Cities play important roles in the conservation of global biodiversity, particularly through the planning and management of urban green spaces (UGS). However, UGS management is subject to a complex ...assortment of interacting social, cultural, and economic factors, including governance, economics, social networks, multiple stakeholders, individual preferences, and social constraints. To help deliver more effective conservation outcomes in cities, we identify major challenges to managing biodiversity in UGS and important topics warranting further investigation. Biodiversity within UGS must be managed at multiple scales while accounting for various socioeconomic and cultural influences. Although the environmental consequences of management activities to enhance urban biodiversity are now beginning to be addressed, additional research and practical management strategies must be developed to balance human needs and perceptions while maintaining ecological processes.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Biodiversity in the City LEPCZYK, CHRISTOPHER A.; ARONSON, MYLA F. J.; EVANS, KARL L. ...
BioScience/Bioscience,
09/2017, Volume:
67, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
As urban areas expand, understanding how ecological processes function in cities has become increasingly important for conserving biodiversity. Urban green spaces are critical habitats to support ...biodiversity, but we still have a limited understanding of their ecology and how they function to conserve biodiversity at local and landscape scales across multiple taxa. Given this limited view, we discuss five key questions that need to be addressed to advance the ecology of urban green spaces for biodiversity conservation and restoration. Specifically, we discuss the need for research to understand how green space size, connectedness, and type influence the community, population, and life-history dynamics of multiple taxa in cities. A research framework based in landscape and metapopulation ecology will allow for a greater understanding of the ecological function of green spaces and thus allow for planning and management of green spaces to conserve biodiversity and aid in restoration activities.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The rapid urbanization of the world has significant ecological consequences that shape global biodiversity patterns. The plant communities now common in urban centers may represent new habitats with ...unique dynamics and the potential for highly modified ecological services. This study, joining extensive spatial and floristic data sets, examined current distribution patterns of non-native and native woody plant species in the New York metropolitan region, USA. We joined the New York Metropolitan Flora (NYMF) database of woody species with GIS data of urban land cover for 297 5 km by 5 km landscape blocks. We tested the relationship between urbanization and native and non-native species richness patterns, the extent of non-native species presence in the urban area, and the change in beta diversity across a gradient of urban land cover. We found that across the urban–rural gradient, native plant species richness decreased and non-native species richness increased with increasing urban land cover. Total richness does not change across the urban–rural gradient. Our analyses show that these patterns are highly correlated with urbanization, but vary across the New Jersey landscape. We also found an increase in beta diversity with urbanization; urban areas are not homogenized in plant species composition compared to rural areas. Here we show a species-rich flora dominated by non-native species which are differentiating the urban flora. These results can help guide appropriate conservation decisions for the maintenance of plant biodiversity in cities.
The majority of humanity now lives in cities or towns, with this proportion expected to continue increasing for the foreseeable future. As novel ecosystems, urban areas offer an ideal opportunity to ...examine multi-scalar processes involved in community assembly as well as the role of human activities in modulating environmental drivers of biodiversity. Although ecologists have made great strides in recent decades at documenting ecological relationships in urban areas, much remains unknown, and we still need to identify the major ecological factors, aside from habitat loss, behind the persistence or extinction of species and guilds of species in cities. Given this paucity of knowledge, there is an immediate need to facilitate collaborative, interdisciplinary research on the patterns and drivers of biodiversity in cities at multiple spatial scales. In this review, we introduce a new conceptual framework for understanding the filtering processes that mold diversity of urban floras and faunas. We hypothesize that the following hierarchical series of filters influence species distributions in cities: (1) regional climatic and biogeographical factors; (2) human facilitation; (3) urban form and development history; (4) socioeconomic and cultural factors; and (5) species interactions. In addition to these filters, life history and functional traits of species are important in determining community assembly and act at multiple spatial scales. Using these filters as a conceptual framework can help frame future research needed to elucidate processes of community assembly in urban areas. Understanding how humans influence community structure and processes will aid in the management, design, and planning of our cities to best support biodiversity.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, INZLJ, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
AIM: Cities represent an ideal study system for assessing how intensive land‐use change and biotic interchange have altered beta diversity at broad geographic extents. Here we test the hypothesis ...that floras in cities located in disparate regions of the globe are being homogenized by species classified as invasive (naturalized species that have spread over a large area) or as a European archaeophyte (species introduced into Europe before ad 1500 from the Mediterranean Basin). We also test the prediction that the global influences of European activities (colonization, agriculture, commerce) have supported this outcome. LOCATION: One hundred and ten cities world‐wide. METHODS: We examined the richness and composition of urban floras among European (n = 85) and non‐European cities (n = 25) for species classified as native or non‐native, or further classified as European archaeophyte or invasive. We modelled how geographic, climatic and anthropogenic factors were related to compositional similarity between European and non‐European cities. RESULTS: We found that most plants in the cities we examined, particularly non‐European cities, were native and unique to each city. Non‐native species were similarly unique, but occurred in much lower proportions relative to natives. Although European archaeophytes and invasive species also occurred in lower proportions, they had similar compositions among cities. European archaeophytes were most prevalent in European cities, but were most similar among non‐European cities. Contrasting European and non‐European cities, geography and climate were most relevant for native and invasive species, whereas climate and agriculture were most relevant for European archaeophytes. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Cities in disparate regions of the globe retain regionally distinct native and non‐native plant assemblages, while invasive species, and especially European archaeophytes, were associated with lower beta diversity among cities. These findings suggest that intensive land‐use change and biotic interchange, shaped through European influences, have had a world‐wide effect on the beta diversity of urban plant assemblages.
