ALBERT

Description: Urban sprawl along the Mediterranean coast is characterized by single-family houses and domestic gardens. Many new residences are secondary homes for socio-demographically diverse tourists. We explore the differences between the residence types in terms of their garden structures and plant compositions using socioeconomic and legacy attributes. Outdoor areas of 245 primary and secondary homes were investigated to determine plant compositions, land cover and household characteristics. Then, the outdoor land cover was compared between the two residence types. Vector fitting in ordination space assessed the influences of socioeconomic and legacy effects on plant compositions. Finally, generalized linear models (GLMs) assessed the influence of these variables on garden structures. Relevant differences exist in the plant compositions of primary and secondary residences. Furthermore, secondary residences have larger areas of trees, shrubs, flowers and swimming pools, while vegetable gardens are more common at primary residences. Overall, socioeconomic effects appeared to strongly constrain the features of household gardens.

Description: Urbanisation can be dangerous to biological diversity, but on the other hand cities can enhance local and regional biodiversity by providing habitat analogues for many – sometimes endangered – species that are elsewhere excluded from natural habitats. Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis ) are endangered in Germany and populations are declining. This species may colonise urban habitats to a certain degree, but the effects of urban development or urbanisation on their distribution and population densities remain unexplained. The aim of this study was to ascertain if the metropolitan area of Berlin offers secondary habitats for sand lizard populations, which environmental factors affect colonisation success and to what degree they tolerate human impacts. In 2012, sand lizard populations in 30 plots (ten urban, ten suburban, ten rural) were assessed regarding their conservation status and environmental variables. We found 15 sand lizard populations; statistical analyses showed no significant differences in individual numbers among the three urbanisation categories. Regression models revealed that the percentage of suitable nesting sites, basking places and suitable microhabitats had a positive effect on density while individual numbers responded negatively to pets and isolation. Urbanisation neither affected sand lizard population densities nor their conservation status, and optimal habitats appeared independent of urbanisation. Urban as well as metropolitan habitats can therefore serve as refuges for this endangered species and negative impacts can be mitigated by forward-looking management, which is characterised by only minimal interventions.

Description: Native landscaping has been proposed as a means of increasing native bird diversity and abundance in urban landscapes. However residents’ preferences for vegetation are such that exotic plants are often preferred over natives. We investigated the extent to which native birds foraged in three common native and three exotic tree species in mixed urban woodland during four seasons. We predicted that native birds would spend more time foraging in native trees, and that food resources provided by deciduous exotic trees would be more seasonal than those provided by non-deciduous natives. Native birds spent a lot of time foraging in two of the native tree species, but very little time in native red beech ( Nothofagus fusca). They used exotic oak ( Quercus robur) throughout the year, and sycamore ( Acer pseudoplatanus) seasonally. Oak and European beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) were used by the largest number of species overall, because they attracted both native and exotic birds. With the exception of tree fuchsia ( Fuschia excorticata ), which produces large volumes of nectar followed by fruits, all tree species were sources of invertebrates for insectivorous feeding. Seasonality of use was high only in sycamore, indicating limited support for our second prediction. We show that being native doesn’t necessarily entail being a good food source for native birds, and popular landscaping exotic species, such as oak, provide foraging opportunities across all seasons.

Description: Recent studies suggest that songbird communication is negatively affected by anthropogenic noise. However, much of the current literature focuses on inter- and intra-sexual communication. Songbirds also use acoustic cues for many other functional behaviors. One example associated with fitness consequences is the identification of predatory threats through acoustic cues. To test the effect of anthropogenic noise on detection of acoustic cues, we compared the rates of seven anti-predator behavioral responses in urban dwelling songbirds foraging at bird feeders when exposed to playback of calls from predatory Cooper’s hawks under quiet conditions, and when overlapped with road noise. Only a single behavior, freeze response, decreased significantly when calls were overlapped with noise. However, freeze responses occurred in only a small percentage of playback trials, raising some question regarding the biological relevance of this observed difference. Overall, our results suggest that common urban songbirds are relatively successful at perceiving acoustic signals associated with predator presence. Whether this ability is commonplace amongst songbird species is unknown and warrants additional study. However, if this trait is not widespread, it may be an additional characteristic determining which bird species can inhabit noisy areas.

Description: Urbanization tends to remove or isolate green areas into fragments or restrict them to narrow corridors inserted in a matrix of buildings. Nevertheless, urban green areas may act as refuges for fauna and bats are among the animals able to use such habitats. Using bioacoustics we investigated the influence of green areas on the activity of insectivorous bats in the metropolitan area of Recife, a conurbation of 4 million people in the Atlantic forest of Northeastern Brazil. Bat activity was statistically higher in green areas, based on calls (t = 2.5298, p  = 0.0165), but not on feeding buzzes (t = 1.8132, p  = 0.0817) or social calls (t = −1.5551, p  = 0.1329). Several species were able to persist in an urban matrix and calls were classified into 16 sonotypes, belonging to five families (Emballonuridae, Molossidae, Noctilionidae, Phyllostomidae and Vespertilionidae). However, activity was significantly more associated with areas with vegetation, indicating that green remnants are hotspots for bat activity. Our results indicate that most insectivorous bats have a biased use of the urban landscape and the maintenance of urban green areas is essential to preserve them and the environmental services they provide.

Description: Constructed wetlands in urban environments may be used by urban amphibian populations for breeding. Yet, few studies have examined the performance of young-of-the-year from created wetlands even though the success of terrestrial life stages is directly linked to the performance of individuals at the egg and larval stage. We assessed how early-stage amphibians developing within constructed stormwater wetlands compared in body size (one metric of performance) to those in nearby natural wetlands. We conducted surveys for wood frog, Lithobates sylvaticus , larvae and young-of-the-year metamorphs at 13 wetlands located in the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and compared metamorph size (a useful metric for fitness and reproductive success) between constructed stormwater and two types of natural wetlands. We related body size to within-wetland parameters (reflecting water chemistry, thermal regimes and physical characteristics) and used an information-theoretic approach to identify predictors of metamorph body size. Abundances of egg masses, larvae and metamorphs were generally lower at stormwater than natural wetlands. Metamorphs exhibited larger body size in stormwater wetlands compared to natural wetlands. Low metamorph abundances and cool, stable water temperatures best explained large body size in stormwater metamorphs. We propose that with increasing urbanization and associated construction of artificial wetlands, size benefits in early developmental stages may help individuals cope with reduced habitat suitability in the terrestrial environment.

Description: Urbanization has been identified as a threat to biodiversity due to landscape modifications. Studies of parasite ecology in urbanized areas lagged behind those made on macro organisms. Here we studied infection prevalence of haemosporidian parasites in an avian community of an urban forest from Germany, and its relationship with bird abundance and body mass. We used PCR to amplify a fragment of the mtDNA cyt b gene to determine the infection status of birds, and bird point counts to determine bird relative abundances. The avifauna was dominated by two small sized insectivore passerines ( Parus major , Cyanistes caeruleus ), representing ~40 % of the total bird records. The highest haemosporidian prevalence was recorded for Turdus philomelos (100 %) and for Fringilla coelebs (75 %). Bird abundance and body mass were positively associated with infection status for two haemosporidian genera: Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon . Infection rate was lower in juveniles compared to adult birds. We recorded a total of 7 Plasmodium , 26 Haemoproteus , and 10 Leucocytozoon lineages. Avian malaria ( P. relictum ) was detected infecting 5 individuals of P. major , the most abundant species in the community. These results, together with those of previous studies at the same site, suggest that potentially any of the genetic haemosporidian lineages detected in this urban forest can be transmitted across native and pet bird species, and to species of conservation concern housed at aviaries.

Description: Urbanization influences a range of factors related to stream health, including the hydrologic regime, water quality, and riparian conditions that lead to negative effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. However, impacts on freshwater decapods from urbanization of tropical streams have not been reported. We hypothesized that changes in decapod communities in watersheds with different levels of urbanization are related to changes in physical stream habitats caused by different land uses and their effects on water discharge. The impacts of land use on the physico-chemical characteristics of streams and freshwater decapod communities were evaluated in three watersheds characterized by low, moderate and high-intensities of urbanization in Puerto Rico. For the low and moderately developed urban watersheds, decapod species richness ranged from 10 to 11 species; the highly urbanized watershed only had 4 species. M acrobrachium faustinum and Xiphocaris elongata were the most ubiquitously species and were found in all watersheds. Multivariable analysis of physical characteristics and densities of the decapod families resulted in one axis that explained 80 % of the total variation among the watersheds and was correlated with stream discharge. The effect of discharge is likely a result of frequent high flows that sustain habitats with high concentrations of dissolved oxygen and low concentrations of pollutants. An increase in physico-chemical parameters were observed from the LUW to the HUW. These results indicate that the decapod communities were most likely influenced by land use and environmental conditions that affected erosional aspects related to water discharge and water quality in the highly impacted watersheds.

