• Children’s playgrounds support less pollinators compared to neighbouring green areas. • Pollinators in playgrounds are strongly associated to local floral abundance. • Best children’s playgrounds hosted more individuals and species than control sites. • Bees were abundant in early summer, while bumblebees and butterflies in late summer. • Honeybee abundance was negatively associated with solitary bee abundance in early summer. Urbanisation is a key driver of pollinator declines, yet the ecological potential of unconventional urban habitats remains poorly understood. Among these, children’s playgrounds are ubiquitous but virtually unstudied urban green spaces. We conducted the first systematic assessment of playgrounds as pollinator habitats in Prague, Czech Republic, by comparing pollinator communities in playgrounds and paired control sites (parks and urban lawns). In a two-year study, we sampled honeybees and wild bees (excluding bumblebees) at 82 sites and bumblebees and butterflies in more than 60 sites in early and late summer using standardised netting and visual transects. Simultaneously, we assessed local habitat characteristics (vegetation, floral abundance, bare ground, shade, and impervious surfaces) and surrounding landscape composition. Across taxa, playgrounds supported significantly fewer species and individuals than nearby green spaces, a pattern consistent across years and seasons. However, floral abundance was the most important predictor of species richness and abundance, with stronger effects in playgrounds, where even small floral increases yielded disproportionately high pollinator gains. In contrast, other local variables and landscape composition showed little or no influence. Moreover, we detected negative associations between honeybee and wild bee abundance in the early season within control sites, indicating potential competition for floral resources with this group but not with other pollinators. These findings demonstrate that playgrounds are currently suboptimal habitats but hold substantial potential, as some playgrounds in our dataset outperformed neighbouring control sites. Enhancing floral resources alone could rapidly increase their ecological value and transform them into contributors to urban biodiversity.
Jašková et al. (Fri,) studied this question.