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Cities are hotspots for threatened species
Abstract
Aim
Although urbanization impacts many species, there is little information on the patterns of occurrences of threatened species in urban relative to non‐urban areas. By assessing the extent of the distribution of threatened species across all A ustralian cities, we aim to investigate the currently under‐utilized opportunity that cities present for national biodiversity conservation.
Location
A ustralian mainland, T asmania and offshore islands.
Methods
Distributions of A ustralia's 1643 legally protected terrestrial species (hereafter ‘threatened species’) were compiled. We assessed the extent to which they overlapped with 99 cities (of more than 10,000 people), with all non‐urban areas, and with simulated ‘dummy’ cities which covered the same area and bioregion as the true cities but were non‐urban. We analysed differences between animals and plants, and examined variability within these groups using species accumulation modelling. Threatened species richness of true versus dummy cities was analysed using generalized linear mixed‐effects models.
Results
A ustralian cities support substantially more nationally threatened animal and plant species than all other non‐urban areas on a unit‐area basis. Thirty per cent of threatened species were found to occur in cities. Distribution patterns differed between plants and animals: individual threatened plant species were generally found in fewer cities than threatened animal species, yet plants were more likely to have a greater proportion of their distribution in urban areas than animals. Individual cities tended to contain unique suites of threatened species, especially threatened plants. The analysis of true versus dummy cities demonstrated that, even after accounting for factors such as net primary productivity and distance to the coast, cities still consistently supported a greater number of threatened species.
Main conclusions
This research highlights that A ustralian cities are important for the conservation of threatened species, and that the species assemblages of individual cities are relatively distinct. National conservation policy should recognize that cities play an integral role when planning for and managing threatened species.
... Current approaches in biological conservation assumes a causal link between habitat change and human exploitation and biodiversity loss (e.g., Krauss et al., 2010;Tilman et al., 2001), which suggest that the bulk of species highly adapted to a given habitat are passively disappearing while their natural habitats are being destroyed. However, this narrative is being challenged by recent findings showing that cities and similar human-dominated systems may harbor high numbers of threatened species; in some instances, more than in equivalent wild areas (Ives et al., 2016). Indeed, urban areas with a long history of intense human exploitation may have a higher potential for the recovery of threatened species, as observed for the smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata, now proliferating in urbanized coastal waters off Miami (McDonnell et al., 2020). ...
... A diverse set of threatened species are conquering human-dominated systems, including plants (e.g. Planchuelo et al., 2019), birds (e.g, Geary et al., 2021;Ives et al., 2016) and mammals (Busschots et al., 2020;Maclagan et al., 2018;Van Helden et al., 2020). Indeed, the size of urban populations of threatened species may be larger than their rural counterparts (Pagel et al., 2018). ...
... On the other hand, scale represents a challenge in our quest to understand how species respond to urbanization. For instance, it is common that regions defined as 'urban' in a given study contain in fact a heterogeneous composition of land covers that include small urban and rural patches, thus obscuring the assessment of drivers of the urbanization of endangered species (Ives et al., 2016). This also reflects a more general issue: the lack of adequate definitions of urbanness that would allow the objective quantification of urban gradients (Branoff, 2017). ...
Land use changes are heralded as a major driver of biodiversity loss. However, recent findings show that cities, perhaps the most radical habitat transformation, sustain increasing numbers of threatened species. This emerging trend has been mostly chronicled for vertebrates from landlocked cities, although loss of biodiversity and rates or urbanization are higher in coastal marine systems. To advance our understanding on how threatened species may conquer human‐dominated systems, we studied the threatened edible crab Cardisoma guanhumi and assessed how it is proliferating in croplands and urban systems at different spatial scales and whether populations show consequences of long‐term exploitation. We gathered the data on crab populations covering the whole distribution range, including three countries reporting this as a threatened species. The abundance, distribution, and size structure of crab populations among different land uses at local scales were compared and published data for populations thriving in different habitats throughout their distribution range were compiled. We found that at local scale this species is able to thrive in natural and human‐disturbed habitats, where food sources are heavily altered. At larger scales, the species showed no differences in abundance and size structure among natural and anthropogenic habitats. In areas near the southern distribution edge, crab populations were more abundant and composed of larger animals in urban areas and croplands than those in natural habitats, suggesting that human‐disturbed systems are stepping stones to extend the geographic range. However, we found a long‐term reduction in maximum body size, exacerbated by land use changes, that likely reflects exploitation regimes consistently targeting larger crabs. Despite its status as a threatened species, the long history of human exploitation combined with livestock farming practices may explain the proliferation of this crab in human‐dominated systems, which emphasize the need to consider conservation in human‐dominated systems.
... Moreover, we showed that most cities share a common set of bee species, while some species are exclusively found in one or a few cities only. Finally, we found that cities host on average fewer species with conservation status, compared to what was expected from the European Red List of Bees, and their presence was not explained by city area or UGS area in a city, giving little support to the increasingly held belief that cities can serve as refuges for endangered wild bee species (Ives et al., 2016). However, it is important to note that none of the data used in this study had the objective of specifically finding species with concerning conservation status, nor we can know if these species are present in the regional species pool or not. ...
... Cities have been previously described as "hotspots" for threatened species compared to non-urban areas in Australia (Ives et al., 2016). However, we did not find many threatened species in our set of 20 European cities, and their proportion was significantly lower compared to expectations from the European Red List of Bees. ...
In the context of worldwide biodiversity and wild bee decline, it is increasingly important to better understand the effect of land-use changes on wild bee communities at a global scale. To do so, we studied the effect of city area and urban green spaces layout on wild bee species richness and community composition, as well as on wild bee species with an unfavorable UICN conservation status. This study was based on a large European dataset encompassing 20 cities from France, Belgium and Switzerland. We found a mean wild bee species richness in cities of 96 ± 48 (SD), showing that this species richness was highly variable among cities. The main factor positively influencing wild bee species richness in cities was the area of the city. Conversely, species richness was not significantly related to the total area of urban green spaces in a given city, measured as the spatial extent of urban parks, wastelands and other semi-natural habitats, excluding urban private gardens. Species with conservation status were quite scarce in urban environments, especially when compared to the European Red List of Bees, and we could not link their presence to either city or urban green space area. Dissimilarities in wild bee species community compositions were not associated with any of the studied characteristics of cities. We found that the dissimilarity of wild bee community composition among cities was mainly driven by the rarest species, as the most common ones were found in a majority of the cities sampled. Overall, these results emphasize that larger cities host more wild bee species, but are no refuge for the ones with concerning conservation status. Thus, stakeholders are encouraged to design their cities in favor of biodiversity to better support wild bee communities, and perhaps mitigate the established effect of the urban ecological filter.
... While an argument could be made that cities are novel ecosystems and therefore the impacts of invasive species within cities would be low, important remnants of indigenous ecosystems and threatened species do occur within cities (e.g. Ives et al 2016, Potgieter et al 2022, and these are at risk from the impacts of weed invasion. Furthermore, urban developments are increasingly encroaching on natural areas. ...
... Cities can have multifunctional green spaces that are designed and implemented to meet the needs of people and increase ecosystem services, but they should also align their urban greening goals with sustainability goals and their obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Biodiversity is declining globally, and cities provide opportunities to increase indigenous biodiversity (Ives et al 2016, Lepczyk et al 2023, McDonald et al 2023. For example, some threatened plants, including the 'Nationally Endangered' shrubby tororaro (Muehlenbeckia astonii), are now included in plans for traffic island plantings in Aotearoa-New Zealand cities (figure 2, de Lange and Jones 2000). ...
There is an increasing disconnect between people and nature as we become more urbanised. Intensification in cities often results in a reduction of natural areas, more homogenised and manicured green spaces, and loss of biota. Compared to people in rural areas, urban dwellers are less likely visit natural areas and recognise and value biota. Reconnecting people with nature in the city not only benefits human mental and physical wellbeing but can also have positive effects on how people value biodiversity and act on conservation issues. However, in some contexts, the push to reconnect people with nature may have unintended negative outcomes on biodiversity, particularly if place-specific nature is not used in urban greening. In the current biodiversity crisis, using vegetation and green space design that is not reflective of the environmental context of a city can further disconnect residents, particularly Indigenous people, from their local environment and species, and further entrench extinction of experience and loss of environmental values. This disconnect can result in residents applying wildlife gardening practices, such as bird feeding, that are not specific to place, and benefit introduced species over indigenous species. Furthermore, cities are gateways for invasive species, and using species in greening projects that are not locally sourced has already left cities and their surrounding regions with a large weed legacy. Using place-specific nature and green space in cities can be less resource intensive, highly beneficial for biodiversity and give residents a unique sense of place. Rather than simply adding ‘more nature’ in cities, the messaging should be more complex, emphasising the need for urban greening to be context specific to avoid negative impacts on biodiversity and ecological and cultural services.
... Hence, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has recently listed an explicit target to increase the area of green spaces in cities while mainstreaming the conservation of urban biodiversity (CBD, 2022). Forests located within cities and metropolitan landscapes may be particularly valuable for maintaining biodiversity in an urban context by providing habitat and refugia and as local biodiversity hotspots (Corlett, 1992;Ives et al., 2016;Silva-Junior et al., 2018;Knapp et al., 2020). Additionally, such urban and periurban forests provide numerous ecosystem services to urban dwellers such as recreation, support for physical and mental well-being of citizens, carbon sequestration while offering nature-based solutions to mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effects, air pollution and excessive stormwater run-off (Livesley et al., 2016;Remme et al., 2021;Iungman et al., 2023). ...
... While we did not observe edgeto-interior patterns in terms of cover or numbers of forest specialist species that were strikingly different in Bremen compared to the other urban forests (Appendix S1 (Figure S7, S8)), this would be an interesting hypothesis to investigate with a larger set of urban forests differing in past land use and forest age. Nevertheless, our findings support other recent studies showing the conservational value of urban ecosystems and their suitability even for habitat specialists and threatened species (Noreika et al., 2015;Ives et al., 2016;Rebolo-Ifrán et al., 2017) despite the general biotic homogenization trends observed in urban landscapes (McKinney, 2006;Morelli et al., 2016;Ayers & Rehan, 2021). ...
Questions
Forests are highly fragmented across the globe. For urban forests in particular, fragmentation increases the exposure to local warming caused by the urban heat island (UHI) effect. We here aim to quantify edge effects on herbaceous understorey vegetation in urban forests, and test whether these effects interact with forest structural complexity.
Location
We set up a pan‐European study at the continental scale including six urban forests in Zurich, Paris, Katowice, Brussels, Bremen, and Stockholm.
Methods
We recorded understorey plant communities from the edge towards the interior of urban forests. Within each urban forest, we studied edge‐to‐interior gradients in paired stands with differing forest structural complexity. Community composition was analysed based on species specialism, life form, light, nutrient, acidity and disturbance indicator values and species' thermal niches.
Results
We found that herbaceous communities at urban forest edges supported more generalists and forbs but fewer ferns than in forests' interiors. A buffered summer microclimate proved crucial for the presence of fern species. The edge communities contained more thermophilous, disturbance‐tolerant, nutrient‐demanding and basiphilous plant species, a pattern strongly confirmed by corresponding edge‐to‐interior gradients in microclimate, soil and light conditions in the understorey. Additionally, plots with a lower canopy cover and higher light availability supported higher numbers of both generalists and forest specialists. Even though no significant interactions were found between the edge distance and forest structural complexity, opposing additive effects indicated that a dense canopy can be used to buffer negative edge effects.
Conclusion
The urban environment poses a multifaceted filter on understorey plant communities which contributes to significant differences in community composition between urban forest edges and interiors. For urban biodiversity conservation and the buffering of edge effects, it will be key to maintain dense canopies near urban forest edges.
... Although urban environments are not commonly considered as biodiversity hotspots, they have been shown to provide important habitats for certain endangered species (Alvey 2006). In Australia, 30% of threatened plant and animal species occur in cities (Ives et al. 2016). Similar findings have been reported in Europe, suggesting that even heavily urbanised areas can offer suitable habitats for endangered local flora and fauna (Jokimäki et al. 2018, Kowarik andvon der Lippe 2018). ...