Description: Urban areas are probably the most fragmented environments with respect to the presence of semi-natural habitats and shape of these habitats may be significantly affected by urbanization. Patch perimeter in landscape or habitat studies is much less popular to study than patch area. The studied sites were situated in the industrial city of Pardubice, which is one of the ten largest cities in the Czech Republic with nearly 100,000 inhabitants. In total, 40 grasslands were studied within a circular area of 314 km 2 . Butterflies and beetles with diurnal activity were studied during timed survey walks. A Simultaneous autoregressive model was used for test of the effect of biodiversity-area and biodiversity-perimeter relationships and for exclusion of potential bias caused by spatial autocorrelation. The models including patch perimeter performed better than those using patch area in explaining species richness, abundance and diversity of investigated organisms and were less influenced by spatial autocorrelation. The main conclusion and recommendation of the present study is that researchers should pay more attention to the possible influence of the patch perimeter as a potential predictor or co-predictor for landscape and habitat studies – especially in urban areas, where the negative effects of fragmentation might be much higher than in rural or more natural landscapes. Performing preliminary tests on comparisons between area and perimeter is highly recommended.

Description: This paper is dedicated to the topic of food resilience in the context of urban environments and aims at developing a qualitative tool for measuring it. The emphasis is laid on urban food security with a significant global relevance due to the interconnectedness of our urban and global food systems. We argue that food and agriculture have to be understood as integral components of contemporary urban and peri-urban landscapes as urban agriculture supports in many cases also ecosystems, biodiversity, urban ecology and urban landscape architecture. The topic is introduced through contemporary urban food system models and definitions followed by characteristics of a resilient urban food system, including consumer, producer, food processing, distribution and market resilience. Based on the review of food system models and assessment tools, a new food system model for resilience analysis has been developed. This is then applied to worked examples and further developed on the Christchurch case study, where the tool is applied to existing intra-urban and peri-urban landscape components of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Description: Increasing numbers of cities are currently developing sustainable policies aimed at promoting urban biodiversity and ecological dynamics through the planning of green networks and the implementation of more sustainable management practices. These human activities can strongly influence environmental factors on which the organization of ecological communities at different scales depends. Thus, it is of fundamental importance to understand the relative impact of local management, green space design and landscape features on the distribution and the abundance of species in urban areas. On the basis of 2 years of butterfly surveys in urban public parks within an extensive Mediterranean metropolitan area, Marseille (South-East France), the aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the effect of these three environmental scales (plot, park, landscape) on the composition and organization of species assemblages. Using variation partitioning and nestedness analysis on ecological data aggregated at plot-level and park-level respectively, we demonstrate the preponderant effect of landscape scale features on urban butterfly assemblages. Our results also highlight an important co-variation of plot management, park layout and urban landscape features, in their interaction with the community structure of urban butterflies. Although there is no significant species-area relationship, significantly nested patterns arise in species composition. Selective colonization appears as a driving force constraining the constitution of species assemblages within the city. However, a prospective study on adjacent more natural areas suggests that biotic limitations, interspecific competition and habitat filtering may play an important role if a larger portion of the urbanization gradient is explored, which remains to be investigated.

Description: This article will explore the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) framework for urban environments, focusing on the perception, utilization and maintenance of parks. The case study explores the perception of urban flora and the value of greenery in everyday life in The Netherlands. The reflection section addresses the difference between conventional and C2C approaches to greenery on the one hand and current green management policies and public opinion on the other hand. The author reflects on how urban planning policies can be better geared towards public awareness of C2C, and towards the implementation of ecologically benign management of urban flora. It is proposed that an implementation of urban green management consistent with C2C is feasible and desirable. It is feasible given the favorable shifts in public opinion in relation to urban sustainability, and it is desirable due to the basic cost-benefit analysis and increased need for urban sustainability.

Description: Urban greenery is increasingly recognized as an important component of urban ecosystems as it provides a range of ecosystem services for environmental and human well-being. However, the extent to which the performance of urban greenery is affected by availability of light in high-density urban environment is poorly understood. We examined the effect of shade on the levels of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in different urban forms, focusing on urban street canyon, vehicular flyovers, sky terraces, at-grade community gardens and rooftop community gardens surrounded by high-rise residential buildings. Within these urban forms, we examined the effects of PAR levels on the growth of shrubs, trees and palms. PAR was assessed though simulation using the building information modeling tool Ecotect, and direct measurements with quantum sensors. PAR was most reduced in sky terraces, with daily PAR restricted to about 15 % of unshaded conditions in Singapore. Daily PAR in rooftop community garden was about 60 % of unshaded conditions, whereas urban street canyon, planting area around and under vehicular flyovers and at-grade community garden had daily PAR of 41 to 52 % of unshaded conditions. Within these shaded environments, almost half of all shrubs and almost all flowering shrubs showed differences in vegetative and reproductive growth at lower PAR levels, respectively. Slenderness of trees was also significantly higher compared to trees grown in more unshaded conditions. The spatial distribution of PAR levels was highly non-uniform, with PAR differing between two and nine-fold within a site, and differed significantly to that of direct sunshine hours. These findings provide insights on how a better understanding of effects of shade on PAR helps to improve urban green space design and plant selection for better plant performance.

Description: Land cover composition is a valuable indicator of the ecological performance of a city. Single-family housing areas constitute a substantial part of most cities and may as such play an important role for sustainable urban development. From aerial photos we performed detailed GIS-based mapping of land cover in three detached single-family housing areas in Denmark of different urban form but comparable housing densities (ranging from 10.0 to 11.3 houses per hectare). The findings were subjected to statistical analysis and landscape metrics. Land cover varied with urban form: A traditional spatial configuration with rectangular parcels contained significantly more vegetation and less impervious surfaces per parcel than newer Radburn-inspired configurations with more quadratic parcels. Correlation analysis showed size of paved access ways to be positively correlated with distance from road to carports in all parcels, and number of trees to be positively correlated with garden size in rectangular parcels. Correlation analysis also showed that higher trees were located further from houses, and that rectangular parcels could support more trees than quadratic parcels. These results suggest that the urban form of neighbourhoods to some degree predicts the long term land cover composition. We conclude that strategies for maximizing the ecological performance of single-family housing areas can be informed by knowledge on urban form, and that digital mapping of land cover based on aerial photography is a useful tool.

Description: Urban expansion to rural and natural areas is a global process. Although several studies have analyzed bird community attributes along urbanization gradients, little is known on the impact of urbanization on temporal variability of bird communities. Rural areas show higher seasonal and interannual variability in environmental conditions and resources than do urban areas. Our objectives are to determine how seasonal and interannual variability in bird assemblages change along an urban–rural gradient, and how interannual variability in bird assemblages changes with season. Low seasonal and interannual variability of bird communities is expected in urbanized areas that show a process of temporal homogenization. Seasonal variability of bird richness and abundance were positively related to the percent cover of crops. Seasonal and interannual variability in community composition were positively related to coverage of herbaceous vegetation and crops, and negatively related to coverage of impervious areas. Interannual variability of bird richness and abundance were highest during the non-breeding season. We conclude that highly urbanized areas allow bird communities to have a more stable composition over time, promoting temporal homogenization. Our results emphasize that urbanization alters the temporal dynamics of resources and, therefore, the temporal variability of bird communities.

Description: Citizen science projects can gather datasets with observation counts and spatiotemporal coverage far in excess of what can easily be achieved using only professional scientists. However, there exists a potential trade-off between the number of participants and the quality of data gathered. The Bugs Count citizen science project had thousands of participants because of its few barriers to taking part, allowing participation by anyone in England with access to any area of outdoor space. It was designed to scope for both the effects of variation in local habitat and urbanisation on broad taxonomic groups of invertebrates, and the responses of six target ‘Species Quest’ species ( Adalia bipunctata , Ocypus olens , Aglais urticae , Palomena prasina , Limax maximus , and Bombus hypnorum ) to urbanisation. Participants were asked to search for invertebrates in three areas: ‘soft ground surfaces’, ‘human-made hard surfaces’, and ‘plants’ for 15 min per search. Participants recorded counts of taxa found and a range of environmental information about the survey area. Data samples were weighted according to identification experience and participant age and analysed using canonical correspondence analysis, and tests of observation homogeneity. Species Quest species showed species-specific relationships with urbanisation, but broad taxonomic groups did not show significant relationships with urbanisation. The latter were instead influenced by habitat type and microhabitat availability. The approach used demonstrates that citizen science projects with few barriers to entry can gather viable datasets for scoping broad trends, providing that the projects are carefully designed and analysed to ensure data quality.

Description: Road density and proportion of urban area are considered to be useful indicators of invasion risk from non-native plants. However, the mechanisms behind the relationship between these indicators and establishment of non-native species have rarely been addressed explicitly. To identify these mechanisms, we used a species distribution model (MaxEnt) for an invasive ornamental weed Rudbeckia laciniata using road density and proportion of urban area as explanatory variables, along with soil moisture and solar radiation. Overall model performance is relatively high (AUC = 0.91). Road density explained most R. laciniata occurrence, followed by the proportion of urban area. The occurrence probability of R. laciniata increased monotonically with road density, but the rates of increase constantly fell. The occurrence probability also increased with urban area when the proportion of urban area was small, but started to decrease when the proportion of urban area reached 0.2. Our results suggest that both road density and proportion of urban area are important factors in determining R. laciniata establishment but work differently.