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ABSTRACT
Cities are both embedded within and ecologically linked to their surrounding landscapes. Although urbanization poses a substantial threat to biodiversity, cities also support many species, ...some of which have larger populations, faster growth rates, and higher productivity in cities than outside of them. Despite this fact, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the potentially beneficial links between cities and their surroundings. We identify five pathways by which cities can benefit regional ecosystems by releasing species from threats in the larger landscape, increasing regional habitat heterogeneity and genetic diversity, acting as migratory stopovers, preadapting species to climate change, and enhancing public engagement and environmental stewardship. Increasing recognition of these pathways could help cities identify effective strategies for supporting regional biodiversity conservation and could provide a science-based platform for incorporating biodiversity alongside other urban greening goals.
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Understanding establishment and spread of non-native plants is important in the face of a homogenizing global flora. While many studies focus on successful, invasive species, fewer have studied ...failed plant introductions. Until the early 1900s, large quantities of ship ballast, often containing foreign plant propagules, were deposited in New Jersey (USA) via shipping trade. The resulting ballast flora is documented in extensive herbarium records, providing us a unique opportunity to analyze successes and failures of novel plant species introductions.
We used digitized specimens from 75 herbaria to study 264 non-native species introduced into New Jersey through 19th century ballast deposition. We used spatial (density-based clustering; HDBSCAN) and temporal analyses of species retention and geographic spread to quantify disappearance rate, survival, and dispersion through time and define trajectory groups.
Four distinct trajectory groups were identified: Waif (only present during import; 32% of species), Short-Term (disappeared quickly; 20%), Established & Limited Spread (survives locally, 30%), and Established & Widespread (widespread, 18%). Species disappearance rate was highest during ballast deposition and decreased soon after deposition stopped around 1900. Spatial patterns show a strong association with 19th century railroads for inland dispersal from ports. The disappearance rate and spatial analyses are robust to herbarium collection bias.
This is one of few studies documenting multi-species successes and failures in inadvertent plant introductions, using New Jersey as a model. Results reveal distinct trends in species establishment and geographic spread and highlight the utility of herbarium specimens in answering questions that span large time scales. KEY WORDS This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Rapid urbanization and the global loss of biodiversity necessitate the development of a research agenda that addresses knowledge gaps in urban ecology that will inform policy, management, ...and conservation. To advance this goal, we present six topics to pursue in urban biodiversity research: the socioeconomic and social–ecological drivers of biodiversity loss versus gain of biodiversity; the response of biodiversity to technological change; biodiversity–ecosystem service relationships; urban areas as refugia for biodiversity; spatiotemporal dynamics of species, community changes, and underlying processes; and ecological networks. We discuss overarching considerations and offer a set of questions to inspire and support urban biodiversity research. In parallel, we advocate for communication and collaboration across many fields and disciplines in order to build capacity for urban biodiversity research, education, and practice. Taken together we note that urban areas will play an important role in addressing the global extinction crisis.
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Machine learning (ML) has great potential to drive scientific discovery by harvesting data from images of herbarium specimens—preserved plant material curated in natural history collections—but ML ...techniques have only recently been applied to this rich resource. ML has particularly strong prospects for the study of plant phenological events such as growth and reproduction. As a major indicator of climate change, driver of ecological processes, and critical determinant of plant fitness, plant phenology is an important frontier for the application of ML techniques for science and society. In the present article, we describe a generalized, modular ML workflow for extracting phenological data from images of herbarium specimens, and we discuss the advantages, limitations, and potential future improvements of this workflow. Strategic research and investment in specimen-based ML methods, along with the aggregation of herbarium specimen data, may give rise to a better understanding of life on Earth.
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Cities as sanctuaries Lepczyk, Christopher A; Aronson, Myla FJ; La Sorte, Frank A
Frontiers in ecology and the environment,
June 2023, 2023-06-00, 20230601, Volume:
21, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Cities have classically been viewed as biologically impoverished, homogenized, and simplified systems that harbor low value for biodiversity. However, recent work has demonstrated that cities are ...critical ecological systems that provide important services to humanity and biodiversity. Cities can play vital roles in conserving biodiversity as well as habitats, providing system stability, and offering direct opportunities for people to engage with nature. In a rapidly changing world with biodiversity loss at an all‐time high, cities have the potential to act as sanctuaries for biodiversity conservation. Here, we propose a “cities as sanctuaries” concept, which demonstrates the importance of cities for ecology and conservation, and provide the groundwork for advancing this novel field of study.
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