... Note: A represents sightings of West European hedgehogs, B of European rabbits, C of hazel dormice, D of European water voles and E of European red squirrels compared to the other studied land covers, urban areas did support populations of several vulnerable or endangered species. Existing literature has also highlighted the importance of cities and urban areas in terms of distinct assemblages of threatened and/or protected mammals (Fernández and Simonetti 2013;Ives et al. 2016;Dietz et al. 2020). Four out of five of the vulnerable and endangered species recorded in this study were present in the urban setting. ...
The fragmentation of habitats associated with urbanisation poses a significant threat to already vulnerable and endangered mammal species. While the county of Dorset has been identified as one of the UK’s biodiversity hotspots, it is characterised by large-scale urbanisation and intensive agriculture. Focusing on the largest urban area of Dorset—the conurbation of Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole—this study aims to investigate the importance of urban areas in supporting vulnerable and endangered mammals by comparing it to four other major land cover categories in the county: arable & horticulture, grassland, woodland, and heathland. The study utilises data collected by the county’s environmental records department through mainly volunteer-contributed ad-hoc sighting data of 10 872 georeferenced mammal records collected between 2000 and 2018. Our findings reveal that, despite having significantly different mammal communities to all other land covers, urban land cover was shown to host four out of five of the vulnerable and endangered species recorded in this study. These included the European rabbit (vulnerable on the IUCN red list), hazel dormouse (vulnerable on the UK red list), West European hedgehog (vulnerable on the UK red list) and European water vole (endangered on the UK red list). Our findings highlight the significance of urban areas as important habitats for mammal biodiversity, presenting an opportunity for the conservation of specific vulnerable and endangered species. Despite limitations in ad-hoc sighting data, our analysis indicates an overrepresentation of certain 'charismatic' species, like foxes and hedgehogs, in urban samples, likely due to their high intrinsic value to the population. While the recognition of urban habitats for 'red list' species is growing, it is also important to acknowledge the relative importance of charismatic species to urban human communities in conservation and management strategies.
... Instead, both the richness of plant species in bloom and the number of floral displays showed a significant positive correlation with the cover of urban green spaces. Urban green spaces are often only appreciated as features vital for human health and well-being (Lepczyk et al. 2017); however, urban green spaces have also been proven to significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation by harbouring self-sustaining native plant populations (Kowarik and von der Lippe 2018;Wintle et al. 2019), including rare and threatened species (Ives et al. 2016;Planchuelo et al. 2019). ...
In the debate on the impact of urbanisation on biodiversity, two characteristics of urbanisation have been identified that mainly determine the extent of the impact, namely the level of urbanisation and the landscape context. More recently, it has been theorised that urban sprawl in an intensive agricultural landscape has a positive influence on pollinators by increasing habitat and resource availability. Using the eastern Po Plain (north-eastern Italy) as a model system, we investigated the relationship between attributes of landscape composition and configuration, pollinator richness and visits in 39 randomly selected permanent plots. Contrary to expectations, we found no relationship between urban sprawl and pollinator species richness. Conversely, descriptors of urban sprawl such as landscape heterogeneity and the proportion of urban green spaces had a positive influence on the number of pollinator visits. This suggests that urban sprawl, when occurring in an intensive agricultural land, has a positive effect on the abundance of local pollinator populations, while it may not promote pollinator richness due to limited immigration opportunities in the matrix of intensive agricultural land. Our results emphasise the importance of urban green spaces in supporting pollinator communities, but also the need to improve the heterogeneity and permeability of the landscape matrix for biodiversity to enhance pollinator conservation in human-modified landscapes.
... For example, the amount of impervious surface such as buildings and roads as well as artificial light at night can disrupt patterns of arthropod dispersal and foraging (Schoeman 2016;Egerer et al. 2017;Johnson, Borowy, and Swan 2018;Philpott et al. 2019). Although these effects of urbanization have reduced arthropod abundance and diversity in some cities (Deichsel 2006; Horv� ath, Magura, and T� othm� er� esz 2012; Magura, Nagy, and T� othm� er� esz 2013), urban ecosystems can support species-rich communities (Dearborn and Kark 2010;Ives et al. 2016;Normandin et al. 2017). Whether a city can support diverse arthropod communities may depend on the amount, local management, and landscape context of its urban greenspaces (McKinney 2006;Kark et al. 2007;Aronson et al. 2014). ...
Urbanization is often detrimental to biodiversity, yet urban greenspaces can be managed to provide habitat for many arthropods. Understanding how anthropogenic filters influence processes of community assembly in urban ecosystems will inform conservation of species such as spiders, which provide natural pest control. Spiders are abundant in urban areas, but the relative importance of bi-otic and abiotic factors for structuring spider communities in urban greenspaces is unclear. We initiated the Cleveland Pocket Prairie Project in the legacy city of Cleveland, Ohio, where vacant lots and urban prairies were established across eight inner-city neighborhoods. In each greenspace, spiders were collected along with landscape and local environmental data in July 2017. Using a path analysis approach, we investigated the relative importance and strength of landscape and local environmental filters for influencing the structure of spider communities during midsummer within this system. We found that spider community assembly was influenced by multiple abiotic and biotic drivers across spatial scales related to landscape composition, soil texture and quality, prey breadth, and habitat management designs. Web-building and active hunting spiders responded differently to these landscape and local drivers, highlighting the need to incorporate a functional perspective when studying community assembly. These findings suggest that a multi-scale approach to conservation management is needed to support biodiversity and associated biological control services in urban ecosystems.
... For example, a study from Switzerland showed that intensively managed agricultural ecosystems had even lower abundance of several indicator invertebrates compared to urban ecosystems (Turrini & Knop, 2015). This also emphasizes the importance of urban areas for biodiversity conservation, a topic that remains debated (Shwartz et al., 2014;Ives et al., 2016). Our results support this idea to some extent, in that significant negative associations with urbanization were absent for the majority of species. ...
Urbanization forms one of the most drastic alterations of the environment and poses a major threat to wildlife. The human–induced modifications of the landscape may affect individual's fitness resulting in population declines. Research on how urbanization affects fitness traits has shown mixed results. However, studies typically contrasted data from a single species from few urban and non‐urban sites collected over short timeframes. Examining multiple species across a broad urbanization gradient enables a more robust comparison and understanding of how different species are impacted by urbanization‐knowledge crucial for generating population predictions, which are essential for conservation management. Here, we use data from a nation‐wide citizen science project to examine variation in survival and relative body mass and size (wing length) of common passerine birds, collected along an urbanization gradient in the Netherlands over an 8‐year period. Urbanization was measured as the distance from the city's border and the proportion of impervious surface area. Although the overall association between urbanization and survival was slightly negative, there was support for lower survival closer to the city in three species (chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita , European robin Erithacus rubecula , European greenfinch Chloris chloris ) and higher survival closer to the city in two (great tit Parus major and house sparrow Passer domesticus ) of the 11 species examined. The contrasting survival successes among species suggest that ongoing urbanization may lead to shifts in community structure and loss of biodiversity. Impacts of urbanization on relative mass and size also exhibited varying effects, albeit less pronounced, and these effects were not correlated with the effects on survival. This implies that body mass and size cannot be used as indicators for urban‐associated patterns of survival. Our results further imply that effective conservation management targeting bird communities should involve a range of diverse actions, as focusing on single measures is unlikely to simultaneously impact multiple species due to the variation in responses to urbanization.
... Consequently, urbanization also affects biodiversity but findings are still ambiguous. Some studies report an overall negative impact (Aronson et al., 2014;Grimm et al., 2008;Ibáñez-Álamo et al., 2017), whereas others give evidence that urban areas can harbor higher diversity than their surroundings (i.e., Gagné et al., 2016;Imai & Nakashizuka, 2010;Ives et al., 2016;Thompson et al., 2022). In any case, scholars agree that especially urban green spaces play an important role in supporting urban biodiversity (i.e., Fontana et al., 2011;Oliveira Hagen et al., 2017;Sandström et al., 2006). ...
Urbanization has far‐reaching consequences on birds, and knowledge of the impacts on taxonomic and functional diversity is necessary to make cities as compatible as possible for species. Avian diversity in parks in urban centers has been investigated multiple times, but rarely so in long‐term studies due to lacking data. The Tiergarten in Berlin is a large‐scale park in the city center of great value for people and many species including birds. We compiled bird species lists since 1850 and from monitoring in 2022 in one dataset to investigate how bird communities and guilds have changed over time and how these alterations were influenced by the eventful history of the park's vegetation conditions. Long‐term changes in species assemblages were analyzed with an ordination analysis, and changes in guild presence and functional richness were discussed with regard to landscape transitions. A gradual development of species assemblages yet only small changes in guild composition since 1850 was detected, whereas the 1950 community stands out with a drop in species richness and replacement of forest species with an open land community, which reflects the deforestation of the park during World War II. Consideration of habitat, lifestyle, trophic, and migration guilds revealed no sign of functional homogenization over the last 172 years (1850–2022). Despite the high frequentation of the park by humans it still allows for a high bird diversity due to the Tiergarten's sheer size and heterogeneity of vegetation and habitats. We recommend that the park is maintained and managed accordingly to preserve this condition and advise other urban parks to strive for these beneficial features.
... The spread of urbanised areas represents a major threat to global biodiversity due to the alteration of natural and cultural landscapes (Fenoglio et al., 2020;Hou et al., 2023;McKinney, 2008;Sushinsky et al., 2013). On the other hand, cities can concurrently harbour species-rich communities (Sattler et al., 2011) and contribute to the conservation of many threatened or declining taxa (e.g., Boal & Dykstra, 2018;Buchholz et al., 2018;Ives et al., 2016;Spotswood et al., 2021). For example, old trees in parks or forest fragments within cities can serve as habitat for endangered bats or the great capricorn beetle Cerambyx cerdo (Linnaeus, 1758) (Dietz et al., 2020;Evelyn et al. 2004;Kadej et al., 2017) and artificial structures such as buildings are used as habitat analogues by predatory birds such as the locally endangered peregrine falcon (Boal & Dykstra, 2018). ...
Although urbanisation is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, its effect on particular invertebrate groups remains ambiguous on local and landscape scales.
We aimed to analyse the effect of urban grassland management on spiders (Araneae) and carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae), as well as other local and landscape parameters. We investigated 27 grasslands of two different management intensities (‘extensive’: one to two late cuts with removal of biomass [ n = 18]; ‘intensive’: three to five mulching cuts [ n = 9]) in the city of Karlsruhe, Germany. Pitfall trapping and sweep netting were performed to sample carabids and spiders.
Results indicate that urban grasslands in Karlsruhe are inhabited by species‐rich assemblages, including several species of conservation concern (cc). Latter remain mostly restricted to dry grassland. The number of total specimens and of those belonging to species of cc were negatively affected by intensive management. The number of specimens of species of cc further decreased with increasing humidity and in spiders, additionally, by vegetation height. Landscape factors had limited effects, and only isolation of meadows negatively influenced the species richness of carabids (total and of species of cc).
Our results demonstrate that conservation of dry grasslands in urban areas is crucial for sustaining local arthropod communities. Dry urban grassland may also act as a refugium for species of cc and mitigate the global insect crisis on a local and regional scale. In conclusion, biodiversity‐friendly mowing regimes should be applied on a broader scale in urban areas and target especially dry grassland plots. In addition, increasing connectivity and permeability of the urban matrix assist the colonisation by species of cc.
... With accelerating global urbanisation rates and loss of biodiverse habitats to urban development [1], interest in preserving wild areas in cities has increased in recent years [2]. Urban natural spaces are becoming essential places for biodiversity promotion in cities [3] and provide a wide array of benefits such as increasing resilience to climate change [4][5][6]. Further than biodiversity promotion, urban natural spaces provide nature contact for urban residents [6], helping improve human health and well-being [7]. ...