Description: It is difficult to determine if smaller urban landscapes such as foundation plantings around buildings are just ornamental or if they have crossed a threshold and become functional communities. We hypothesize that one measure of functionality is the emergence of symbiotic relationships and ecosystem engineers, in particular the appearance of mycorrhizae. The mycorrhizae themselves are difficult to detect but a good indicator of their presence would be the grazers of mycorrhizae and their predators, in particular the microarthropods (Oribatid, Mesostigmatid and Prostigmatid mites and Collembolans). We hypothesize that microarthropod diversity and abundance can indicate when the functional threshold has been crossed. In this study microarthropods in the top two cm of soil were compared among urban, mid-urban (transitional) and natural sites on the University of Victoria campus, British Columbia. We found significantly fewer total microarthropods in the urban sites compared with mid-urban and natural sites. When microarthropods were separated by trophic level, we found that low trophic level microarthropods (dominated by Oribatid mites and Collembolans), were significantly more abundant in natural sites, while predaceous microarthropods (Mesostigmatid mites and Pseudoscorpions) were significantly more abundant in the mid-urban sites. We conclude that soil microarthropod diversity and bundance can indicate when a community has become ecologically functional and is not just ornamental.

Description: Collision with vehicles is a major if not the dominant source of mortality for owls. Despite this, there has been no study to date on Barred Owl-vehicle collisions, a species that breeds in densely-populated suburban neighborhoods with high road density. We capitalized on the availability of a large dataset of the locations of Barred Owls hit by vehicles and brought to a rehabilitation center in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA to investigate the factors underlying collision incidence. Using autologistic regressions and multi-model inference, we found that the explanatory variables with the largest effects on the likelihood of a Barred Owl-vehicle collision were speed limit, road width, and habitat suitability within 825 m of roads, in that order. Speed limit and habitat suitability had positive effects whereas road width had a negative effect. Our results are in agreement with existing studies of birds that have investigated the relative effects of road features and landscape structure in demonstrating the greater importance of the former. Future research should include systematic Barred Owl roadkill surveys that account for sampling biases in order to determine the importance of roads as a source of mortality for the species and to gain a better understanding of the effects of roadway design on the incidence of Barred Owl-vehicle collisions.

Description: Urban colony cats are part of the vertebrate community in urban ecosystems in the metropolitan area of Milan, Lombardy, Italy (45° 27′ N, 9° 11′ E) their management is mainly based on the practice of their capture/sterilization/release. Aims of this research, performed from May 2013 to March 2014, were to determine the qualitative and quantitative composition of endoparasitic infections in urban colony cats, the spatial distribution of infected colony cats, and the likelihood that parasites of colony cats act as markers for biodiversity in an urban ecosystem. Pulmonary and intestinal parasites were detected in feces of 35.92 % of colony cats specifically, four intestinal nematodes ( Toxocara cati , Toxascaris leonina , Ancylostomatidae and Trichuris vulpis ), two intestinal cestodes ( Dipylidium caninum and Spirometra sp.), one intestinal protozoan ( Cystoisospora sp.) and one pulmonary nematode ( Aelurostrongylus abstrusus ) were isolated. Infected and non-infected colony cats did not show any statistically significant difference as to their distances from the center of the city. However, in urban colony cats infected and non-infected by A. abstrusus , in cats infected and non-infected by parasites presenting an indirect life cycle (ILC) and in cats with or without multiparasitic infections were detected appreciable differences in their distances from the edges of the nearest green urban areas having different sizes. For A. abstrusus , parasites with an indirect life cycle (ILC), and multiparasitic infections, significant differences in distance from green urban areas were detected for infected vs. non-infected urban colony cats particularly, shorter distances for infected cats were observed, suggesting that cats living closer to green urban areas with higher biodiversity were more likely to be infected.

Description: Green roofs have been implemented on new buildings as a tool to mitigate the loss of post-industrial or brownfield land. For this to be successful, the roofs must be designed appropriately; that is with the right growing media, suitable substrate depth, similar vegetation and with a comparable soil microbial community for a healthy rhizosphere. This study compared soil microbial communities (determined using phospholipid fatty acid or PLFA analysis) of two extensive green roofs and two post-industrial sites in Greater London. It was found that green roof rootzones constructed using engineered growing media are not depauperate, but can have an abundant soil microbial community that in some cases may be more diverse and numerous than communities found in brownfield areas. In this preliminary study, one green roof supported abundant soil microbial communities that were dominated by gram negative and aerobic bacteria, whilst fungal abundance was similar across all sites analysed. Furthermore, ratios of fungal: bacterial PLFA’s were larger from post-industrial sites but overall were consistent with bacterial dominated soils typical of early successional habitats.

Description: Urban landscapes such as college campuses, arboretums, and backyards provide excellent habitats for education and research into animal behavior. We investigated aspects of the foraging activity of free-ranging Eastern cottontails ( Sylvilagus floridanus ) on the campuses of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Lawrence University. We used giving-up densities (GUD) to test for habitat selection and patch-use behavior by cottontails inhabiting an urban landscape with a gradient of shrub and tree cover. In addition, we used small garden fences around feeding trays to test their effect as obstacles to the foraging of cottontails. Foraging activity was significantly higher under cover than in the open. GUDs were significantly lower in proximity to cover; in addition, shrubs were preferred over low-laying trees as the source of cover. Camera trap photos revealed solitary foraging, highest in the late afternoon and early morning. We demonstrated that surrounding a food patch with 3 or 4 fences increased the cottontails’ GUDs. Similar to natural habitats, urban landscapes offer heterogeneous environments that force their inhabitants to allocate their foraging activity according to their perceived stresses. Studying effect of habitat complexity on foraging responses provides useful tools to study ecological interactions and can help minimize the damage that cottontails cause within urban environments such as city parks and private gardens.

Description: Sodium chloride (roadsalt) is routinely applied to roadways during the winter in many parts of the world to reduce ice formation and improve winter driving conditions. While increases in chloride (Cl − ) levels in waterways influenced by roads and Cl − impacts on roadside vegetation have been widely reported, there has been relatively little research on the fate of sodium (Na + ) and its impact on soils. Soils in the most heavily populated area of southern Ontario, Canada, are typically rich in calcium (Ca 2+ ) and we predicted that high native Ca 2+ levels in this region would limit Na + accumulation in roadside soils. In order to investigate the extent of Na + accumulation in calcareous soils, we compared soil Na + levels adjacent to roads of three different classes but having the same parent material, including a Freeway, three High Capacity Arterial roads and three Low Capacity Collector roads, as road salt loadings are highly dependent on traffic volume. Soil Na + levels were significantly higher adjacent to the two-lane (mean 0.22–0.50 meq/100 g) compared with the single-lane minor roads (0.013–0.10 meq/100 g), and exchangeable soil Na + was negatively correlated with Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and K + , suggesting that not only does Na + accumulate in calcareous soils, but it also displaces all three nutrient base cations. Nevertheless, relatively low soil Na + levels adjacent to the Low Capacity Collector roads, which are similar to levels reported for control soils in other studies, suggest that high base saturation in these soils may limit Na + accumulation, and that road salt application rates at the minor roads are not high enough to cause Na + accumulation.

Description: Urbanization has a direct effect on the landscape and its biodiversity, however urban centers has been ignored in most ecological studies. We study the diversity of ant communities in four remnants of tropical dry forest with different degrees of disturbance which are on the edge of the urban area in Querétaro city, Mexico. Samples were collected two times per month, from December 2004 to December 2005, in four strata: leaf litter, ground, scrub and arboreal. . A total of 25 species and 23 morphospecies were captured, belonging to 28 genera of 6 subfamilies: Dolichoderinae (3 species), Ecitoninae (5), Formicinae (12), Myrmicinae (24), Ponerinae (2) and Pseudomyrmicinae (2). Across the urban-disturbance gradient here studied the local diversity pattern could be explaining by the disturbance heterogeneity model. The most negative effect of urbanization was found for arboreal ants, while leaf litter communities were less susceptible to anthropogenic changes. In general, we found low rates of turnover, even in sites with high values of alpha diversity, evidencing the impoverishment of the ant community surrounding Querétaro city and the susceptibility of the community to extinction. The remnants were functionally very dissimilar and the effects of urbanization depend largely of the diet and life history of individual ant species. Moreover, it was found that the soil proprieties and vegetation structure influenced patterns of ant diversity along the urban-disturbance gradient. Despite the anthropogenic disturbance of the tropical dry forests surrounding the city of Querétaro, these forest remnants serve as a refuge for rare species and prove ecosystem functions. Ant biodiversity is also indicative of the state of ecosystem functions inside these remnants and likely of the biodiversity of other groups. Therefore, the conservation of these sites must be promoted to protect ant biodiversity and other taxonomic groups.

