by ornamental exotic plant species, where the proportion of introduced arthropods (individuals and species) was higher.

General description
Purpose: The main objective of this publication is to provide a recent inventory of the arthropod diversity present in two historical gardens of Azores, the "Jardim Botânico" of Faial Island and "Jardim Duque da Terceira" of Terceira Island, complementing the work of Arteaga et al. (2020).This study also updates the taxonomic inventory of Arteaga et al. (2020) and contributes to the study of the urban garden's role in the conservation of native biodiversity.

Additional information:
The data we present are part of the long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) aiming to assess the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers on Azorean native biota, using long-term ecological data.This is the sixth dataset contribution for this project (previous ones in Costa and Borges (2021), Borges et al. (2022b), Borges et al. (2022a), Lhoumeau et al. (2022), Lhoumeau and Borges (2022)).Another publication dedicated to Lepidoptera contributed with information about some new exotic species for Azores (Pérez Santa-Rita et al. 2018).However, in the current study, additional sampling methods were also used, to include Active Aerial Searching and nocturnal Foliage Beating (see more details below).

Project description
Title: Inventory of Arthropods of Azorean Urban Gardens.

Personnel:
The project was conceived and is being led by Paulo A.V. Borges.

Study area description:
The study area comprises Terceira (total area: 400.2 km²; maximum elevation: 1021 m a.s.l.) and Faial (total area: 172 km2; maximum elevation 1043 m a.s.l.) Islands.They are located in the central group of the Azores Archipelago (North Atlantic), roughly at: 38°43′40″N, 27°12′48″W (Terceira Island), and 38°34′57″N, 28°42′17″W (Faial Island).The climate of the Archipelago is temperate oceanic, characterised by regular and abundant rainfall, high levels of relative humidity and persistent winds.The landscape of the Islands is mainly dominated by urban and agricultural areas at the lowest elevations; pasturelands and exotic tree plantations inland; and native forests located at highest elevations (Gaspar et al. 2010).The study was carried out on two botanical gardens, named "Jardim Botânico", in Faial Island and "Jardim Duque da Terceira" in Terceira Island.
The Faial Island Botanical Garden ("Jardim Botânico") was initially implemented in 1986 with the aim to promote the conservation of the flora of the Azores (Melo 2020).Initially occupying an area of 5,600 m², it is located in the parish of Flamengos, at an altitude of 118 m (Melo 2020).Additional terrain was added in the last decades and now it occupies 15,000 m² (1.5 ha) (Melo 2020).This is currently an iconic place in Faial Island visited by many tourists.In addition to a large collection of native and endemic plants, in 2003, this Boatnical Garden created the "Azores Seed Bank", whose purpose is to collect and maintain a collection of viable seeds of all Azorean species that are possible to conserve in a conventional seed bank (Melo 2020).
The "Jardim Duque da Terceira" in Terceira Island is located in the historic centre of the main town, Angra do Heroísmo, at an altitude of 34 m.Initially occupying an area of 16,000 m² in 1882, it now occupies a larger area that reaches 2 ha (Barcelos 2012).This Garden is dominated by exotic plants, transported to the Island since the period of the Portuguese discoveries and includes both tropical and subtropical species (Barcelos 2012).

Design description:
Passive Flight Interception traps (SLAM traps -Sea, Land and Air Malaise) (Fig. 1), nocturnal Active Aerial Searching (AAS) and nocturnal Foliage Beating (FBN) methods were used to sample the arthropod biodiversity on two historical urban gardens of Azores: the "Jardim Botânico", located in the surroundings of Horta, in Faial Island and "Jardim Duque da Terceira" located in Angra do Heroísmo, in Terceira Island.AAS and FBN are reliable methods to collect samples of arthropods that are mainly active during the night (Borges et al. 2018).The collected specimens were preserved in ethanol 96%.SLAM traps were placed in both gardens in order to collect mainly diurnal flying and non-flying arthropods, through interception and conservation on a propylene-glycol recipient of the captured specimens (Borges et al. 2017).The SLAM traps were placed during six consecutive months and checked monthly.