Urban natural spaces provide important ecosystem services and a wide range of health- and well-being-related benefits for their visitors. They are also essential spaces for biodiversity protection and promotion in a world of rising urbanisation rates and worsening impacts of climate change. However, these spaces are often underutilised by urban residents. When they are utilised, this usage often leads to some level of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Hence, understanding how to promote both use and biodiversity levels in urban natural spaces is critical. While various reports have studied the broad factors associated with urban natural space use, the specific relationship between biodiversity and use remains to be explored. This paper uses a Systems Thinking approach to unpack the complex relationship between urban natural space use and biodiversity and to help guide the design and management of these spaces in a way that promotes both use and biodiversity. With data collected from a systematic literature review, a causal loop diagram (CLD) was constructed and analysed. The CLD construction and analysis highlighted various key factors that play an important role in relating urban natural space use and biodiversity. Among these is the role of individual and social perceptions and values in determining how biodiversity levels will affect usage, and vice versa. The results were applied to a case study: the Thamesmead regeneration project undertaken by the social housing association Peabody. We made recommendations regarding Peabody’s biodiversity and green infrastructure plans for Thamesmead, presenting new design and maintenance techniques and assessing various existing techniques mentioned in the documents. Through the CLD analysis, we uncovered various unintended consequences from common design and maintenance techniques and discuss these trade-offs and relationships.
... Contrary to the common perception of cities as devoid of wildlife, they have become significant hotspots for wild animals. For example, Ives et al. (2016) emphasise the importance of urban areas for threatened species in Australia. Sterba (2012) sheds light on the remarkable resurgence of wild animals in U.S. cities, bringing inhabitants closer to them than ever before in history. ...
This paper critically examines the prevailing paradigms of environmental and spatial justice, emphasising the existing disparities in policies that predominantly favour human interests while overlooking the fundamental rights and well-being of non-human species. Despite the growing acknowledgement of the importance of establishing a deeper connection between human and non-human actors for overall well-being, a pervasive speciesism mindset persists, distancing humans from the broader natural world. This separation from nature profoundly influences the formulation of policies and justice, establishing a bias that focuses primarily on human concerns and environmental conditions tailored to human well-being. Architects and planners, despite possessing the potential to enrich habitats for various species, frequently adopt human-centric approaches that marginalise other-than-human entities, restricting their access to the immediate surroundings of human territories and impeding opportunities for immersive nature experiences. This article advocates for a comprehensive paradigm shift in architectural practices, urging a more inclusive and equitable approach that extends spatial and environmental justice to encompass the diverse needs and rights of both human and non-human species within the urban landscape. The conclusions underscore the urgent need for architects and planners to re-evaluate their approaches, fostering an environment that supports coexistence and acknowledges the interconnectedness of all species. In the face of global biodiversity concerns and international frameworks such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the research contributes to the discourse on sustainable and ethical design practices, advocating for a future where spatial and environmental justice extends its reach beyond the confines of human experience to create a respectful and just coexistence with the entire ecological community.
... We found that species that were of international conservation concern or decreasing in population size were less likely to have been recorded using urban habitats. These figures contrast with another study assessing the relationship between national conservation status and urban habitat use in a wider variety of animal and plant taxa in Australia (Ives et al., 2016). There may be divergent effects on different taxa in different geographical areas, and the stage of urbanisation and cause of the population declines could be important. ...
The expansion of urban areas affects wild animals in a variety of ways. Why members of closely-related species respond differently to urbanisation is often unclear, but an understanding of the factors that lead to urban habitat use or avoidance will have important implications for conservation. Previous research has suggested that urban habitats could favour larger-brained, behaviourally flexible species, which can more readily cope with the novel challenges imposed by urbanisation. However, the opportunity species have to colonise urban areas, and similarities between urban areas and species’ natural habitats, may also explain urban habitat use. We use phylogenetic path analysis to investigate factors that could promote urban breeding and foraging in the gull subfamily, a group with several urbanised species. While we find little evidence to support a relationship between brain size and urban foraging, we reveal an indirect relationship between brain size and urban breeding: cliff-nesting species have relatively larger brains and these species are more likely to breed in urban areas. We show that cliff nesting in gulls is a derived trait and may therefore reflect plasticity in breeding habitat choice, facilitating the use of buildings as nesting sites. Finally, we show that urbanised gull species are less likely to be of international conservation concern or decreasing in population size, exposing the need for more research on the causes and consequences of urban habitat use.
... Global biodiversity is declining at a dramatic rate due to numerous threats (e.g., land-use change, climate change, resource exploitation, and invasive species spread 17,18 ) and international organizations are calling on cities to contribute to its conservation and restoration 19 . Although urbanization is a main driver of biodiversity loss, urban areas can also provide valuable habitat for species, including those of conservation importance 20 . Cities often overlap with endangered ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots 21 , and are sometimes the last remnant of habitat for species 22 . ...
Blue-green infrastructure (BGI), combining semi-natural and engineered elements, offers multifaceted benefits like stormwater management, water purification, heat mitigation, and habitat provision. However, current BGI designs prioritize engineering goals, overlooking its ecological potential. Here we advocate for integrating engineering and ecological objectives into BGI design to enhance performance and biodiversity. Through an interdisciplinary literature review, we emphasize the importance of species diversity, abundance, and ecological processes, to improve engineering performance and resilience, and lower management costs. We emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to navigate trade-offs between engineering and ecological objectives, ultimately enabling us to engineer both for and with biodiversity.
... The high proportion of nonnative plant species found, for non-lawn plants in particular, may reflect the contributions of the ornamental plant trade and urbanization to plant introductions and potential invasions (Reichard and White 2001;van Kleunen et al. 2018). Despite the proportion of non-native plants, we also found many native species (39%), especially in lawns (55%), reiterating the potential for residential landscapes to support, and be managed for, native biodiversity (Ives et al. 2016;Aronson et al. 2017;Lepczyk et al. 2017). ...
Context
In residential landscapes, people acknowledge and manage larger, conventionally attractive plants differently than smaller, less conspicuous ones, possibly leading to a divergence in basic ecological patterns such as diversity-area relationships.
Objectives
We tested for divergences between lawn and non-lawn plants, and compared perceived and actual species richness in residential yards. We hypothesized that: (1) homeowner perception of plant species richness is more related to the actual species richness of non-lawn plants than lawn plants, and (2) alpha diversity will increase more rapidly, and beta diversity will decrease less rapidly for non-lawn plants than lawn plants with increasing spatial scale.
Methods
We recorded all plant species in four 5 × 5 m plots in the front and back yards of 30 residences within four neighborhoods of Gainesville, Florida, United States (N = 238 plots). We also surveyed residents regarding perceived plant species richness in their yards.
Results
We detected 386 non-lawn and 140 lawn species. Perceived plant species richness was positively related to non-lawn species richness and negatively related to lawn species richness, suggesting perception of species richness largely reflected that of non-lawn plants. Alpha diversity increased more rapidly, while beta diversity decreased less rapidly, for non-lawn plants than lawn plants with increasing spatial scale, although lawns had more species within individual yards.
Conclusions
Findings revealed a divergence in diversity-area relationships between different plant groups in residential landscapes. We should consider the ecological implications of unrecognized plant diversity, particularly in residential lawns, where management often strives to limit plant species richness.
... That said, it has been increasingly recognised that urban ecosystems are ecosystems of concern for biodiversity conservation (being for example listed in the recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) typology as part of the ecosystems found in the intensive land-use biome; Keith et al. 2020), with many cities being richer in plant species, including in native species, than rural areas, and sometimes harbouring self-sustaining populations of rare and threatened native species (Kowarik 2011, Ives et al. 2015. ...
... However, urbanization has resulted in substantial changes in land use, reducing the structural diversity and extent of available habitat, leading to associated declines in the diversity and abundance of many invertebrate species in urban areas 10 . Developing strategies that incorporate biodiversity into urban areas must be a priority to promote and preserve healthy and functional urban environments 11,12 . ...
In urban areas, diverse and complex habitats for biodiversity are often lacking. This lack of diversity not only compromises essential ecological processes, such as pollination and nutrient cycling, but also diminishes the resilience of urban ecosystems to pests and diseases. To enhance urban biodiversity, a possible solution is to integrate shrubs alongside trees, thereby increasing the overall amount of vegetation, structural complexity and the associated resource diversity. Here, using a common garden experiment involving a variety of trees and shrubs planted alone and in combination, we evaluate how canopy-associated invertebrate assemblages are influenced by vegetation type. In particular, we test whether the presence of shrubs, alone or with trees, results in increased abundance and taxonomic richness of invertebrates, compared to trees on their own. We found that the overall abundance of invertebrates, and that of specific functional groups (e.g., herbivores, pollinators, detritivores), was higher on shrubs, compared to trees, and when trees and shrubs were planted in combination (relative to trees on their own). Our results suggest that planting shrub and tree species with wide and dense crowns can increase the associated abundance and taxonomic and functional group richness of invertebrate communities. Overall, our findings indicate that urban planning would benefit from incorporating shrubs alongside urban trees to maximise invertebrate abundance, diversity and function in urban landscapes.
... Over half of the human population live in urban areas, making the increase in urbanisation one of the defining transformations of the 21 st century (United Nations Habitat 2022). Human settlements occur in species-rich regions (Luck 2007) and consequently, urban areas can contain high biodiversity (Ives et al. 2016). Some urban areas contain the last remaining patches of habitat for endemic species, providing the last opportunity for conservation of threatened species (Soanes and Lentini 2019;Spotswood et al. 2021). ...
Efforts to create sustainable cities and urban climate-resilience depend on understanding how wildlife use the urban matrix to guide urban planning and design. Urban environments combine natural elements like topography and waterways, with various intensities of urban development. These combinations shape the spatial environment of cities and influence the diversity and persistence of urban wildlife. Insectivorous bats occur in urban areas, with urban tolerant species correlated with greater mobility and flexible roosting strategies, such as trawling bats. To understand how trawling bats use urban space, we studied patterns of land use selection in an urban population of a trawling bat, the large-footed myotis (Myotis macropus) in a subtropical city. We quantified fine-scale space use using radio telemetry over two seasons using land use categories applied in urban planning and design. Bats used urban land use types in a non-random manner, displaying a preference for green and blue space associated with the recreation land use type at both the landscape and home range scale. Tracked bats used waterways and riparian areas, as well as parkland, sportsgrounds and other green space adjacent to waterways. Trawling bats are dependent on riparian habitats, and these complex habitats are particularly vulnerable to changes to the availability of water resources associated with climate change. Maintaining spatial heterogeneity in urban planning and design by retaining and providing green space along, and adjacent to waterways, will provide a landscape mosaic for urban trawling bats to persist, facilitating climate change resilience in a specialist urban species.
... Bari has instead developed from the Adriatic coast towards inner territories, resulting in the preservation of small natural remnants along riverbeds (lame) that stretch from the nearby Alta Murgia plateau down to the city center (Labadessa and Ancillotto 2023b). In both cases, such development patterns have produced a network of green spaces characterized by high 'naturalness', and provide vital habitats to wildlife (Planchuelo et al. 2019;Soanes and Lentini 2019;Ives et al. 2016). Such network of green spaces clearly offers profitable opportunities to those species that are not capable of directly exploiting urban or highly modified habitats (e.g., agroecosystems) (Ancillotto and Labadessa 2023), including Z. cassandra, as also evident by the spatial configuration of the network of suitable sites we found. ...
Cities are expanding at fast rates across the world, representing one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss due to habitat replacement. Nonetheless, urban and peri-urban areas often feature green spaces that may offer opportunities to wildlife and even represent safe havens for endangered species. Nonetheless, the key drivers that shape wildlife responses to urban landscapes, and in turn their ability to persist within cities, are far from being fully understood. Here we focus on an ecologically specialized butterfly, the endemic Italian festoon Zerynthia cassandra, as a model to assess how endangered species may survive in highly modified urban landscapes. The relatively low mobility and high host plant specialization make Z. cassandra an excellent target for studies in urban ecology, as they make the species able to exploit small suitable patches while at the same time potentially sensitive to habitat fragmentation and loss due to urbanization and land reclamation. We thus first document the relatively widespread occurrence of potentially suitable sites within two highly modified landscapes of central and southern Italy, with 25 and 35% of sites actually occupied by Z. cassandra. By modeling the probability of butterfly occurrence as a function of environmental characteristics, we found that Z. cassandra is strongly influenced by functional connectivity among suitable sites in urban landscapes, as well as by the abundance of Aristolochia host plants, and by the availability of profitable land cover classes in the immediate surroundings of potential oviposition sites. Our results indicate not only that networks of urban and peri-urban green spaces may host populations of protected and endangered species, but that management should also focus on the urban matrix in order to provide connecting corridors, as key assets to guarantee species persistence in cities.