Description: Species that successfully inhabit urban ecosystems are rare, and urbanisation often drives localised extinctions of native species. Nonetheless, some species take advantage of the novel conditions available in cities and increase in abundance. Trends in the abundance and distribution of species in urban areas have received much attention, but the precise elements of urban ecosystems that affect the survival of urban-dwelling species are largely unknown. Animals that successfully exploit urban environments may do so because of increases in the availability of resources or habitats. Here we assess the effects of anthropogenic landscapes and prey abundance on the persistence of an orb-weaving spider, Nephila plumipes . We assessed spider persistence for six months in situ along an urban gradient in Sydney. We then transplanted spiders from a common garden into sites along the gradient, monitored their persistence in the new environment and measured a suite of environmental variables at local and landscape scales. The abundance of prey was closely linked with spider persistence, in both the survey and the transplant experiment, and was positively associated with anthropogenic habitats. The surveyed spiders survived longer when located closer to the coast and transplanted spiders persisted longer in smaller sites with more impervious surfaces and reduced vegetation cover. Our study shows that urbanisation has a strong effect on potential prey abundance and can lead to increased persistence of N. plumipes , demonstrating the broad impacts that habitat disturbance can have on the life history and trophic interactions of city-dwelling animals.

Description: The nocturnal, arboreal Marbled Gecko, Christinus marmoratus , is a common reptile in urban areas in southern Australia. This study compared the demographics and the distribution of geckos occupying different tree species in a modified urban park, the Adelaide Parklands, with those of a population occurring in Ferguson Conservation Park, a nearby native vegetation remnant surrounded by suburbia. The geckos in the modified urban and native remnant parks demonstrated different demographic characteristics. These differences were explained by tree circumference and the amount and type of bark cover on the tree trunk. In the Parkland, geckos were limited by the availability of thick exfoliating bark, its clearly preferred microhabitat as demonstrated by a laboratory choice experiment. The preference for trees with larger circumference, more cover, and thick bark were probably linked to thermoregulation, predator avoidance, and food resources. This study supports the premise that to support populations of urban animals, tree species selection needs careful consideration with regard to its microhabitat capabilities as well as food provision and other resource supports it can provide.

Description: The study aimed to assess if long-term exposure to urbanization changes the structure and composition of soil collembolan communities in urban green components (street lawns and park lawns) and in all urban green. Species diversity metrics, rarefaction, species richness estimators (Chao 1 and ACE) and multivariate analysis were used for the comparison of changes in community structure and diversity pattern over ca 30 years’ time span. Our results clearly demonstrate a shift, through time, in Collembola community composition and structure in an urban ecosystem and confirm that there is a linkage between long-term exposure to urbanization and changes in collembolan communities. Long-term urbanization led to erosion in species diversity and the formation of species-poor communities, species replacement, loss of specialized forms and promoted the invasion of exotic species. However, we show that the time span considered produced significant differences in diversity attribute values for the collembolan communities from street lawns and insignificant differences in park lawns, also we noted lack of significant differences in collembolan abundance across the two urban green components. The observed temporal changes in collembolan communities indicate that their response to disturbances in urban settings and selecting species is shaped by multiple processes. We conclude that more resistant collembolan communities were found over time in less stressed urban greening components such as park lawn soils compared to street lawn soils.

Description: Woodland fragments, in small historical cities, are commonly regarded as temporary voids in an urban matrix, yet to be allocated a land-use, under city planning regulations. However, they could display relevant plant diversity, and contribute to urban ecosystem services. This study combined surveys at 100 m 2 , and at patch level, with the aim to investigate how patch size, stand and urbanization, affected the structure of plant communities in thirty woodland fragments (0.1–2 ha), spontaneously developing in the small, historical city of Padova (Northern Italy). Trees, shrubs and other perennial species dominated the plant communities in these patches. Alien species were common, in both the understory (freq. = 97 %, mean richness = 4.33) and tree layer (freq. = 90 %, mean richness = 1.50). Species typical of native communities also occurred. Understory communities were associated with ancient forest, nitrophilous, and ruderal species; highlighting an overall heterogeneity. Road and railway density was moderately correlated with total species richness in the understory, whereas, urbanity (i.e. the concentration of built environment excluding road and railway density), and tree density were not. Furthermore, alien tree dominance negatively influenced total and native tree layer species richness and, moderately positively, native understory species richness. These results highlight that spontaneous novel woodland patches, even if they are minor fragments in small historical cities, maintain diverse green infrastructures that may supply an array of urban ecosystem services, when adequately recognised by city plans.

Description: Animal body sizes in urban areas often differ from nearby rural areas, which may impact population fitness and dynamics. We examined the effects of urbanization on larval body sizes of two species of salamanders, the two-lined salamander ( Eurycea cirrigera ) and the northern dusky salamander ( Desmognathus fuscus ). Specifically, we utilized a before-after control-impact (BACI) study design which allowed for the assessment of differences in larval body size between multiple control and impacted sites over a 5 year period. We found a decrease in larval body size in both species at the impacted sites compared to control sites in the first year after urbanization, followed by generally larger body sizes in urban sites compared to control sites in years 3–5, and significantly so in year 4. Using generalized linear models, we found support that larger body sizes post impact in urbanized streams may be due to warmer stream water temperature and decreased abundance of larvae. Both E. cirrigera and D. fuscus are well known for their ability to persist in urbanized streams; our data suggest that despite overall lower abundances in urban streams, persistence may be due to increases in larval body size and, potentially, post-metamorphic benefits.

Description: Aspects influencing the distribution patterns of mammals are particularly important for species living in human altered landscapes. The current study investigated the relationship between occurrence patterns of large spotted genets ( Genetta tigrina ) with various environmental variables believed to influence their detection and site occupancy in an urban environment. Presence/absence data was collected from 28 camera trap stations between June 2012 and October 2013 in Kloof/Hillcrest suburbs, Durban, South Africa. Average estimated occupancy of G. tigrina was 0.62 ± 0.14 with a detection probability 0.19 ± 0.03. The naïve occupancy was 0.607. Model selection indicated that bush cover and placement of camera traps on wide paths negatively influenced G. tigrina occupancy. Both winter and fringe habitats influenced the site occupancy of G. tigrina positively. Furthermore, bush cover was negatively associated with detection probability of G. tigrina . The current camera surveys provided baseline data for long-term species observations within suburban Kloof/Hillcrest. The present study indicated the importance of a variety of factors on the distribution of G. tigrina , particularly in landscapes where natural habitats are threatened with changing land use and increasing human populations.

Description: Urban forests are more vulnerable to exotic species invasions than natural forests and are often a pathway for exotic invasions into natural areas. Investigating the mechanisms responsible for species coexistence in urban ecosystems is important to prevent forest invasions and conserve native biodiversity. In this experiment, we studied seedling recruitment for two exotic invasive ( Acer saccharum and Rhamnus cathartica ) and two native tree species ( Acer platanoides and Betula papyrifera ) in two urban forests. We measured the effects of distance from a mature tree on the growth of conspecific seedlings and their belowground interactions (mutualisms and pathogens). We expected that native seedlings growing in close proximity to a mature conspecific tree would more likely be damaged by co-specific pathogens than those growing further away. In contrast, considering that exotic invaders have not coevolved with the local soil pathogens, distance from the adult conspecific tree would not affect their seedlings. We collected undisturbed soil cores at five incremental distances from each adult tree and grew conspecific seeds in these cores. After three months of growth, we measured plant biomass, mycorrhizal root colonization and root lesions. We found that biomass increased with distance from the mature conspecific tree only for A. platanoides and no distance dependent signal was detected for other response variables. Our results show that distance from a conspecific mature tree may not determine exotic species invasibility in an urban forest and that, instead, this may contribute to promote native and invasive species coexistence in urban forest systems.

Description: Urbanization has been considered as a major threat to biodiversity, making its ecology of increasing interest. Many urban ecology studies have been developed in a short time-scale, measuring real-time patterns. However, long-term studies are imperative to understand the responses of some species to the urbanization process. In this study, we aimed to assess the information provided by a recent one-year citywide bird survey when compared to a published ‘historical’ bird list of a neotropical city (Xalapa, Mexico) that compiles information of the past three decades, mainly from urban greenspaces. Specifically, we contrasted species richness values and assessed differences in species composition between both lists. We recorded 51 species in the one-year citywide survey, representing ~15 % of those reported in the historical list. Nonetheless, the upper-bound confidence interval of the citywide survey richness prediction represented ~66 %. Most of the species recorded in the one-year citywide survey are insectivores and granivores, a pattern that agrees with previous findings that underline the importance of insectivores as part of urban bird communities in the Neotropics. Although we used robust methods to compare our one-year citywide bird list and the historical list for the city of Xalapa, we acknowledge the limitations of comparing them. However, our results shed some light on the kind and type of information that one-year citywide surveys can provide and the importance of long-term studies for comprehending the processes involved in biodiversity changes within urban areas over time. Undoubtedly, establishing long-term citywide surveys sampling birds and other biodiversity groups will allow us to better understand the response of biodiversity to urbanization over time.