Description:
The study was conducted on two urban gardens, the "Jardim Botânico", located in the surroundings of Horta, in Faial Island and "Jardim Duque da Terceira" located in Angra do Heroísmo, in Terceira Island.The first is mainly composed of endemic and native plant species, but also includes some introduced species, common and widespread in the Azores.The second garden includes mainly collections of introduced trees, shrubs and palms from across the world (see for more details, Arteaga et al. (2020)).
Sampling description: Passive Flight Interception traps (SLAM traps -Sea, Land and Air Malaise trap) (Fig. 1), nocturnal Active Aerial Searching (AAS) and nocturnal Foliage Beating (FBN) methods were used to sample the arthropod biodiversity (Arachnida, Chilopoda, Diplopoda and Insecta Classes) on two historical urban gardens of the Azores, between 2017 and 2018: the "Jardim Botânico", located in Horta, in Faial Island and "Jardim Duque da Terceira", located in Angra do Heroísmo, in Terceira Island.AAS consists on collecting arthropods found above knee-level by hand, forceps, pooter or brush and immediately transferring them into vials containing ethanol 96%.FBN consists of beating tree and shrub branches with a wooden stick and collecting the fallen specimens on a beating tray, posteriorly transferred to vials containing ethanol 96%.AAS and FBN are reliable methods to collect samples of arthropods that are mainly active during the night (Borges et al. 2018).The SLAM trap consists on a structure of 110 × 110 × 110 cm (MegaView Science Co.) designed to intercept flying and non-flying arthropods.They were placed in the gardens during six consecutive months, checked monthly.For more details about sampling methods, see Arteaga et al. (2020).

Description:
The dataset was published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility platform, GBIF (Borges and Lamelas-López 2022).The following data table includes all the records for which a taxonomic identification of the species was possible.The dataset submitted to GBIF is structured as a sample event dataset that has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwCA), which is a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables.The core data file contains 20 records (eventID).This GBIF IPT (Integrated Publishing Toolkit, Version 2.5.6)archives the data and, thus, serves as the data repository.The data and resource metadata are available for download in the Portuguese GBIF Portal IPT (Borges and Lamelas-López 2022).

Column label
Column description eventID Identifier of the events, unique for the dataset.
Considering the identified taxa (Table 1), we recorded 72 species and subspecies in Faial, with 28 being considered native non-endemic, seven endemic, 33 introduced and four of indeterminate origin.On the other hand, in Terceira, a total of 124 species and subspecies were recorded, 37 being considered native non-endemic, five endemic, 67 introduced and 15 of indeterminate origin ( This study also updates the taxonomy of the arthropods of the Azorean urban gardens.A total of three orders, ten families and 22 species were taxonomically updated (Table 3).
This publication includes a recent inventory and updates the knowledge about the arthropod diversity and taxonomy of Arteaga et al. (2020).In general, the Terceira garden is mainly dominated by exotic plant species and, consequently, the proportion of introduced arthropods species is higher than in Faial, which is mainly composed by native plant  Public and botanical gardens are important green infrastructures that promote the conservation of plants species, support science dissemination activities and people's health.Additional positive functions may include microclimatic regulation and water retention (Macháč et al. 2022).However, there is an ongoing debate on the role of gardens dominated by exotic plants and their role as a source for the spread of exotic potentially invasive species (Dawson et al. 2008).Concerning arthropods, our study generated several interesting patterns: i) no introduced species had a dominant role in any garden, despite several being part of the 50% most abundant species in Terceira; iii) in Faial Botanical Garden, the 50% most abundant species are either endemic or native non-endemic, with only one introduced species; iii) most introduced and species of indeterminate status are particularly rare.
In conclusion, in general, the origin of the plant composition of the urban gardens can have an effect on the arthropod biodiversity origin (native vs. introduced species) present in the gardens, but the two studied settings also constitute a repository of indigenous fauna playing an important role in the conservation of native biota of the Archipelago.In particular, the Faial Island Botanical Garden, which holds a large community of native species, can be part of a future corridor of native plants across the agricultural landscape in this Island.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.SLAM trap (Sea, Land and Air Malaise trap) located in a site on Terceira Island (Credit: Paulo A. V. Borges) sampling site.countryCode ISO code of the country of the sampling site.municipality Municipality of the sampling site.SLAM Project -Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change ... locality Locality of the sampling site.locationID Identifier of the location.habitat The habitat of the sampling site.decimalLongitude The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location.decimalLatitude The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location.geodeticDatum The ellipsoid, geodetic datum or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are based.coordinateUncertaintyInMetres Uncertainty of the coordinates of the centre of the sampling plot in metres.coordinatePrecision A decimal representation of the precision of the coordinates given in the decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude.georeferenceSources A list (concatenated and separated) of maps, gazetteers or other resources used to georeference the Location, described specifically enough to allow anyone in the future to use the same resources.minimumElevationInMetres The lower limit of the range of elevation (altitude, above sea level), in metres.samplingProtocol The sampling protocol used to capture the species.sampleSizeValue The numeric amount of time spent in each sampling.sampleSizeUnit The unit of the sample size value.eventDate Date or date range the record was collected.year Year of the event.month Month of the event.dayDay of the event.