... Over the last 30 years, research has revealed that cities can be more than a concrete jungle; they can host a large diversity of non-human organisms, and not only human commensals and parasites (Aronson et al., 2014). With the intensification of agriculture (and forestry), urban areas could even offer an important refuge for biodiversity, and consequently play a significant role in nature conservation (Hall et al., 2017;Ives et al., 2016;Lepczyk, Aronson & La Sorte, 2023). Among the main factors explaining the hosting capacities of cities for biodiversity, direct human interventions, maintenance intensity and the autonomy of ecological processes appear to be essential for controlling the richness and abundance of the majority of non-human organisms from plants to birds, and even microorganisms (Beninde, Veith & Horchkirch, 2015;Mills et al., 2020). ...
Accelerating urbanisation and associated lifestyle changes result in loss of biodiversity and diminished wellbeing of people through fewer direct interactions and experiences with nature. In this review, we propose the notion of urban wilding (the promotion of autonomous ecological processes that are independent of historical land‐use conditions, with minimal direct human maintenance and planting interventions) and investigate its propensity to improve biodiversity and people–nature connections in cities. Through a large interdisciplinary synthesis, we explore the ecological mechanisms through which urban wilding can promote biodiversity in cities, investigate the attitudes and relations of city dwellers towards urban wild spaces, and discuss the integration of urban wilding into the fabric of cities and its governance. We show that favouring assembly spontaneity by reducing planting interventions, and functional spontaneity by limiting maintenance practices, can promote plant diversity and provide ecological resources for numerous organisms at habitat and city scales. These processes could reverse biotic homogenisation, but further studies are needed to understand the effects of wilding on invasive species and their consequences. From a socio‐ecological perspective, the attitudes of city dwellers towards spontaneous vegetation are modulated by successional stages, with grassland and woodland stages preferred, but dense shrubby vegetation stages disliked. Wild spaces can diversify physical interactions with nature, and enrich multi‐sensory, affective and cognitive experiences of nature in cities. However, some aspects of wild spaces can cause anxiety, feeling unsafe, and the perception of abandonment. These negative attitudes could be mitigated by subtle design and maintenance interventions. While nature has long been thought of as ornamental and instrumental in cities, urban wilding could help to develop relational and intrinsic values of nature in the fabric of cities. Wildness and its singular aesthetics should be combined with cultural norms, resident uses and urban functions to plan and design urban spatial configurations promoting human–non‐human cohabitation. For urban wilding to be socially just and adapted to the needs of residents, its implementation should be backed by inclusive governance opening up discussion forums to residents and urban workers. Scientists can support these changes by collaborating with urban actors to design and experiment with new wild spaces promoting biodiversity and wellbeing of people in cities.
... In recent decades, urban greenspaces (i.e., vegetated areas including but not limited to grass, flowers, bushes, or trees; adapted from Lachowycz & Jones, 2013) have been highlighted for their critical role in mitigating the impacts of accelerating urbanization on native biodiversity (Beninde et al., 2015;Lepczyk et al., 2017). For example, urban greenspaces can serve as reservoirs of local biodiversity, supporting more diverse communities than the surrounding built environment and even threatened or endangered species (Ives et al., 2016;MacGregor-Fors et al., 2016;Soanes & Lentini, 2019). These greenspaces can also stimulate positive humanwildlife interactions and provide a variety of other ecological and cultural ecosystem services (Aerts et al., 2018;Carr et al., 2022;Fuller et al., 2007). ...
... Urbanised landscapes within the region are relatively 'green' (e.g. Albany; Van Helden et al. 2021a) and, like other cities, native animal wildlife distributions overlap urban areas (Ives et al. 2016). This region is characterised by a Mediterranean climate, with cool wet winters (June-August) and hot dry summers (December-February). ...
Private gardens comprise a large component of greenspace in cities and can offer substantial conservation opportunities. There has been strong advocacy from researchers, policymakers, and conservation practitioners to engage householders in wildlife-friendly gardening practices to increase the quantity, quality and connection of habitat resources for urban wildlife. Despite this call to action, there remains limited knowledge on the use and benefit of some wildlife-friendly structures within gardens, such as artificial refuges and water sources. In collaboration with 131 citizen scientists in southwestern Australia, we examined the use of seven wildlife-friendly structure types by four vertebrate taxa groups. Following 2841 wildlife surveys undertaken between 31 July 2022 and 22 February 2023, we found that all structures were used primarily by target taxa, water sources were often used by relatively common species, certain structures such as possum shelters were used by rare and threatened species (e.g. western ringtail possum), and that there was evidence of animals making use of the wildlife-friendly structures for reproduction (e.g. bird eggs in nest boxes and tadpoles in water sources). Water sources were used more frequently and by a greater diversity of wildlife than artificial refuges. In particular, bird baths were used by the highest number of species (mainly birds) while ponds were used by the greatest variety of taxa (birds, reptiles, frogs, mammals). Our findings provide evidence-based support for the advocacy of wildlife-friendly gardening practices and further highlight the role of residential gardens for biodiversity conservation.
... More than 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas, but in higher-income regions (such as North America and Western Europe), this proportion is closer to 80% (Ritchie and Roser, 2019). Urbanisation often occurs in areas where biodiversity is high and can directly cause the degradation and fragmentation of habitats (Ives et al., 2016;Nilon et al., 2017). Promoting biodiversity in cities can help to address many of the challenges that face human populations in urban environments (Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2019). ...
... That number is expected to rise to almost 60% in the next decade. The complex effects of urbanization on local flora and fauna include high local extinction rates (McKinney 2002), but they can also result in safe havens for endangered or rare species (Madre et al. 2014;Ives et al. 2016). According to Dearborn and Kark (2010), maintaining a high level of urban biodiversity is essential for maintaining ecosystem services, such as the provision of food and fibre and the regulation of local and global climate change, which have measurable positive effects on both physical and psychological health Cocker 2014; Wafae Squalli wafaesqualli7@gmail.com 1 Carrus et al. 2015;Hedblom et al. 2017). ...
Avian diversity is very poor in urban zones due to the loss of natural ecosystems, breeding sites, nesting substrates, and foraging resources. However, the variation of these elements following the urban gradient is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to look into the nesting substrates, breeding communities, habitat use, and bird abundance in the urban and peri-urban environments in central Morocco’s Fez City. Field visits were conducted monthly from 2017 to 2019 in urban and peri-urban habitats with a 1–3 km transect method. Birds were identified visually and acoustically with points of count separated by 100 to 300 m. We noted bird species, populations, type of habitat, nesting site, and nesting substrate. A total of 140 avian species were identified in peri-urban (130 species) and urban (68 species) zones. Equally, 717 nests of 29 bird species were documented in urbanized (109 nests of 13 species) and peri-urban (608 nests of 20 species) habitats. In peri-urban ecosystems, nests of breeders were recorded in farmlands, wetlands, and forests. In the urban zone, nests were recorded in urban farms, green gardens, walls, and urban forests. Equally, nesting substrates were variable among surveyed zones. On the other hand, nests of four breeding birds were recorded commonly in urban and peri-urban ecosystems. This study elucidated the diversity of avifauna in the human-made landscapes of Morocco, which were neglected during the last decades and could serve as references for future and comparative studies of biodiversity in urban zones. Equally, this study could serve as a tool for management programs of landscapes and their diversity in urban areas. However, more investigations are needed to analyze how other factors such as noise, buildings, and traffic affect the diversity of avifauna in urbanized landscapes.
... Urban areas exhibit a significant reduction in the diversity of plants and animals compared to rural regions [37]. However, studies focused on urban agriculture highlight the potential of cities to foster biodiversity and contribute to the conservation of endangered and threatened species [38]. Green spaces within urban environments serve as sanctuaries and natural habitats. ...
Urban Horticulture is a key solution to rapid population growth, urbanization, food crisis and climate change. According to FAO reports, projections indicate that by 2050, the global urban population will exceed 9.7 billion, nearly doubling the current 3.5 billion. In the case of India, UN World Population Prospects foresee that by 2050, 40.76% of the country's population will inhabit urban areas. Considering the above statistics, we can estimate the burden on rural production system to meet increasing demands of fruits and vegetables in urban markets. So, urban horticulture could be the saviour to avoid food crisis and inflation of market. Urban horticulture, with its roots dating back to the mid-19th century, has gained momentum worldwide and can potentially mitigate the looming threats of food crises and market inflation. There are various types of urban agriculture like, kitchen gardening, rooftop gardening, vertical farming, container gardening, etc. Multiple auras of crops can be cultivated in the minimal available space, right from herbs, vegetables and fruits to aromatic and medicinal plants. There are considerable number of advantages of urban farming, like, providing employment and daily wages to poor farmers, educating children, strengthening the community, improving social and emotional wellbeing and environmental justice to tackle climate change. Many cities across the world are practicing urban farming and have achieved success in production, marketing and educating people. While numerous cities globally have embraced urban farming, achieving success in production, marketing, and education, India is still in the nascent stages of this practice. It is imperative for both governmental and private entities to accord greater importance to and invest in the promotion and harnessing of the profitability of urban horticulture in the country.
... However, human settlements (including cities) are often located in or near areas of high primary productivity and high biological diversity (Balmford et al., 2001;Cincotta et al., 2000;Luck, 2007), thus many urban landscapes harbor rare, endemic plants (Schwartz et al., 2002) and animals (Aronson et al., 2014). For example, 30% of Australia's legally protected, threatened plant and animal species occur in cities -a higher percentage than in non-urban areas (Ives et al., 2016). ...
Urbanization is commonly associated with biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation. However, urban environments often have greenspaces that can support wildlife populations, including rare species. The challenge for conservation planners working in these systems is identifying priority habitats and corridors for protection before they are lost. In a rapidly changing urban environment, this requires prompt decisions informed by accurate spatial information. Here, we combine several approaches to map habitat and assess connectivity for a diverse set of rare species in seven urban study areas across southern Michigan, USA. We incorporated multiple connectivity tools for a comprehensive appraisal of species-habitat patterns across these urban landscapes. We observed distinct differences in connectivity by taxonomic group and site. The three turtle species (Blanding's, Eastern Box, and Spotted) consistently had more habitat predicted to be suitable per site than other evaluated species. This is promising for this at-risk taxonomic group and allows conservation efforts to focus on mitigating threats such as road mortality. Grassland and prairie-associated species (American Bumble Bee, Black and Gold Bumble Bee, and Henslow's Sparrow) had the least amount of habitat on a site-by-site basis. Kalamazoo and the northern Detroit sites had the highest levels of multi-species connectivity across the entire study area based on the least cost paths. These connectivity results have direct applications in urban planning. Kalamazoo, one of the focal urban regions, has implemented a Natural Features Protection (NFP) plan to bolster natural area protections within the city. We compared our connectivity results to the NFP area and show where this plan will have an immediate positive impact and additional areas for potential consideration in future expansions of the protection network. Our results show that conservation opportunities exist within each of the assessed urban areas for maintaining rare species, a key benefit of this multi-species and multi-site approach.
... Urban biodiversity is fundamental for urban ecosystem functioning (Harrison et al., 2014;Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005;Zari, 2018) and ultimately for the health, well-being, and quality of life of urban residents (Marselle et al., 2021). Cities are often located in biologically-rich areas (Ives et al., 2016;Kowarik, 2011) and urbanization has detrimental effects on species and habitats (Fraissinet et al., 2023;Liang et al., 2023;McKinney, 2002;Simkin et al., 2022;Tilman et al., 2017). However, urban areas can contribute to biodiversity conservation, as they often integrate a diverse mosaic of semi-natural and man-made habitats, home to unique assemblies of flora and fauna species, even including rare or threatened species (Jokimäki et al., 2018;Müller et al., 2013;Spotswood et al., 2021). ...