Description: Urbanization can alter nutrient cycling. This research evaluated how urbanization affected nutrient dynamics in the subtropics. We established 17–0.04 ha plots in five different land cover types—slash pine ( Pinus elliottii ) plantations ( n  = 3), rural natural pine forests ( n  = 3), rural natural oak forests ( n  = 4), urban pine forests ( n  = 3) and urban oak forests ( n  = 4) in the Florida panhandle, a subtropical region that has experienced rapid urbanization. On each plot, we measured the decomposition of mixed species foliar litter, the nutrient release patterns in decomposing litter, foliar litter quality, and forest floor temperatures. Aboveground net primary productivity and soil carbon and nitrogen contents were also measured to characterize the carbon and nitrogen stocks and fluxes in the urban and rural sites. Litter decay rates, liter quality indices and nutrient release patterns in decomposing litter did not differ among urban and rural forests despite differences in forest floor temperatures between urban and rural sites. Urban forest floor temperatures are on average warmer by 0.63 °C in the winter ( p  = 0.005) and tend to have a more narrow temperature range than those of the rural forested sites. Foliar mass was measured over an 82 week period that was characterized by drought, which may have masked an urbanization effect. Urban forest land covers had higher aboveground net primary productivity and foliar productivity compared to rural land covers. This increased input of foliar carbon is not reflected in statistically different forest floor or surface soil (0–7.5 cm) carbon contents between urban and rural sites. Understanding how drought interacts with other drivers of change in urban systems may be a necessary component of city specific ecological knowledge.

Description: The changing mode of urban development through time can bring a varied landscape mosaic accompanied by spatial-temporal differentiation of urban vegetation. Hong Kong as an ultra-compact city generates intense interactions between trees and urban fabric to highlight urbanization effects on tree communities. The study areas cover public housing estates which accommodate about half of the 7.26 million population. Thirteen site factors related to estate, landform and habitat traits were measured or computed as surrogate urbanization effects. Species composition and diversity of tree communities in 102 estates were assessed by field surveys, including four estate groups: older or newer ones situated respectively in urban core or new towns. They contain 48,823 trees belonging to 232 species with heavy exotic representation. Total tree density and native tree density in newer estates were significantly higher than older ones. Differences in species richness and diversity and native species richness between older and newer estates were not significant, expressing to a certain extent the floristic-homogenization phenomenon. Multi-response Permutation Procedures (MRPP) results showed significant difference in species composition between older and newer estates, which could be explained by variations in development age, density, town plan and pre-urbanization land cover. Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) results found tree distribution patterns in four estate groups strongly associated with estate area, open space area, estate population, estate age, Shannon index (H′) at planting strip and tree pit, and tree site quality index. Urban-forest management could be improved by adopting more native species and providing high-quality and spacious planting sites to accommodate more and larger trees. The research methods and findings could be used by policy makers and planners in similar large and developing cities to evaluate, design, maintain and enhance urban biodiversity.

Description: Aquatic ecosystems are common in urban environments. A solid understanding of aquatic species’ distributions in urban habitats will both advance urban ecology and preserve biodiversity in cities. In particular, zooplankton are central components of aquatic food webs and their biodiversity patterns thus warrant further characterization and understanding. We examined sources of variation and biodiversity patterns of zooplankton communities across eighteen waterbodies in the urban landscape of Canada’s large island city of Montreal. We report a total of 80 zooplankton taxa of which rotifers and cladocerans were major contributing taxa to biodiversity. We found a lack of agreement between contributions of individual waterbodies to rotifer and cladoceran beta diversity. Littoral vegetated zones proved to be important habitats for zooplankton biodiversity, contributing considerably to the species richness pool, often with a different species composition. Further variation in zooplankton community composition was attributable to local factors such as waterbody size, algal biomass and composition, and macroinvertebrate predators, but also to urban management practices such as waterbody draining during winter. We show that urban waterbodies can represent important reservoirs of biodiversity. Management practices favoring a large diversity of permanent and temporary habitats with littoral vegetated zones should be incorporated in urban design and conservation plans.

Description: This study makes a contribution to our understanding of the paradigm of ecology in the structure of urban landscape. It looks at the concept of ecology in Tehran’s Farahzad River-valley’s natural landscape. However, this is not intended as a study of a unique experience, rather the spatial and temporal co-ordinates of the text, the particular characteristics of the river-valley, and the principal issues of the paradigm of ecology, offer a framework within which theoretical questions of a more general nature concerning the structural character of urban landscape can be explored. The focus is on the concept of the social production of the landscape, at the center of which lies the ideal process. It emphasizes that changes in the relation between the elements and actors of production, the physical and mental means by which the urban landscape is created, and the relation between moment and totality within which the production process occurs, are central to understanding the ecology of place and the organization of urban landscape . The paper outlines some of the challenges associated with Tehran’s Farahzad River-valley’s landscape development in order to achieve the following aims: (1) to apply a landscape ecology approach in conceptualizing a model of thought for urban landscape development; (2) to analyze the content composition and spatial configuration of Nahjolbalagheh Natural Public Space, which has been created as a part of Farahzad River-valley’s landscape development; and (3) to suggest strategies for the important process of networking different levels of organizational orders in Farahzad River-valley’s natural landscape.

Description: Various disciplines have examined the role of urban greenspace in delivering a wide array of social-ecological values to urban residents. This semi-systematic review of 50 studies assesses how links between the social and ecological qualities of urban greenspace have been measured to establish social-ecological values, and what qualities researchers have used to define greenspace type. Our review identified that differences in the definition and measurement of greenspace and its ecological and social qualities can have a profound impact on interpretations of greenspace value. We argue that it is critical to acknowledge the heterogeneity among different greenspace types, and to use suitable metrics of greenspace ecological and social quality accordingly. We present a heterarchical typology of greenspace qualities (rather than a hierarchical typology of urban greenspaces ) that can be used to define greenspace type and identify research clusters, gaps and emerging lines of inquiry into the social-ecological values of greenspace.

Description: Lawn management practices that produce aesthetically appealing landscapes may also create environmental conditions that stimulate soil nitrous oxide (N 2 O) fluxes. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the effects of lawn management practices on N 2 O fluxes from three non-replicated distinctly different residential landscapes: a high maintenance fescue ( Festuca arundinacea ) lawn (HMFL), a low maintenance fescue lawn (LMFL), and a mixed hardwood forested residential landscape (FRL) located in Cary, North Carolina. The specific objectives are (1) to measure the N 2 O fluxes from three residential landscapes within a fixed 24-h period following natural rainfall events; and (2) to determine the effect of lawn maintenance, season, water filled pore space (WFPS%), temperature, and days after fertilization on N 2 O flux. The mean N 2 O fluxes for HMFL (14.3 ± 2.28 μg N 2 O-N m −2  h −1 ), LMFL (3.14 ± 0.68 μg N 2 O-N m −2  h −1 ) and FRL (0.43 ± 0.08 μg N 2 O-N m −2  h −1 ) indicate that residential lawns receiving the recommended amount of fertilizer and frequent irrigation exhibit higher N 2 O fluxes than non-irrigated fertilized lawns or forested landscapes. Patterns of N 2 O fluxes from the HMFL and LMFL were associated with timing of fertilizer applications, presence or absence of irrigation, and seasonal fescue growth patterns. For the FRL, lower N inputs and the presence of a decomposing litter layer potentially limited N 2 O production. Our findings suggest that lawn management practices (i.e., fertilizer applications and irrigation) can create differences in the N 2 O flux following natural rainfall events.

Description: Bird collisions with buildings are an increasing concern and yet understanding the factors contributing to collisions at the species level remains largely unknown. This gap in our knowledge of species-specific strike patterns hinders the development of accurate estimates for the impact of death-by-collision on bird populations and impedes on our ability to minimize its effects. Our study offers the first examination of the impact of environmental variables on bird-window collisions at the species level. The Fatal Light Awareness Program Canada collected bird-window collision data in three distinct regions of Toronto, Canada during the migratory season of the years 2009 and 2010. Our results indicated that building percent window cover, exposed habitat cover, and cover of built structures significantly affect bird-window collisions. Multivariate analyses showed that the bird species that collided with buildings surrounded by a high level of urban greenery are species that typically occur in forested habitats and are foliage gleaners. In contrast, species that collided with buildings surrounded by a higher level of urbanization are species that typically occur in open woodland and are ground foragers. These results suggest that the composition of bird species colliding with buildings across various regions of the Greater Toronto Area is influenced by the local bird species community composition, by the configuration of the surrounding landscape, and by the levels of greenery around the buildings.

Description: Prompted by recent sustainability trends, some institutions and municipalities have begun quantifying their local impact on the nitrogen (N) cycle. To better understand the N budget at Auburn University (AU), we measured N inputs and outputs in four subsystems (near surface atmosphere, human metabolism, animal metabolism, and landscape) utilizing methods established by Savanick et al. ( 2007 ) for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UM). The total AU input of 245.7 Mg N yr −1 and total output 217.5 Mg N yr −1 was made up of the balance of subsystem inputs and outputs (near surface atmosphere 174 Mg N yr −1 input, 174 Mg N yr −1 output; human metabolism 22.8 Mg N yr −1 input, 20.5 Mg N yr −1 output; animal metabolism 39.2 Mg N yr −1 input, 20.9 Mg N yr −1 output; landscape 9.7 Mg N yr −1 input, 2.1 Mg N yr −1 output). We compared these results with N balances for UM and the University of Virginia (UVA) (Leach et al. 2013 ) and found that larger campus area was associated with higher commuter emissions, colder average temperatures were associated with more on-campus energy emissions, presence of agriculture and veterinary schools were associated with larger animal metabolism N flux, and campuses greater urban density or crop presence tended to have greater landscape N flux. We found that overall N flux for each campus was similar when normalized per capita (7–11 kg N cap −1  yr −1 ). This study provides insight towards reaching sustainability goals at AU and other institutions and can inform decisions regarding pollution reduction plans.

