People of color experience reduced access to pollinators along an urban-rural gradient

Abstract Inequities based on racism and classism play an important role in shaping ecological functioning and patterns of land cover in urban environments. The well-being of city-dwellers is threatened by resulting disparities in access to health, educational, and public safety benefits of green space, and potential negative impacts on urban pollinators are especially alarming given the essential ecosystem services that they provide. We investigated the relationships among income, race, historical discriminatory practices, and pollinator abundance along an urban-rural gradient in Illinois, USA. A positive relationship between income and abundance was observed for flies while a negative relationship was observed for butterflies and overall pollinators. Additionally, we observed fewer pollinators in neighborhoods where more people of color live and for most pollinator groups this pattern was consistent along the urbanization gradient. The recognition of these inequities may facilitate our ability to correct them by allowing us to identify neighborhoods that will most benefit from pollinator conservation. Targeting these neighborhoods for conservation efforts may help us move towards a social-ecological system in which all people benefit from the ecosystem services provided by pollinators.