... (R Core Team 2020), using the packages 'sf' (Pebesma 2018) and 'tidyverse' (Wickham et al. 2019); clipped to the extent of the Australian landmass, and projected to the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994. For both datasets, we limited our analysis to the 'known' and 'likely to occur' parts of the distribution (following Ives et al. 2016 andRenwick et al. 2017), to more accurately represent areas of suitable or preferred habitat, as 'may-occur' habitat represents mostly the outer envelope of their range. We excluded migratory and exclusively marine species (n = 134). ...
In the face of the ongoing biodiversity crisis and limited conservation funding, surrogate approaches have become a valuable tool to represent biodiversity. Management surrogates are those that indirectly benefit an ecological system or species by representing the management requirements of co-occurring biodiversity. Recent findings highlight the cost-effective potential of surrogate species in managing threatened species, however, evaluating higher levels of biodiversity as management surrogates remains unexplored. Here, we sought to maximize conservation outcomes for threatened species and threatened ecological communities (TECs) by prioritizing management based on overlapping distributions, threats, and costs. We describe a prioritization framework for identifying TECs that could serve as cost-effective surrogates, and compare it with prioritizing threatened species only or both species and TECs. We show that when the objective is to maximize benefits for threatened species, a community approach performs poorly due to limited geographic overlap and high costs, while prioritizing species returned 7.5 times more benefits delivered to species under the same budget. Yet, if the objective is to maximize benefits across species and TECs simultaneously, a combined approach including both as surrogates delivers the greatest benefit for the same costs as a species-only approach. Range sizes and taxonomic groups significantly influenced the priority list, with threatened invertebrates and TECs of smaller ranges more likely to be selected as surrogates. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of incorporating accurate data on factors such as threats and costs for identifying effective management surrogates, and highlights the potential benefits of prioritizing across multiple biodiversity features.
... Additionally, irregular settlements have allowed people to occupy most of the forested areas that remain in the city. These surviving patches of urban forests within cities often serve as refuges of biodiversity (Ives et al. 2016;Luna et al. 2018), potentially supporting viable populations of native, and possibly threatened, species. ...
Cali is the third most prominent, and one of the most crowed, Colombian cities. It still harbours some tropical dry forest patches that can mitigate the impacts of the urban transformation; however, there is an almost total absence of information on the biological importance of these sites and their potential for future ecological restoration processes. To assess if they serve as important refuges for insect bioindicator species, we sampled five urban patches of tropical dry forest in the cityplus one nearby rural patch, using specific trapping procedures for ants and carabid beetles. Patch areas were variable, from 1 to 50 ha. We found that the smallest patch presented the highest ant richness, with a tendency towards generalists and a few unique species. Meanwhile, some specialist species were found in the rural patch. A total of 109 ant and 13 carabid species were recorded, including four new records of ants for Colombia. Results suggest that environmental
variables favour the presence of generalist and opportunistic ants. Despite this, the high ant richness demonstrates that. Urban forest patches are important refuges for biodiversity. The low richness observed for carabids could be a sign of
the challenges that urban forests face considering the ecological importance of beetles. The possible dangers of intensive internal use of these forests is discussed to prevent local extinctions, since the biggest forests are not necessarily conserving a higher richness. This work represents an important contribution to urban ecology in the region, with possibilities of further restoration in urban environments.
... As cities become increasingly urbanized, many organisms are deprived of natural habitats, which may result in biodiversity loss (Czech et al., 2000, Marzluff, 2001Williams et al., 2005;Grimm et al., 2008;Evans et al., 2009), leading to biotic homogenization, which causes the extinction of a large portion of the species pool and the spread of only a few species (McKinney, 2008). However, many species of plants and animals can also benefit from using the city as an alternative habitat (Müller et al., 2010;Sattler et al., 2011;Dyderski et al., 2017), including species that are endangered on a regional scale (Aronson et al., 2014;Ives et al., 2016). Currently, urban green infrastructure is becoming increasingly important in supporting biodiversity as a result of ongoing changes in land-use (IPBES, 2018), which are a major driver of biodiversity loss. ...
... Unfortunately, these new perspectives have little influence on the protection of biological diversity in urban areas (Vega & Küffer, 2021). However, towns and cities are hotspots for both endemic and endangered species (Goddard et al., 2010;Ives et al., 2016;Lewis et al., 2019). Rendeková et al. (2020) pointed out that, under local conditions, the habitats of trams and railway lines can serve as valuable refuges for some rare and endangered species. ...
This study explores the vegetation composition along various tram line sections in Bydgoszcz, Poland, with a focus on understanding the impact of usage, maintenance, and historical development on urban vegetation dynamics. This study addresses this knowledge gap by investigating how these factors influence plant species composition, leading to variations in the prevalence of native and non-native species. The aim of this study is to contribute to urban ecological knowledge and inform vegetation management strategies. The investigation centers on five tram line sites representing different usage and maintenance scenarios: Unused line, New line, Loop rec, Loop old, and Old line. Through phyto-coenological relevés conducted in 2020 and 2021, we measured the plant taxa coverage. Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) revealed relationships between plant species and tram line sites. The results indicated the presence of 107 plant taxa, with graphical representations highlighting the prevalent species on each tram line section. Older sections showed a higher representation of non-native plant species, whereas new sections exhibited native species dominance. Moisture-indicative values suggest an affinity for soils with average moisture content. CCA provides insights into the relationships between plant taxa and site variants and offers valuable implications for urban vegetation management and conservation strategies. The novelty of this study lies in its holistic approach for understanding how multiple factors interact to shape urban vegetation. By illuminating urban ecological dynamics and informing decision-making processes, this study contributes to urban planning, ecology, and biodiversity conservation. Additionally, this study fills a knowledge gap by providing insights into the unique ecological dynamics and species composition of tram lines in urban environments. Unlike previous research in Central European countries focusing on planted vegetation, this study explored the spontaneous spread of plants and successional patterns along tram lines, enhancing our understanding of the environmental conditions created by tram lines that influence vegetation composition and development.
... In addition, urbanization globally favors alien invasive species to the detriment of native ones [10][11][12][13]. However, several native species have been found to be able to maintain populations, or even flourish, in urban environments [14][15][16][17][18], including some of interest to conservation [19][20][21]. Understanding which factors favor or limit the ability of native species to persist in urban environments is of high importance, both for the study of biological adaptation and urban planning. ...
Although growing urbanization has direct negative consequences for local biodiversity, several native species have been observed maintaining populations in urban environments. Understanding which factors influence the ability of native species to persist in urban environments is crucial, both for the study of biological adaptation and of urban planning. The quantification of the proportion of juvenile individuals can be a good proxy for assessing the long-term persistence of urban populations. We present comparative data about spatial and temporal variations in the age-class structure in two suburban and two forest populations of the Cuban endemic lizard Anolis homolechis, obtained during a 20-month survey. We found a four-fold lower proportion of juveniles in the suburban habitat compared to the forest one. There was, however, no evidence for differential female fecundity between the two habitats, as assessed by the proportion of gravid females. Conversely, the rate of tail autotomy (an antipredator behavior) was significantly higher in the suburban juveniles compared to the forest ones, possibly reflecting a higher exposure to predators and, particularly, inter- and intraspecific cannibalism. However, tail loss at initial capture or habitat type had no effect on the probability of recapture of juveniles. We discuss the potential causes and consequences of a modified age-class structure in urbanized environments.
... Urbanization is considered as the greatest threat to biodiversity (Aronson et al., 2017). However, cities can play a significant role in the preservation of native biodiversity, particularly through the management, planning, and conservation of urban green spaces (Ives et al., 2016). The migration from rural to urban areas in the current decades is increasing, and more than half of the world's population are living in towns and cities, which is expected to increase to 70 percent by 2050 (Salbitano et al., 2016). ...
Pokhara is one of the rapidly urbanizing cities with declining trees and green spaces. It has become imperative to develop effective plans and strategies to maintain greenery in the city. There is little knowledge about the individual choice of urban tree species and how it shapes up the urban green spaces. This study was conducted in the Ward 17 of the Pokhara Metropolitan City to assess the people’s preferences and factors influencing their choices. Data collection was done through nursery survey (n=15), household survey (n=60), and site observation (n=12). The observed sites were parks, religious sites and streets of Ward-17 of the Pokhara Metropolitan City. Majority of the household were found to be practicing home gardens with exotic species which were more preferred than the indigenous ones. Altogether, 15 major species were recorded from the households, with Dhupi (Juniperus indica) being the most frequent species followed by Guava (Psidium guajava). A total of 48 tree species were recorded during site observation, with a maximum frequency of Sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo). Among the six major factors for species selection, use and benefits derived from the species were detected as the most responsible ones. Nurseries provide seedlings mostly for individual purposes; however, financial and technical assistance should be provided to all the interested households with emphasis on the preferred type of species required for further development of urban forestry in the Pokhara Metropolitan City.
... abundance) associating with species richness change, even when species are present in modified environments (e.g. threatened species, Ives et al. 2016), care should be taken to fully understand the abundance of these species, as opposed to just presence/absence, as some highly modified regions can act as population sinks. Future experimental work could be aimed at further disentangling the effect of abundance and richness along anthropogenic modification gradients. ...
Anthropogenic habitat modification is a leading contributor to biodiversity change, but it is unclear what factors, including scale, influence the magnitude of change. Changes in species richness and its scaling relationship across an anthropogenic gradient can be influenced by changes in the total number of individuals in each sample, the species abundance distribution, and/or the spatial arrangement of conspecific individuals. Here, we integrated continental‐scale citizen science data on bird occurrences across the contiguous United States – from eBird – with an analytical framework capable of dissecting the aforementioned biodiversity components to quantify bird diversity changes along an anthropogenic landscape habitat modification gradient. We found an overall decline in bird diversity along an anthropogenic modification gradient, with peak levels of bird diversity at low to moderate levels of modification. The magnitude of biodiversity change was greater at gamma than at alpha scales and was most strongly associated with a declining number of individuals along the anthropogenic gradient. Spatial species turnover was lower at higher impacted sites, but this was also due to the sampling of fewer individuals rather than changes in spatial species patchiness. Our results suggest that local‐scale management can promote bird diversity, especially at the natural–rural–suburban interface. Management efforts (e.g. managing natural habitat or preserving urban greenspaces against development) should be focused on creating, restoring, and preserving resources (e.g. nesting habitat, foraging resources) necessary for a large number of individuals, as this is the primary influence of diversity change along an anthropogenic gradient.
... Though several studies showed species richness declination due to increased urbanization, the responses differ with taxonomic groups as well as between species with taxonomic groups (Mckinney, 2008;Aronson et al., 2014;Ives et al., 2016;Piano et al., 2020). Some of the species can better cope up with increased urbanization and human diversity than others (Mckinney, 2008;Jones and Leather, 2012;Tzortzakaki et al., 2019). ...
... The study of urban wildlife ecology is a young field of research to which conservationists are directing their attention (Collins et al. 2021). Indeed, conservation of biodiversity is mandatory not only in the natural environment, where it contributes to ecosystem processes, but also in the urban context for protection of some endemic species (Aronson et al. 2014, Ives et al. 2016 as well as recreation and education of citizens (McKinney 2008). In a review, Dearborn and Kark (2010) explained seven motivations for conserving urban biodiversity, considering the benefits for nature as well as the benefits for humans. ...
The current, rapid urbanisation process impacts global biodiversity and can be a driver for phenotypic changes in mammals that persist in cities. Animals display different response strategies in urban environments compared to natural areas, but patterns may differ among species. To better comprehend this process, we focused on a limited number of species that are present in many urban green spaces around the globe.
The aim of this systematic review is to investigate which response strategies chipmunks, arboreal and flying squirrels use to cope with urban environments, exploring whether there are general response patterns, and to reveal potential adaptations to life in urban areas. We included studies that compared trait differences among conspecifics living in different areas along an urbanisation gradient (rural–urban) and studies comparing individuals or populations between urban areas with different environmental characteristics.