Description: The use of nature areas as an effective tool for conservation of streams and their biota is a relatively unexplored option in urban stream management. Benthic macroinvertebrates and water quality in an urban stream, Poplar Creek, were monitored along a continuum within and downstream of a forest preserve in the western Chicago metropolitan area, USA. Taxa richness and a benthic macroinvertebrate index of biological integrity (MIBI) increased as the stream progressed within the preserve, but percentage of Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, and Plecoptera (%EPT) showed no improvement. Reductions in the amount of silt substrates and increases in gravel-dominated substrate were evident at sites within the preserve. There were no improvements in water-quality measures tested although trends may have been obscured by precipitation events between sampling occasions. The benefits in stream quality attained within the forest preserve extended beyond the downstream border of the preserve and were not diminished by the presence of a railway, which bisected the stream. The nature preserve provided an opportunity for increased macroinvertebrate biodiversity, likely through local reductions in impervious surfaces and improvements in stream substrate, despite lack of evidence that it improved water quality.

Description: To improve understanding of human impacts on headwater stream condition, we quantified relationships between human, terrestrial landscape, and stream system variables in 29 central Iowa watersheds. Across study watersheds, between 0 and 100 % of total land area was characterized as “urban” (developed and barren land), whereas cultivated land constituted between 0 and 71 % of watershed area. Several variables were measured for each stream and associated watershed. Strengths of correlative relationships were used to select variables for path analysis, which we used to gain insight into factors affecting stream condition by evaluating direct and indirect effects of human system variables, terrestrial landscape variables, and physical stream variables on stream invertebrates. Results indicated that in predominantly urban watersheds, contaminant inputs to streams (measured by streamwater conductivity) negatively affected invertebrates, including EPT taxa (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera), and streamwater contaminant concentrations increased with impervious surface and human population density in the watershed. In rural watersheds, high streamwater nitrogen concentrations associated with cultivated land were related to declines in invertebrate taxon richness. Independent of land use, invertebrate abundance and taxonomic diversity were positively related to coarse substrate abundance on the streambed. Additionally, stream flow (discharge) increased with watershed area, which in turn increased invertebrate taxonomic diversity. Apparently, mechanisms responsible for human impacts on stream condition in central Iowa depend on dominant land use in the watershed. Additionally, stream ecosystems with high quality benthic habitat, and those located in large watersheds with greater flow, appear to be more resilient to land use effects.

Description: Managing urban green space as part of an ongoing social-ecological transformation poses novel governance issues, particularly in post-industrial settings. Urban green spaces operate as small-scale nodes in larger networks of ecological reserves that provide and maintain key ecosystem services such as pollination, water retention and infiltration, and sustainable food production. In an urban mosaic, a myriad of social and ecological components factor into aggregating and managing land to maintain or increase the flow of ecosystem services associated with green spaces. Vacant lots (a form of urban green space) are being repurposed for multiple functions, such as habitat for biodiversity, including arthropods that provide pollination services to other green areas; to capture urban runoff that eases the burden on ageing wastewater systems and other civic infrastructure; and to reduce urban heat island effects. Because of the uncertainty and complexities of managing for ecosystem services in urban settings, we advocate for a governance approach that is adaptive and iterative in nature— adaptive governance —to address the ever changing social order underlying post-industrial cities and offer the rise of land banks as an example of governance innovation.

Description: We assessed bird diversity and nesting activity in 54 urban parks in the core of a highly populated East-Asian tropical city to investigate the effects of area, isolation, habitat heterogeneity, and human disturbances on avifauna. Tree density and heterogeneity were lower while isolation was greater in small than in large or medium-sized parks. Yet, park features were often interrelated, with isolation variables negatively correlated to each other, heterogeneity positively correlated to area, and habitat variables mostly positively correlated with one another but variously to disturbances; whereas pedestrian densities wee positively correlated with green area proportions (ISO3) but negatively with the distances to large green areas (ISO2). Park size played a primary role by positively affecting species richness and numbers of nesting species, thus contributing to higher total and nesting species heterogeneity, and determining the occurrence of a greatest number of species. Pedestrian density, canopy cover, and ground heterogeneity played secondary roles, whereas isolation appeared less influential at the community level. Omnivores, granivores, and aerial insectivores appeared more abundant but were dominated by several common species. Nesting was restricted to even fewer species. While species varied in the occupancy responses to these factors, tree heterogeneity positively affected the nesting of Zosterops japonicus and cavity-nesting birds, and predator density negatively affected those of Lonchura punctulata and Streptopelia doves. Improved urban land use planning and park management incorporating these effects should be implemented to enhance breeding and avoid compositional homogenization for long-term sustainability of urban avian diversity.

Description: Urban growth is a major factor of global environmental change and has important impacts on biodiversity, such as changes in species composition and biotic homogenization. Most previous studies have focused on effects of urban area as a general measure of urbanization, and on few or single taxa. Here, we analyzed the impacts of the different components of urban sprawl (i.e., scattered and widespread urban growth) on species richness of a variety of taxonomic groups covering mosses, vascular plants, gastropods, butterflies, and birds at the habitat and landscape scales. Besides urban area, we considered the average age, imperviousness, and dispersion degree of urban area, along with human population density, to disentangle the effects of the different components of urban sprawl on biodiversity. The study was carried out in the Swiss Plateau that has undergone substantial urban sprawl in recent decades. Vascular plants and birds showed the strongest responses to urban sprawl, especially at the landscape scale, with non-native and ruderal plants proliferating and common generalist birds increasing at the expense of specialist birds as urban sprawl grew. Overall, urban area had the greatest contribution on such impacts, but additional effects of urban dispersion (i.e., increase of non-native plants) and human population density (i.e., increases of ruderal plants and common generalist birds) were found. Our findings support the hypothesis that negative impacts of urban sprawl on biodiversity can be reduced by compacting urban growth while still avoiding the formation of very densely populated areas.

Description: High rates of intercontinental exchange of plant species have caused scientists to ask whether floristic areas with similar environments are undergoing global homogenization. We focused on riparian forests of the urban Salt River (Sonoran Desert, USA) to ask: (1) Is the forest dominated by cosmopolitan or provincial elements? (2) Which trees planted in the irrigated cityscape have established along the river? (3) Which types of restoration interventions have favored provincial species? We surveyed tree abundance, size and vigor in belt transects among five reaches that differed in degree of restoration, and obtained data on tree species composition of the urban landscape and pre-development riparian zone. Our results reveal the urban riparian forest to have many cosmopolitan elements, owing in part to spillover of trees from the cultivated cityscape (e.g., Acacia stenophylla , Vitex agnus-castus) . Global spread of some regional (Neotropical) riparian taxa (e.g., Parkinsonia aculeata , Prosopis ) also has contributed to the cosmopolitan status. Yet, the forests retain a distinct regional signature. Unintentional restoration of winter floods has allowed for regeneration of Salix gooddingii, a vernally-adapted provincial pioneer, although its long-term survivorship is restricted to limited micro-sites (storm drain outfalls). Urbanization-related changes in stream hydrogeomorphology explain increases in some regional species (e.g., Washingtonia spp.) that historically were excluded from the river. Reaches restored by planting, weeding, watering, and geocountouring had the greatest abundance of provincial species and greatest floristic similarity to historic conditions.

Description: Knowledge of an urban carnivore’s foraging behavior is vital to understanding its ecology. This is particularly important as urbanization continues to convert natural habitats into human-altered landscapes. Over the past few years there have been increasing reports of large spotted genets ( Genetta tigrina ) foraging within suburbs of towns and cities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Consequently, we investigated the dietary composition of urban G. tigrina using scat analyses, and the influence of predictable supplementary feeding stations on their feeding behavior in the suburbs of Kloof/Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal. Prey items with the highest relative frequency of occurrence were invertebrates (42.5 %). In particular, their scats found in anthropogenic structures such as roofs and out buildings were dominated by cockroaches (Blattodea). Small mammals also formed an important component of the diet. Significant seasonal variation in diet was recorded. The highest recorded relative frequency of occurrence of reptiles in scats was during spring (8.6 %). The highest recorded relative frequency of occurrence of anthropogenic refuse in the scats was in winter (12.7 %) with pieces of plastic, elastic bands and cardboard present in the scats. Uncommon genet behavior recorded at artificial feeding stations included diurnal feeding patterns and multiple individuals feeding with no signs of aggression. The presence of pet food, invertebrates associated with anthropogenic structures, and anthropogenic pollution/waste in the diet of urban genets, as well as their ability to use supplemental feeding stations highlights their adaptability to make use of temporally or locally available food resources within the urban environment.

