Abstract Green roofs could mitigate the negative effects of urbanization by providing habitats for arthropods. However, more studies are necessary to understand if these new ecosystems can harbor similar numbers of species and levels of ecological processes than habitats at the ground-level. In 15 houses of 1–2 floors with extensive green roofs from a semi-rural area in Cordoba (central Argentina), we analyzed the species richness and abundance of arthropods on green roofs and their neighboring ground-level habitats and evaluated the influence of landscape composition (proportion of buildings, grasslands, and streets). We focus on feeding groups (herbivores, predators, omnivores, detritivores, parasitoids, and pollinators) and two ecological processes (herbivory and predation). Moreover, we tested two factors that may drive the communities on ground-level habitats and green roofs: habitat area and plant species richness. Species richness and abundance of arthropods (total and by feeding groups), and predation rates were significantly higher in ground-level habitats than on green roofs. Nevertheless, arthropod diversity on living roofs was striking, with almost 400 species from different feeding groups. Street cover in the landscape negatively affected total richness and several feeding groups. On ground-level habitats, herbivory increased with street cover and predation with grassland cover. The main factor driving arthropods in both green roofs and ground-level habitats was habitat area, whereas plant richness had a positive effect only in predators, detritivores, and omnivores. Our results reinforce the role of green roofs as habitat for arthropod species in semi-rural areas of Latin-American countries, where the evidence was so far lacking.

中文翻译：

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阿根廷半农村地区绿色屋顶的节肢动物多样性和生态过程：与邻近地面栖息地和景观效应的相似性

摘要 屋顶绿化可以通过为节肢动物提供栖息地来减轻城市化带来的负面影响。然而，需要更多的研究来了解这些新生态系统是否可以拥有与地面栖息地相似的物种数量和生态过程水平。在科尔多瓦（阿根廷中部）半农村地区的 15 栋 1-2 层的大面积绿色屋顶房屋中，我们分析了绿色屋顶上节肢动物的物种丰富度和丰度及其邻近的地面栖息地，并评估了景观的影响构成（建筑物、草地和街道的比例）。我们专注于饲养群体（食草动物、捕食者、杂食动物、食腐动物、寄生蜂和传粉者）和两个生态过程（食草动物和捕食动物）。而且，我们测试了可能在地面栖息地和绿色屋顶上推动社区发展的两个因素：栖息地面积和植物物种丰富度。地面栖息地的节肢动物物种丰富度和丰度（总和按摄食群体）和捕食率显着高于绿色屋顶。然而，生活屋顶上的节肢动物多样性是惊人的，有近 400 种来自不同进食群体的物种。景观中的街道覆盖对总丰富度和几个饲养群体产生了负面影响。在地面栖息地，草食性随着街道覆盖和草原覆盖而增加。在绿色屋顶和地面栖息地中驱动节肢动物的主要因素是栖息地面积，而植物丰富度仅对捕食者、食腐动物和杂食动物有积极影响。