The effects of urbanisation on chipmunks, arboreal and flying squirrels, at the individual and at the population levels, were identified in nine topics. Included articles explored at least one of these topics and their key findings were described.
Effects of urbanisation are evident in all considered topics. However, we found contrasting patterns between species or even among individuals of the same species studied in different geographical areas. Overall, we reported two knowledge gaps: some phenotypic traits were considered in few studies, and many species, especially those living in the Global South, where urban growth rate is higher, have not been studied.
This systematic review suggests that urbanisation can be an important driver for adaptation in small mammals, underlining the complexity and differentiation of response patterns. Since target species have important ecological and social roles, additional comparative studies, increasing our understanding of processes that determine their presence in cities, are essential for urban green planning which aims to conserve biodiversity.
Technical report funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) on urban habitats and suitable wildplants for urban planning of green and blue infrastructure including a list of woody species suitable for biodiversity in urban habitats.
An excel sheet containing information on suitable tree species and their biodiversity value is downloadable here:
https://www.ost.ch/de/forschung-und-dienstleistungen/architektur-bau-landschaft-raum/ilf-institut-fuer-landschaft-und-freiraum/publikationen
Legacy effects describe the persistent, long-term impacts on an ecosystem following the removal of an abiotic or biotic feature. Redlining, a policy that codified racial segregation and disinvestment in minoritized neighborhoods, has produced legacy effects with profound impacts on urban ecosystem structure and health. These legacies have detrimentally impacted public health outcomes, socioeconomic stability, and environmental health. However, the collateral impacts of redlining on wildlife communities are uncertain. Here, we investigated whether faunal biodiversity was associated with redlining. We used home-owner loan corporation (HOLC) maps [grades A (i.e., “best” and “greenlined”), B, C, and D (i.e., “hazardous” and “redlined”)] across four cities in California and contributory science data (iNaturalist) to estimate alpha and beta diversity across six clades (mammals, birds, insects, arachnids, reptiles, and amphibians) as a function of HOLC grade. We found that in greenlined neighborhoods, unique species were detected with less sampling effort, with redlined neighborhoods needing over 8,000 observations to detect the same number of unique species. Historically redlined neighborhoods had lower native and nonnative species richness compared to greenlined neighborhoods across each city, with disparities remaining at the clade level. Further, community composition (i.e., beta diversity) consistently differed among HOLC grades for all cities, including large differences in species assemblage observed between green and redlined neighborhoods. Our work spotlights the lasting effects of social injustices on the community ecology of cities, emphasizing that urban conservation and management efforts must incorporate an antiracist, justice-informed lens to improve biodiversity in urban environments.
Urban wildlife faces unique physiological and behavioral challenges compared to conspecifics which live in less altered natural habitats. Animals in urban habitats are also exposed to urban stressors and commonly make use of inappropriate food sources from trash bins and dumpsters, which may affect their heath status. The goals of this study were to evaluate overall health of an urban population of eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) and to assess seasonal changes in several health parameters. Squirrels (N = 45) were trapped in Durham, North Carolina, USA and briefly anesthetized with inhalant anesthetic for physical examination, body mass collection, and venipuncture via the femoral vein. Collected blood was analyzed for several health parameters via hematology and biochemistry analyses including assessment of lipids and kidney and liver values. Physical examinations were clinically unremarkable and similar across seasons. Females had higher cholesterol values and lower creatinine values compared to males. Seasonal differences occurred in few parameters and were detected only between summer and either fall or spring. Potassium and monocytes were higher in summer compared to spring, and creatinine, BUN and monocytes were higher in summer compared to fall. Overall, health parameters of urban eastern gray squirrels fell within published reference ranges for the species. Together, these results suggest that urban squirrels in this study population can maintain good health in an anthropogenic habitat.
Rapid urbanization is projected for African cities at the cost of urban green space, which could jeopardize biodiversity and human benefits. Studies focusing specifically on human–green space relationships in the Global South are lacking, and the validity of extrapolating results from studies in the Global North remains questionable and cannot provide local context-specific design solutions. This study combines methods and perspectives from ecology and human geography with landscape design to better understand the benefits for biodiversity and people derived from unmanaged green spaces in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. Based on empirical data from two unmanaged green space areas in disadvantaged communities, we identify benefits for biodiversity and people and define guidelines for inclusive trans-disciplinary interventions. We combine information from a vegetation survey, a community survey of 200 respondents and a rapid assessment of multifunctional benefit provision to formulate in holistic landscape design proposals. We show that the sites have biodiversity value and provide habitat for > 169 different plant species, including protected species, and smaller wildlife. Residents use the spaces for utility, passive and active leisure, and > 76% of residents benefit from the use of these spaces. However, the integrity and provision of benefits from green spaces are threatened by pollution, safety concerns, biological invasions, and land conversion. Context-specific designs could be developed by merging methods across disciplines and involving local stakeholders to integrate the multifunctionality of socioecological benefits into landscape interventions. Collaboration across ecology, human geography and landscape design generates multifunctional perspectives of unmanaged green spaces that consider benefits for biodiversity and disadvantaged communities.
Domestic cats ( Felis catus ) play a dual role in society as both companion animals and predators. When provided with unsupervised outdoor access, cats can negatively impact native wildlife and create public health and animal welfare challenges. The effective implementation of management strategies, such as buffer zones or curfews, requires an understanding of home range size, the factors that influence their movement, and the types of habitats they use. Here, we used a community/citizen scientist approach to collect movement and habitat use data using GPS collars on owned outdoor cats in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph region, southwestern Ontario, Canada. Mean (± SD) 100% minimum convex polygon home range size was 8 ± 8 ha (range: 0.34–38 ha) and was positively associated with road density but not with intrinsic factors such as boldness, sex, or age. With regards to habitat selection, cats used greenspaces, roads, and agricultural land less often than predicted but strongly selected for impervious surfaces (urban areas other than greenspaces or roads). Our results suggest that wildlife near buildings and residential areas are likely at the greatest risk of cat predation and that a buffer size of 840 m would be needed to restrict cats from entering areas of conservation concern.
Urbanization has profound impacts on ecological environments. Green spaces are a vital component of urban ecosystems and play a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance and enhancing sustainability. This study aimed to investigate the community composition characteristics of butterflies in urban green spaces within the context of rapid urbanization. Simultaneously, it explored the status and differences in butterfly taxonomic diversity, functional diversity, and functional traits among different types of urban green spaces, regions, and urban gradients to provide relevant insights for further improving urban green space quality and promoting biodiversity conservation. We conducted a year-long survey of 80 green spaces across different urban regions and ring roads within Hefei City, Anhui Province, with monthly sampling intervals over 187 transects. A total of 4822 butterflies, belonging to 5 families, 17 subfamilies, 40 genera, and 55 species were identified. The species richness, Shannon, Simpson, functional richness, and Rao's quadratic entropy indices of butterflies in urban park green spaces were all significantly higher than those in residential and street green spaces (P < 0.05). Differences in butterfly diversity and functional traits among different urban regions and ring roads were relatively minor, and small-sized, multivoltine, and long flying duration butterflies dominated urban green spaces. Overall, these spaces offer more favorable habitats for butterflies. However, some residential green spaces and street green spaces demonstrate potential for butterfly conservation.
Urban planning which enhances native biodiversity in and around cities is needed to address the impacts of urbanisation and conserve urban biodiversity. The “Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design” (BSUD) framework incorporates ecological knowledge into urban planning to achieve positive biodiversity outcomes through improved urban design and infrastructure development. BSUD includes principles to direct strategic design and placement of connected wildlife habitat. However, effective BSUD implementation requires defining and quantifying the landscape-scale habitat connectivity needs of a range of taxon groups within urban contexts. The aim of our study was to use expert elicitation to address these gaps in landscape-scale habitat connectivity currently limiting the capacity of urban planning. We estimated habitat connectivity needs for seven representative taxon groups in urban environments, including ideal habitat, habitat constraints, barriers to movement, and movement thresholds that determine habitat connectivity. In using expert elicitation to quantify habitat connectivity requirements for urban biodiversity, our study provides insights on both the usefulness of expert elicitation to inform urban habitat connectivity planning generally, and the functional habitat connectivity requirements of our focal taxon groups specifically. Overall, we consider our expert-derived estimates of connected habitat to be a highly useful set of baseline data for habitat and connectivity modelling and urban planning for a range of taxon groups.
Habitat connectivity is integral to current biodiversity science and conservation strategies. Originally, the connectivity concept stressed the role of individual movements for landscape-scale processes. Connectivity determines whether populations can survive in sub-optimal patches (i.e., source-sink effects), complete life cycles relying on different habitat types (i.e., landscape complementation), and benefit from supplementary resources distributed over the landscape (i.e., landscape supplementation). Although the past decades have witnessed major improvements in habitat connectivity modeling, most approaches have yet to consider the multiplicity of habitat types that a species can benefit from. Without doing so, connectivity analyses potentially fail to meet one of their fundamental purposes: revealing how complex individual movements lead to landscape-scale ecological processes. To bridge this conceptual and methodological gap, we propose to include multiple habitat types in spatial graph models of habitat connectivity, where nodes traditionally represent a single habitat type. Multiple habitat graphs will improve how we model connectivity and related landscape ecological processes, and how they are impacted by land cover changes. In three case studies, we use these graphs to model (i) source-sink effects, (ii) landscape supplementation, and (iii) complementation processes, in urban ecosystems, agricultural landscapes, and amphibian habitat networks, respectively. We show that multiple habitat graphs help addressing crucial conservation challenges (e.g., urban sprawl, biological control, climate change) by representing more accurately the dynamics of populations, communities, and their interactions. A new version of the Graphab open-source software implements the proposed approach, thereby extending the ecologist's toolbox and fostering the alignment between landscape ecology theory and practice.
One approach for measuring the potential biodiversity in new urban construction projects is through ecological models that predict how wildlife will respond. For the United Kingdom, such models have only been developed for birds, but to maximise the extent to which models represent overall biodiversity, species from different indicator groups must be considered.
Here, we assess this possibility for butterflies by combining citizen science survey data with high‐resolution digital maps. We derive detailed characteristics of urban landscapes around survey sites using previously established methods and quantify their relationship to counts of adults of 18 butterfly species in urban and peri‐urban settings.
Higher butterfly counts were found when traversing urban sites with larger areas of semi‐natural grassland, other managed greenspaces and adjacent arable land. Most of the butterfly community were found to have negative relationships with highly built‐up or fragmented landscapes.
We found high species‐specificity for different details of urban form, particularly in habitat elements such as gardens, vegetation around railways and grass verges.
Policy implications . Improving biodiversity is now part of legislation governing new construction projects from England and Wales. However, predicting quantitative changes from hypothetical land‐use modifications remains challenging. Our models provide the foundation through which butterfly abundance could be integrated into an urban biodiversity assessment tool, providing species‐ and community‐level statistics to non‐specialists from the urban planning and design sector. This would allow them to hone configurations for built surfaces, private gardens, greenspaces and wildlife areas and assess their capacity to provide residents with the intended access to nature.
Low biodiversity in urban areas is associated with habitat loss. However, the effects of urbanization on biodiversity should also consider the historical background of land-use, explored herein. Our goal was to evaluate changes in the assemblage of reptiles in an urban habitat over 100 years, aiming to identify which ecological attributes allowed the persistence of species that can be found in the area today. We accessed historical records in scientific collections and carried out fieldwork to access reptile assemblage in an urban green area, in São Paulo, Brazil. Considering land-use changes in the area, we defined three-time intervals between 1901 and 2020. We established species richness for each time interval, categorizing them into three ecological attributes: habitat preference, substrate use, and food habits. We recorded 27 reptile species from 1901 until 2020, 14 resulting from historical data, eight from both historical and fieldwork, and five species exclusively in fieldwork. Amphibians were also sampled during fieldwork, but not used in historical comparison. Reptile's species richness decreased 59% regardless of ecological attributes, and snakes were the group with most species' loss. Fossorial reptiles were the least affected group. We concluded that habitat loss culminated in a species richness decline, and the reptiles that remain until today were likely present since the fragment isolation. Ecological attributes of the remaining taxa include species that use terrestrial substrates and feed on prey commonly found in urban environments.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) provides an overarching federal umbrella for environmental decision-making in Australia. The Act contains many complex and novel legal concepts, the interpretation of which dramatically enlarge or constrain the nature and width of its application in practice. Key concepts such as "action", "existing lawful use", "likely to have", "significant impact", and "all adverse impacts" are central to the operation of the Act. A number of these concepts have received important judicial consideration by the Federal Court of Australia. The aim of this article is to explain these key concepts in light of the developing case law.