r=arthropods_azorean_urban_gardens Data format: Darwin Core Archive format Data format version: 1.5
Version 2.5.6)archives the data and, thus, serves as the data repository.The data and resource metadata are available for download in the Portuguese GBIF Portal IPT(Borges and Lamelas-López 2022).
Data set name: Occurrence_TableCharacter set: UTF-8 Download URL: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=arthropods_azorean_urban_gardensData format: Darwin Core Archive format Data format version: 1.5Description:The dataset was published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility platform, GBIF(Borges and Lamelas-López 2022), structured as an occurrence table that has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwCA), which is a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables.The core data file contains 762 records (occurrenceID).This GBIF IPT (Integrated Publishing Toolkit, occurrenceID Identifier of the record, coded as a global unique identifier.recordedByA list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who performed the sampling in the field.identifiedByA list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who performed the sampling in the field.dateIdentifiedThe date on which the subject was determined as representing the Taxon.organismQuantityA number or enumeration value for the quantity of organisms.organismQuantityTypeThe type of quantification system used for the quantity of organisms.

Table 1 .
collected a total of 8342 individuals in both urban gardens, in which 7493 specimens were identified to species/subspecies level (Faial n = 3296; Terceira n = 4197).The identified specimens belong to four classes, 15 orders, 80 families and 159 species and subspecies of arthropods.A total of 84 species and subspecies are considered introduced (n = 2454 specimens), 50 native non-endemic (n = 4444 specimens), eight endemic (n = 217) and 17 have an indeterminate origin (n = 378) (Table1).Inventory SLAM Project -Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change ... Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change ...
of arthropods recorded in Azorean urban gardens of "Jardim Botânico" of Faial Island (FAI) and "Jardim Duque da Terceira" of Terceira Island (TER), between 2017 and 2018.The colonisation status (C.S.: End -Endemic; Nat -Native non-endemic; Int -Introduced; Ind -Indeterminate) and abundance values per island and total are provided.
Table1).The proportion of native endemic and non-endemic species in Terceira urban garden (33.87%) is lower than in Faial (48.61%) and the proportion of introduced species is higher in Terceira urban garden (54.03%) in comparison with Faial (45.83%).

Table 2 .
Arteaga et al. (2020)st abundant species per urban garden.The colonisation statuses (C.S.: End -Endemic; Nat -Native non-endemic; Int -Introduced) and abundance values (N) are provided.species.Contrarily, the proportion of native species (endemic and non-endemic) is higher in Faial than in Terceira.These results are according to the findings ofArteaga et al. (2020).

Table 3 .
Arteaga et al. 2020.my of the species recorded in the Azorean urban gardens of Faial and Terceira Islands.*Somespecies of Anthocoridae family change to Lyctocoridae; **Some species of Lygaeidae family change to Oxycarenidae and Rhyparochromidae; MF Morphospecies; *** -Not recorded inArteaga et al. 2020.