Description: Cat food left out for feral and domestic cats and bird seed spilled from backyard bird feeders are two common anthropogenic food sources that may attract non-target animals like urban mesocarnivores but no studies have quantified mesocarnivore visitation at these food sources. We used motion-activated video cameras to monitor mesocarnivore use of spilled bird seed below 25 bird feeders maintained by residents in four neighborhoods in Flagstaff, Arizona, June-September 2012 and 2014. During the first five nights of monitoring only seed that spilled naturally below feeders was available. On each of the subsequent five nights, we placed a bowl of commercially available dry cat food below feeders so that both spilled seed and cat food were present. In both years, after cat food was added, the number of visits by striped skunks ( Mephitis mephitis ), raccoons ( Procyon lotor ) and domestic cats ( Felis cattus ) doubled and the number of times two animals were present simultaneously also increased. Aggressive interactions, in the form of displays or contacts, increased for all species combinations but significantly only between skunks in the presence of cat food. These results demonstrate that both spilled bird seed and cat food may be exploited frequently by urban mesocarnivores and that the type of food can elicit different behavioral responses that could have important implications for human-wildlife conflict and disease transmission.

Description: Increasing urban development threatens not only breeding habitat for migratory landbirds but also critical stopover habitat. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between landbird community composition and land cover in and surrounding urban park reserves in the Mississippi River Twin Cities Important Bird Area (IBA) in order to evaluate this area’s value during both spring migration and summer breeding seasons. This IBA includes a mosaic of residential, commercial, and park reserve land running along the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Hastings, Minnesota. Using citizen-science data collected at 8 park reserve sites in the IBA between 2007 and 2010, we calculated species richness, diversity, and evenness for the migrating and breeding landbird community at each site and categorized species into three conservation statuses (species of greatest conservation need, native and exotic) and four migratory behavior classes (permanent residents, short-distance migrants, resident neotropical migrants, and en-route neotropical migrants). We used AIC to rank multiple regression models to evaluate how these groupings vary across sites in comparison to the land cover in and surrounding each site. We found that most measures of both the spring migration and breeding communities were negatively related to increased impervious cover. Exotic species and permanent residents were less affected by surrounding land use, while breeding season resident and transitory neotropical migrants were greatly affected. Patterns of landbird richness and density suggest that removing impervious cover within lower quality sites can improve habitat supporting migrating birds.

Description: As urbanization accelerates, urban biodiversity conservation is becoming a great concern for the maintenance of urban ecosystem functions. In particular, forest bird communities in urban areas have been recognized as a conservation target because of their functions in food webs and ecosystem services. But our understanding of which local- and landscape-scale factors influence native bird communities within urban green spaces is still insufficient to provide managers with information for effectively planning biodiversity management programs. Here we examine how local habitat characteristics, human disturbance, and habitat connectivity influence the diversity of forest bird communities in 44 small forest patches (0.5–20.0 ha) embedded in an urbanized landscape. Patch size exerted a positive influence on the diversity of most bird functional groups, and it had the greatest effects on total abundance and species richness. The second most important factor was human disturbance. Remnant patches with lower levels of human disturbance had higher diversity than newly established patches where intense human activities occurred more frequently. In addition, vegetation complexity and habitat connectivity were positively related to total species richness and abundance, respectively, but they were less important. Management strategies for the conservation of urban forest birds, therefore, should consider not only local improvements in habitat structure – through increased patch size, reduced human disturbance, and increased vegetation complexity – but also the maintenance of habitat connectivity.

Description: Urban agriculture can increase the sustainability of cities by reducing their ecological footprint, conserving biodiversity, and improving quality of life in a city. Given the environmental, economic and social value of urban agriculture, it is important to understand the ecosystem services that sustain it. We experimentally investigated how pollination by wild bees affects tomato production on 16 urban agriculture sites in San Francisco, CA. By comparing four pollination service indicators (fruit set, fruit mass, yield, and seed set) in four pollination treatments (open, artificial-self, artificial-cross, control), we were able to determine that tomatoes pollinated by wild bees significantly outperform the control in terms of all four pollination service indicators measured. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that urban areas can support adequate pollination service to urban agriculture, regardless of garden size, garden age, or proportion of impervious surface in the surrounding matrix, and that floral resource density is a major factor influencing pollination service.

Description: Shrub-nesting bird species are infrequent inhabitants of urban habitats. Our study identifies their location within urban bird assemblages, quantifies their abundance in an urban ecosystem, and explores their association with vegetation variables. The study design consists of 103 point locations distributed among four types of urban habitat: medium-density residential sectors, low-density residential sectors, urban parks and natural parks. We focused on six shrub-nesting species: Gray Catbird ( Dumetella carolinensis ), Yellow Warbler ( Setophaga petechia ), Chipping Sparrow ( Spizella passerine ), Song Sparrow ( Melospiza melodia ), Northern Cardinal ( Cardinalis cardinalis ), and Red-winged Blackbird ( Agelaius phoeniceus ). Results from the PERMANOVA analysis suggest that the types of urban habitat are significantly different based on bird composition. Shrub-nesting species observed in Montreal were most abundant in natural parks, but some were frequently observed in residential areas. The presence of some shrub-nesting species was, depending on the type of urban habitat, associated with higher abundance of deciduous shrubs, clumps of shrubs or deciduous trees. This was not the case with all shrub-nesting species nor in all types of urban habitat.

Description: The present study is aimed at exploring native and alien plant species diversity patterns in distinct types of the urban forest environment by documenting differences in species density, level of invasion, and species-area relationships across four spatial scales (1, 10, 100, and 1,000 m 2 ). The research was conducted in deciduous urban woodlands in Kyiv, Ukraine. The total set of sampling units ( n  = 60) was divided among three forest types representing semi-natural and planted woodlands. We observed significant differences in plant species diversity patterns between semi-natural and planted urban woodlands across structurally and functionally complex disturbance regimes. Specifically, broadleaved plantations had lower number of species at small spatial scales but steeper species accumulation within a designated area. Steep species accumulation resulted in a lack of differences with semi-natural forests at 100 m 2 and 1,000 m 2 . Mesotrophic oak-hornbeam woodlands were relatively resistant to plant invasions. However, an existing pool of alien plant species coupled with a constant flow of newly arrived species at the city scale may create a sufficient propagule pressure to “break down” this resistance. Ash and poplar semi-natural forests occupied “an intermediate position”, not differing from oak-hornbeam forests and from deciduous plantations in terms of mean density of native and alien plant species, respectively. The multi-scale approach we applied in this study revealed the multifold aspects of plant species diversity patterns in the urban forest. We encourage a further development of plant diversity monitoring techniques that encompass multiple spatial scales and analyses.

Description: Although ecosystem services have been intensively examined in certain domains (e.g., forests and wetlands), little research has assessed ecosystem services for the most dominant landscape type in urban ecosystems—namely, residential yards. In this paper, we report findings of a cross-site survey of homeowners in six U.S. cities to 1) examine how residents subjectively value various ecosystem services, 2) explore distinctive dimensions of those values, and 3) test the urban homogenization hypothesis. This hypothesis posits that urbanization leads to similarities in the social-ecological dynamics across cities in diverse biomes. By extension, the thesis suggests that residents’ ecosystem service priorities for residential landscapes will be similar regardless of whether residents live in the humid East or the arid West, or the warm South or the cold North. Results underscored that cultural services were of utmost importance, particularly anthropocentric values including aesthetics, low-maintenance, and personal enjoyment. Using factor analyses, distinctive dimensions of residents’ values were found to partially align with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s categories (provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural). Finally, residents’ ecosystem service priorities exhibited significant homogenization across regions. In particular, the traditional lawn aesthetic (neat, green, weed-free yards) was similarly important across residents of diverse U.S. cities. Only a few exceptions were found across different environmental and social contexts; for example, cooling effects were more important in the warm South, where residents also valued aesthetics more than those in the North, where low-maintenance yards were a greater priority.

Description: The conservation value of urban parks for butterfly communities remains poorly understood, particularly for tropical butterflies in Asia. We conducted point count and route transect butterfly surveys, and used them to sample four habitats located within 13 urban parks across Hong Kong. We found 1054 individuals and 58 species of butterflies recorded in 60 survey hours over 6 months. This represents approximately one quarter of the entire known Hong Kong butterfly species list. Over 30 % of the individuals counted were Catospilia sp. but six of the species identified are classified locally as rare or very rare. Tree-covered habitats and grasslands showed higher butterfly diversity than open areas. The most common butterfly behavior was “directed flight,” which we also found to be habitat-dependent and most common in ponds and open areas. We additionally observed the use of vegetation in urban parks, which included 40 species of nectar plant and four records of butterfly oviposition. The high butterfly diversity, presence of rare species and usage of vegetation (especially as a nectar resource) we documented in this study suggests that urban parks have some conservation value for Hong Kong. However, the use of pesticides and heavy vegetation clearing may limit significant butterfly reproduction and population growth. Altogether these results emphasize the diversity of uses of urban parks for butterflies in Hong Kong while also providing possible directions for improvement in habitat and vegetation management that could increase urban park value for biodiversity.