The Grey-headed Flying-fox Pteropus poliocephalus has an expansive range. However, the species actually occupies a relatively restricted and continuously changing habitat area, which is primarily defined by irregular patterns of nectar availability. A synchronous count of Grey-headed Flying-foxes in New South Wales taken in July 1998 described the distribution and abundance of the species during a time of general food scarcity, but when abundant floral resources were available in restricted patches of coastal vegetation. The population was highly concentrated into small habitat areas associated with this flowering. The species occupied 11 camps which were located at irregular intervals along the coast, north from the Sydney region. Over 99% of the New South Wales population occurred in nine camps. The total abundance of animals in the state was estimated at 85 400. These results vary substantially from recent estimations which placed the size of the New South Wales population at one million animals. Black Flying-foxes occupied seven camps at the time of the count and their abundance was estimated at 72 500. Periods of concentration are periods of vulnerability for migratory species and present appropriate circumstances in which to examine their conservation status. Critical winter habitat used by Grey-headed Flying-foxes at the time of this study is poorly reserved, primarily occurs on privately-owned land and is located in areas targeted for urban and rural residential development to cater for an ongoing, rapid increase in human population. The conclusion drawn from this study was that Grey-headed Flying-foxes are vulnerable to population decline from the ongoing clearing of their critical over-wintering habitat in lowland coastal vegetation in north-east New South Wales and south-east Queensland. These results support their listing as Vulnerable in the 1999 Action Plan for Australian Bats.
Conservation in the City is challenging because of a continued view that the urban realm is antithetical to nature. This was clearly the case when the first Swiss National Park was established at the beginning of the 20th century. New Swiss legislation brought new approaches to the establishment of natural parks, in particular by including human activities as a logical component in their development. In 2010, a Federal think tank discussed opportunities for launching a new kind of park: the Urban Natural Park. This paper reports an analysis of this discussion, together with the study of the literature dealing with conservation in the City and natural parks. It shows that a clear antagonism between city and nature still remains present, reflected in an implicit hierarchy hidden in the designation of natural parks: wild nature is nominated as the best nature; if not wild, the best nature is identified as rural; if neither wild nor rural, nature is thought not to be the concern of natural park policy. The Swiss Biodiversity Strategy implemented in 2012 is a recent recognition of the importance of urban nature for biodiversity conservation. This recognition, however, condemns urban nature to a special status, situated outside the usual framework of conservation management. I conclude by arguing that anti-urban bias must be addressed because it inhibits effective conservation strategy, prevents the identification of existing environmental qualities of cities and, eventually, has negative impacts on biological conservation outside the city because it fosters urban spreading.
Urbanization contributes to the loss of the world's biodiversity and the homogenization of its biota. However, comparative studies of urban biodiversity leading to robust generalities of the status and drivers of biodiversity in cities at the global scale are lacking. Here, we compiled the largest global dataset to date of two diverse taxa in cities: birds (54 cities) and plants (110 cities). We found that the majority of urban bird and plant species are native in the world's cities. Few plants and birds are cosmopolitan, the most common being Columba livia and Poa annua. The density of bird and plant species (the number of species per km(2)) has declined substantially: only 8% of native bird and 25% of native plant species are currently present compared with estimates of non-urban density of species. The current density of species in cities and the loss in density of species was best explained by anthropogenic features (landcover, city age) rather than by non-anthropogenic factors (geography, climate, topography). As urbanization continues to expand, efforts directed towards the conservation of intact vegetation within urban landscapes could support higher concentrations of both bird and plant species. Despite declines in the density of species, cities still retain endemic native species, thus providing opportunities for regional and global biodiversity conservation, restoration and education.
The role of humans in the restoration of ecosystems has been emphasised since its inception. The human dimension of restoration is particularly well established in urban ecosystems because this is where people and nature co-exist. At the same time, the altered biophysical conditions that characterise cities place constraints on restoration in its strictest sense—assisting the recovery of historic ecosystems. Rather than viewing this as a shortcoming, in this paper, we discuss the ways in which such constraints can be viewed as opportunities. There is the chance to broaden traditional conservation and restoration goals for urban settings reflecting peoples’ preferences for nature in their backyards, and in doing so, offer people multiple ways in which to engage with nature. In this paper, we consider four main restoration options—conserve and restore nature at the fringes, restore remnant patches of urban nature, manage novel ecosystems and garden with iconic species—in terms of their potential to contribute to promoting human-nature interactions in urban landscapes. We explore how these options are affected by environmental, economic, social and cultural factors, drawing on examples from cities around the world. Ecological restoration can contribute to the sustainability of urban landscapes, not just in terms of nature conservation, but also by providing opportunities for people to interact with nature and so increase our understanding of how people perceive and value landscapes.
Many countries rely on formal legislation to protect and plan for the recovery of threatened species. Even though the listing procedures in threatened species legislation are designed to be consistent for all species there is usually a bias in implementing the laws towards charismatic fauna and flora, which leads to uneven allocation of conservation efforts. However, the extent of bias in national threatened species lists is often unknown. Australia is a good example: the list of threatened species under the Environmental Protection and Biological Conservation Act has not been reviewed since 2000, when it was first introduced. We assessed how well this Act represents threatened species across taxonomic groups and threat status, and whether biases exist in the types of species with recovery plans. We found that birds, amphibians and mammals have high levels of threatened species (12–24%) but , 6% of all reptiles and plants and , 0.01% of invertebrates and fish are considered threatened. Similar taxonomic biases are present in the types of species with recovery plans. Although there have been recent improve-ments in the representation of threatened species with recovery plans across taxonomic groups, there are still major gaps between the predicted and listed numbers of threatened species. Because of biases in the listing and recovery planning processes many threatened species may receive little attention regardless of their potential for recovery: a lost opportunity to achieve the greatest conservation impact possible. The Environmental Protection and Biological Conservation Act in Australia needs reform to rectify these biases.
Urbanization is a leading cause of species loss in the United States because of habitat destruction and frag-mentation. Wetlands can be affected by urbanization and the condition of wetlands can be compared across land use categories. Cypress domes are isolated wetlands dominated by cypress (Taxodium distichum) and often remain in urban areas. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of urbanization on cypress dome number, size and spatial pattern through two decades of rapid urbanization in Orlando, Florida, a large city in the southeastern US. Over 3,000 cypress domes, in a region typical of urban growth in the cypress range, were identified in images from 1984. Over a 20-year period, 26 % were destroyed or degraded (i.e., no longer cypress-dominated) and almost half in man-aged forests were degraded, destroyed, or became sur-rounded by urban or agricultural land uses. The smallest and largest cypress domes were lost, leaving only medium-sized wetlands and decreasing landscape-level diversity. Despite the fact that these wetlands are common and par-tially protected by legislation, cypress in isolated wetlands may be at risk from urbanization.
Abstract Urbanization profoundly alters the biota of areas that become cities and towns. Many species are introduced by humans while indigenous species often decline. Although these changes are well known, the long-term ecological effects of new species and their interactions are seldom considered and rarely documented. This study examines changes in diversity and temporal availability of the food resources of Pteropus poliocephalus (Grey-headed Flying-fox) in the Melbourne region using a variety of historical and current data sources. Our results indicate that urbanization has influenced the distribution, abundance and ecology of P. poliocephalus through a dramatic increase in the quantity and temporal availability of food resources. Prior to European settlement, only 13 species recorded in the range-wide diet of P. poliocephalus grew in the Melbourne area. Compilations of street-tree databases indicate that an additional 87 species have been planted on Melbourne’s streets and that there are at least 315 500 trees that are able to provide food for P. poliocephalus. Phenology records indicate that street trees have lengthened the temporal availability of food for P. poliocephalus. A period of natural food scarcity between May and August has been ameliorated by street trees which have provided nectar and a previously absent fruit resource. These changes are likely to be a major factor contributing to the recent range expansion of P. poliocephalus and the establishment of a permanent camp in Melbourne.
Although only a small percentage of global land cover, urban areas significantly alter
climate, biogeochemistry, and hydrology at local, regional, and global scales. To understand
the impact of urban areas on these processes, high quality, regularly updated
information on the urban environment?including maps that monitor location
and extent?is essential. Here we present results from efforts to map the global
distribution of urban land use at 500?m spatial resolution using remotely sensed
data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Our
approach uses a supervised decision tree classification algorithm that we process using
region-specific parameters. An accuracy assessment based on sites from a stratified random
sample of 140 cities shows that the new map has an overall accuracy of 93% (k = 0.65) at the pixel level and a high level of agreement at the city scale (R2 = 0.90). Our results (available at http://sage.wisc.edu/urbanenvironment.html) also reveal that
the land footprint of cities occupies less than 0.5% of the Earth's total land area.
Due to human population growth and migration, there will be nearly 2 billion new urban residents by 2030, yet the consequences of both current and future urbanization for biodiversity conservation are poorly known. Here we show that urban growth will have impacts on ecoregions, rare species, and protected areas that are localized but cumulatively significant. Currently, 29 of the world’s 825 ecoregions have over one-third of their area urbanized, and these 29 ecoregions are the only home of 213 endemic terrestrial vertebrate species. Our analyses suggest that 8% of terrestrial vertebrate species on the IUCN Red List are imperiled largely because of urban development. By 2030, 15 additional ecoregions are expected to lose more than 5% of their remaining undeveloped area, and they contain 118 vertebrate species found nowhere else. Of the 779 rare species with only one known population globally, 24 are expected to be impacted by urban growth. In addition, the distance between protected areas and cities is predicted to shrink dramatically in some regions: for example, the median distance from a protected area to a city in Eastern Asia is predicted to fall from 43 km to 23 km by 2030. Most protected areas likely to be impacted by new urban growth (88%) are in countries of low to moderate income, potentially limiting institutional capacity to adapt to new anthropogenic stresses on protected areas. In short, trends in global ecoregions, rare species, and protected areas suggest localized but significant biodiversity degradation associated with current and upcoming urbanization.
Australia’s transition to the 21st century has been marked by an extended period of economic prosperity unmatched for several decades, but one in which a series of question marks are being raised in three principal areas: in relation to the environment, the social well-being of the population, and the future path of economic development. The first concern, which is of primary interest in this report, relates to the physical environment of cities and their surrounding regions, and the range of pressures exerted by population and human activity. The report begins by noting the increasing divergence of the prime indicator of national economic performance—gross domestic product (GDP)—from the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). GPI is a new experimental measure of sustainable development that accommodates factors currently unaccounted for in GDP, such as income distribution, value of household work, cost of unemployment, and various other social and environmental costs. The divergence of these two indicators in recent decades suggests that Australia’s growth has been heavily dependent on the draw-down of the nation’s stocks of capital assets (its infrastructure), its human and social capital, and its natural capital (Hamilton 1997).
Plant extinctions from urban areas are a growing threat to biodiversity worldwide. To minimize this threat, it is critical to understand what factors are influencing plant extinction rates. We compiled plant extinction rate data for 22 cities around the world. Two-thirds of the variation in plant extinction rates was explained by a combination of the city's historical development and the current proportion of native vegetation, with the former explaining the greatest variability. As a single variable, the amount of native vegetation remaining also influenced extinction rates, particularly in cities > 200 years old. Our study demonstrates that the legacies of landscape transformations by agrarian and urban development last for hundreds of years, and modern cities potentially carry a large extinction debt. This finding highlights the importance of preserving native vegetation in urban areas and the need for mitigation to minimize potential plant extinctions in the future.
Human pressure threatens many species and ecosystems, so conservation efforts necessarily prioritize saving them. However, conservation should clearly be proactive wherever possible. In this article, we assess the biodiversity conservation value, and specifically the irreplaceability in terms of species endemism, of those of the planet's ecosystems that remain intact. We find that 24 wilderness areas, all > or = 1 million hectares, are > or = 70% intact and have human densities of less than or equal to five people per km2. This wilderness covers 44% of all land but is inhabited by only 3% of people. Given this sparse population, wilderness conservation is cost-effective, especially if ecosystem service value is incorporated. Soberingly, however, most wilderness is not speciose: only 18% of plants and 10% of terrestrial vertebrates are endemic to individual wildernesses, the majority restricted to Amazonia, Congo, New Guinea, the Miombo-Mopane woodlands, and the North American deserts. Global conservation strategy must target these five wildernesses while continuing to prioritize threatened biodiversity hotspots.
To explore the impacts of increasing human numbers on nature, many studies have examined relationships between human population density (HPD) and biodiversity change. The implicit assumption in many of these studies is that as population density increases so does the threat to biodiversity. The implications of this assumption are compounded by recent research showing that species richness for many taxonomic groups is often highest in areas with high HPD. If increasing HPD is a threat to conservation, this threat may be magnified owing to the spatial congruence between people and species richness. Here, I review the relationships between HPD and measures of biodiversity status focussing in particular on evidence for the spatial congruence between people and species richness and the threat that increasing HPD may pose to biodiversity conservation. The review is split into two major sections: (i) a quantitative assessment of 85 studies covering 401 analyses, including meta‐analyses on discrete relationships; and (ii) a discussion of the implications of the quantitative analyses and major issues raised in the literature.
Our understanding of the relationships between HPD and biodiversity is skewed by geographic and taxonomic biases in the literature. Most research has been conducted in the Northern Hemisphere and focussed primarily on birds and mammals, largely ignoring relationships with other taxonomic groups. A total of 127 analyses compared HPD with the species richness of particular taxonomic groups. A meta‐analysis of these results found a significant positive population correlation indicating that, on average, species‐rich regions and human settlements co‐occur. However, there was substantial unexplained heterogeneity in these data. Some of this heterogeneity was explained by the size of the sampling unit used by researchers – as this increased so did the strength of the correlation between HPD and species richness. The most convincing result for a taxonomic group was a significant positive population correlation between HPD and bird species richness. Significant positive population correlations were also found for HPD versus the richness of threatened and geographically restricted species. Hence, there is reasonably good evidence for spatial congruence between people and species‐rich regions. The reasons for this congruence are only just beginning to be explored, but key mutual drivers appear to include available energy and elevation.
The evidence for increasing HPD as a threat to conservation was weak, owing primarily to the extreme heterogeneity in the approaches used to address this issue. There was some suggestion of a positive relationship between HPD and species extinction, but this result should be interpreted with caution owing to the wide diversity of approaches used to measure extinction. Identifying strong links between human development and species extinction is hampered in part by the difficulty of recording extinction events. The most convincing indication of the negative impact of increasing HPD was a significant negative population correlation between density and the size of protected areas.
The magnitude and implications of spatial congruence between people and biodiversity are now being explored using the principles of complementarity and irreplaceability. Human development as a threat to conservation is usually assessed within a complex, interdisciplinary modelling framework, although population size is still considered a key factor. Future population growth and expansion of human settlements will present increasing challenges for conserving species‐rich regions and maximising the benefits humans gain from nature.
The paper introduces the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) which will replace the current Australian Statistical Geographical Classification (ASGC) in July 2011. The paper briefly summarises the background to the development of the ASGS. It discusses the conceptual basis of the new classification and gives an update on the progress of its development and implementation, including the issues that have emerged so far.
In this era of rapidly urbanising human populations, urban practitioners are under increasing pressure to create resilient and sustainable cities and towns. Urban ecologists currently have a unique opportunity to apply solid, evidence-based research to help create biodiversity-rich and sustainable cities and towns for the future. Unfortunately, there is currently a mismatch between the questions planners, designers and decision-makers are asking urban ecologists that would allow them to improve the biodiversity outcomes in urban areas, and the questions urban ecologists must ask to contribute to the development and application of the science of urban ecology. For a number of reasons, urban ecologists over the past 25 years have primarily focused on describing the patterns of biodiversity in cities and towns using broad, aggregate predictor variables (e.g., distance to city center, land-use, percent cover of impermeable surfaces and vegetation, etc.). We refer to these results as ‘low-hanging fruit’. If the discipline of urban ecology is going to provide the necessary information to inform actions to preserve and enhance urban biodiversity, we need to move beyond place-based research, and work towards the development of confirmed generalizations regarding the relationship between the structure and function of urban ecosystems and biodiversity. We propose three essential strategies for achieving this refined understanding: 1) defining the study window to place the study into a broader global context, 2) collecting and using more explicit question-driven measures of the urban condition in order to improve our understanding of urban ecological drivers, as well as recording more detailed ecological responses to provide insights into the ecological mechanisms underlying an observed response, and 3) expanding studies to include multiple cities, regions and countries. These strategies will help to expedite the ability of urban ecology to contribute to the creation of biodiversity-rich, healthy, resilient cities and towns.
Urban ecological systems are characterized by complex interactions among social, economic, institutional, and environmental variables. These interactions generate complex human-dominated landscapes, which significantly influence the functioning of local and global earth ecosystems and the services they provide to humans and other life on earth. Urban development fragments, isolates, and degrades natural habitats; simplifies and homogenizes species composition; disrupts hydrological systems; and modifies energy flow and nutrient cycling. Urban areas also appropriate a large share of earth’s carrying capacity from other regions in terms of resource input and waste sinks. Change in ecological conditions that result from human actions in urban areas ultimately affect human health and well-being. In this article, the author reviews the empirical evidence on the effects that patterns of urban development have on ecosystem function. Urban development affects the spatial heterogeneity of the landscape (i.e., pattern of variation in land cover) and spread of disturbance (i.e., invasive species). The author proposes that alternative urban patterns generate differential ecological effects. The review reveals that the interactions between urban development patterns and ecosystem dynamics are still poorly understood. The author draws on an empirical study of the Puget Sound metropolitan region currently developed at the University of Washington to propose directions for future empirical research that can inform strategies to minimize urban impacts on ecosystems.
. I studied the distribution and density of three thrush populations, blackbird Turdus merula, song thrush T. philomelos and mistle thrush T. viscivorus, in an urban and contiguous rural area, totalling 2636 ha, in eastern England. Populations of these species are declining and I found 826, 85 and 30 territories of blackbird, song thrush and mistle thrush, respectively. Significantly more territories of all species than expected were within the urban boundary. Significantly more territories than expected were found of all three species in the built environment (residential housing, factories, schools, etc. with their associated gardens and green-space), urban and rural areas combined. Farmland occupied 67% of the study area but held significantly fewer blackbird and mistle thrush territories than expected, associated mainly with the small amount of grass; song thrushes were not recorded on farmland. Rural woodland and scrub held more blackbird and song thrush territories than expected. Song thrush was significantly associated with scrub within the urban boundary. With all three species largely absent from farmland, residential habitats can be considered as habitat refuges. The consequences of this for conservation and planning are discussed.
Effective conservation planning requires information from well-designed studies across a spectrum of land uses, ranging from wildlands to highly modified production landscapes and large cities. There is cur- rently a lack of such information about human settlement, even though this is a major source of land-use change with serious implications for biodiversity. Fewer than 6% of the papers in recent volumes of Conserva- tion Biology described work conducted in urban, suburban, or exurban areas or studies in which human set- tlement was considered explicitly. For a variety of reasons, conservation has tended to focus on lands with a relatively small human presence, often dominated by resource extraction and agriculture. Urbanization is occurring in numerous biodiversity hotspots worldwide, however, and has been identified as a primary cause of declines in many threatened and endangered species. Suburban and exurban growth are affecting biodiversity in many places once thought of as too remote to attract such levels of development. Conservation biologists must address the issue of human settlement to enhance the habitat value of unreserved lands for native species, to increase landscape connectivity between reserves, and to mitigate adverse influences on re- serves from adjacent lands. Conservation and restoration of native habitats in densely settled areas also have social and educational value. We therefore suggest a more balanced approach in conservation biology to ad- dressing the effects of human land use through increased attention to areas where people live and work.
In Australia, over 50% of threatened species occur within the urban fringe and accelerating urbanization is now a key threat. Biodiversity near and within urban areas brings much social benefit but its maintenance involves complex trade-offs between competing land uses. Urban design typically views biodiversity as a development constraint, not a value to be enhanced into the future. We argue that decisions could be more transparent and systematic and we demonstrate that efficient development solutions can be found that avoid areas important for biodiversity. We present a case study in the context of land use change across the city of Wyndham, a local Government west of Melbourne, Australia. We use reserve design tools in a novel way to identify priority development sites, based on a synthesis of ecological, social and economic data. Trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and other key development objectives and constraints (transport planning, flood risk and food production) are quantified. The analysis can be conducted dynamically with visually compelling output, facilitating more transparent, efficient and democratically derived urban planning solutions. We suggest that government agencies could adopt similar approaches to identify efficient planning solutions for both biodiversity and development in urban environments. ©
Urban land-cover change threatens biodiversity and affects ecosystem productivity through loss of habitat, biomass, and carbon storage. However, despite projections that world urban populations will increase to nearly 5 billion by 2030, little is known about future locations, magnitudes, and rates of urban expansion. Here we develop spatially explicit probabilistic forecasts of global urban land-cover change and explore the direct impacts on biodiversity hotspots and tropical carbon biomass. If current trends in population density continue and all areas with high probabilities of urban expansion undergo change, then by 2030, urban land cover will increase by 1.2 million km(2), nearly tripling the global urban land area circa 2000. This increase would result in considerable loss of habitats in key biodiversity hotspots, with the highest rates of forecasted urban growth to take place in regions that were relatively undisturbed by urban development in 2000: the Eastern Afromontane, the Guinean Forests of West Africa, and the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspots. Within the pan-tropics, loss in vegetation biomass from areas with high probability of urban expansion is estimated to be 1.38 PgC (0.05 PgC yr(-1)), equal to ∼5% of emissions from tropical deforestation and land-use change. Although urbanization is often considered a local issue, the aggregate global impacts of projected urban expansion will require significant policy changes to affect future growth trajectories to minimize global biodiversity and vegetation carbon losses.
This paper evaluates the development of Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) as a means of reducing timber production-environment conflicts in Australia, with particular reference to the development of the Regional Forest Agreement in Northeast Victoria. Regional Forest Agreements are formal legal agreements between federal and state governments. The processes associated with their production have a number of innovative features from a social perspective, but the economic analysis associated with their production fails to put any value on the non-market values associated with native forests. The processes involved in the production of Regional Forest Agreements may result in economic benefit through local capacity building and conflict resolution amongst different stakeholders. However, there may be a gap between the intention and the outcome, in that RFAs have in some cases polarised and exacerbated conflicts.
Urban climates are known to differ from those of the surrounding rural areas, as human activities in cities lead to changes in temperature, humidity and wind regimes. These changes can in turn affect the geographic distribution of species, the behaviour of animals and the phenology of plants. The grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a large, nomadic bat from eastern Australia that roosts in large colonies known as camps. Historically a warm temperate to tropical species, P. poliocephalus recently established a year-round camp in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Using a bioclimatic analysis, we demonstrated that on the basis of long-term data, Melbourne does not fall within the climatic range of other P. poliocephalus camp sites in Australia. Melbourne is drier than other summer camps, and cooler and drier than other winter camps. The city also receives less radiation, in winter and annually, than the other summer and winter camps of P. poliocephalus. However, we found that temperatures in central Melbourne have been increasing since the 1950s, leading to warmer conditions and a reduction in the number of frosts. In addition, artificial watering of parks and gardens in the city may contribute the equivalent of 590 mm (95% CI: 450–720 mm) of extra rainfall per year. It appears that human activities have increased temperatures and effective precipitation in central Melbourne, creating a more suitable climate for camps of the grey-headed flying-fox. As demonstrated by this example, anthropogenic climate change is likely to complicate further the task of conserving biological diversity in urban environments.
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