Description: Correlations between urbanization and biodiversity are well known, but the causes driving such associations are lacking. We used a long-term, quasi-experimental approach to study the responses of avian communities to suburban and exurban development around Seattle, WA, USA. We measured indices of bird abundance, reproduction, and survival for 12 years at many locations, including 5 forest ‘reserves,’ 10 existing ‘developments,’ and 11 ‘changing’ sites where ongoing development converted forests to single-family residential neighborhoods. In the first few years of clearing, building, and occupation of new neighborhoods by humans avian communities shifted from those typical of second-growth forest to those more characteristic of developments. During this time avian diversity increased and numerical dominance by abundant birds declined. Species that adapted and exploited development reproduced more successfully there than did forest-dependent species that avoided development. Adults of species that thrived in developments attained equal annual survival across reserved to developed landscapes, while species that avoided neighborhoods tended to survive poorly outside of reserves. The humans living in our study areas frequently fed birds and provided nest boxes. These actions were positively correlated with increases in secondary cavity nesting and seed eating birds. Humans also maintained outdoor cats and 11 % of humans both fed birds and let their cats outside. These actions were negatively correlated with the abundance of birds regularly using feeders. We suggest that a key management goal in urban ecosystems is the maintenance of avian diversity because a diverse avifauna engages a diversity of humans.

Description: As urbanization can involve multiple alterations to the soil environment, it is uncertain how urbanization effects soil nitrogen cycling. We established 22–0.04 ha plots in six different land cover types—rural slash pine ( Pinus elliottii ) plantations ( n  = 3), rural natural pine forests ( n  = 3), rural natural oak forests ( n  = 4), urban pine forests ( n  = 3), urban oak forests ( n  = 4) and urban lawns ( n  = 5) to investigate how net soil nitrogen mineralization rates and soil microbial biomass differed between urban forests and rural forests and between urban forests and urban lawns in the Florida panhandle. Urban forest sites have 2.5 times as much net total nitrogen mineralized than rural forest sites based on the mean daily rates averaged over the 2 years study (2010–2012). Urbanization may increase soil microbial biomass and activity (potential carbon mineralization rates) and this may be influencing the soil nitrogen mineralization rates in the forest sites. To include an urban lawn (turfgrass) component in the study, one time measurements of soils from the aforementioned forest sites and from urban lawn sites (no fertilization, no irrigation) were collected in 2012. Urban forest sites and urban lawns sites do not differ in their potential carbon mineralization rates, potential net total nitrogen mineralization rates or microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents. However, lawns have a higher potential net nitrification rate compared to urban forests.

Description: A global warming of 2 °C is predicted to drive almost half the world’s lizard populations to extinction. Urban heat island (UHI) effects may further exacerbate the impacts of climate change on organisms that are sensitive to small changes in temperature. Currently, the Phoenix metropolitan region in Arizona, USA, is an average of 3 °C warmer than the surrounding desert. With continuing urbanization and climate change, thermal stress will become an increasingly important facet of urban ecology in coming decades. The main objective of our study was to investigate which landscaping styles and microhabitat variables can most effectively reduce the surface temperatures experienced by lizards. Using a bare lot as a control, we placed copper lizard models with data loggers in several vegetation and irrigation treatments that represent the dominant backyard landscaping styles in Phoenix (grassy mesic with mist irrigation, drip irrigated xeric, unirrigated native, and a hybrid style known as oasis). Our lizard models recorded 6915 estimates of potential body temperatures. We show that lizard activity time in summer was restricted to a few hours in un-irrigated native desert landscaping, while heavily irrigated grass and shade trees allowed for continual activity during even the hottest days. Shade, humidity, and sky view factor explained the majority of variation in temperature at a sub-meter scale. We suggest that maintaining the existing diversity of landscaping styles (as part of an ongoing UHI mitigation strategy targeted at humans) will be beneficial for lizards.

Description: Biodiversity conservation and restoration in cities is a global challenge for the 21st century. Unlike other common ecosystems, urban landscapes are predominantly covered by gray, artificial structures (e.g., buildings and roads), and remaining green spaces are scarce. Therefore, to conserve biodiversity in urban areas, understanding the potential conservation value of artificial structures is vital. Here, we examined factors influencing the distribution of ferns in building gaps, one of the more common artificial structures, in urban Sapporo, northern Japan. We observed 29 fern species, which corresponds to 30 % of all fern species previously recorded in Sapporo. The four dominant species were Equisetum arvense , Matteuccia struthiopteris , Dryopteris crassirhizoma , and Athyrium yokoscense . Statistical analyses showed that their distribution patterns in building gaps were associated with both local- and landscape-scale environmental factors. Although ground cover type and distance from continuous forests were the most important determinants, other factors such as the amount of solar radiation, habitat age (years after building development), and urban district type also affected fern distribution. These results suggest that building gaps act as an important habitat for ferns in highly urbanized landscapes. Policy makers and city planners should therefore not overlook these cryptic habitats. Clarifying the ecological functions of artificial structures will both further our understanding of novel ecosystems and develop a new framework for conserving and restoring biodiversity in human-modified landscapes.

Description: The study of diet is pivotal in understanding a species, particularly for quantifying a predatory raptors’ economic niche and potential for human-wildlife conflict. The crowned eagle ( Stephanoaetus coronatus ) is one of Africa’s apex predators and a population is present within the urban greenspace mosaic of Durban and Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In close association with urban development, the local population of crowned eagles has the potential to be a concern to the safety of domestic stock and pets. Time-lapse cameras were positioned at urban nest sites ( n  = 11) to identify the prey composition during breeding, particularly in regards to taxa with human associations. The numerical proportion of avian prey, particularly hadeda ibis ( Bostricia hagedash ) pulli, was several times greater than any previous diet description. The methodology used and the abundance of hadeda ibis in these urban environments are potential contributing factors. Rock hyrax ( Procavia capensis ) was the primary prey and where hyrax were unavailable, the diet composition was broader and included more vervet monkeys ( Chlorocebus pygerythrus ). It was found that domestic stock comprised 6 % of the identifiable prey. Contrary to popular belief, no dogs ( Canis familiaris ) and few cats ( Felis domesticus ) were delivered to the nest by breeding eagles in this study. The negative consequences of small proportions of pet losses should be considered against the majority of wildlife prey consumed, which also have various wildlife conflict interactions. Juvenile and sub-adult eagles are most frequently identified at in situ attacks of pets, particularly toy dog breeds. Further research on juvenile dispersal and winter diet will provide insights on the ecological impacts of eagle management strategies in the region.

Description: Human-dominated environments are often subjected to increased nutrient and moisture regimes which have the potential to influence the flowering phenology of plants. Protracted flowering periods within urban landscapes may result in increased food resources, in the form of nectar, and this high resource availability may support a high density of nectarivorous birds within cities. In order to determine whether there was a difference in the productivity and flowering period associated with urbanisation, we compared the number of flowers produced and duration of flowering period for three species of native tree that were present in streetscapes, remnant vegetation and continuous forest. We also recorded the presence of nectarivorous parrots at flowering trees to determine if the presence of nectarivores was associated with flower productivity. All three species in streetscapes produced more flowers and flowered for longer than in remnants and continuous forest. The number of flowers per tree significantly predicted the presence of nectarivorous parrots in streetscapes. This study demonstrates that the flowering phenology of plants within streetscapes can differ from continuous forest, with remnants appearing to be intermediate. This increased flower productivity within urban landscapes may be partially responsible for the high abundance of nectarivorous parrots within some cities.

Description: We studied how degree of urbanization affected forest-floor herbs in deciduous forest along an urbanization gradient from west to east of Cincinnati, OH. We measured species diversity, richness, and abundance of herbs in 16 30 × 30 m plots at two Urban, two Exurban, and two Wildland sites. Because the invasive shrub Amur honeysuckle ( Lonicera maackii ) negatively affects richness and abundance of native herbs, half of these plots contained honeysuckle, except at the Wildland sites where honeysuckle was absent. We used General Linear Models or Generalized Linear Mixed Models to determine the effect of edaphic, geographic, forest composition, human effects, and honeysuckle variables on herbs and used model comparison techniques to identify those variables that significantly affected herbs. Human effects (e.g., proximity to roads) and geography (e.g., aspect, slope) were the most important factors affecting herb richness and abundance, and geography (e.g., elevation) was the most important factor affecting herb diversity. Honeysuckle (measured as diameter of primary stem) had no effect on diversity or richness of herbs, but positively affected herb abundance. Herb diversity did not vary significantly along the urbanization gradient, but higher herb richness and abundance in Exurban and Wildland sites along the urbanization gradient were associated with higher tree diversity, richness, and abundance, shallower slopes, greater distance to roads, and smaller honeysuckle shrubs.

Description: The proliferation of artificial lighting at night is one of the key anthropogenic changes associated with urbanised areas as well as some non-urban areas. Disruption to natural light/dark regimes can have considerable effects on the timing of different behaviours of birds, particularly during the breeding season. However, the effect of artificial lights on the timing of behaviours during winter has received relatively little attention, despite the fact that time partitioning of foraging can have implications for avian winter survival. In this study, we assess at a landscape scale during winter, whether birds arrive at feeding stations earlier in areas with increased levels of artificial lighting using data from a citizen science project. Arrival times of the ten most commonly recorded species were associated with a combination of the density of artificial lights, temperature, rainfall and urban land cover. We found no evidence that birds advance the onset of foraging in gardens with more artificial lights nearby; contrary to our prediction, birds generally arrived later into these areas. This is possibly a response to differences in food availability or predation risk in areas with more artificial lights. We conclude that artificial light at night may not be as important for driving the timing of foraging behaviour in winter as previously thought, but it remains to be seen whether this represents a missed opportunity to extend the foraging period or an adaptive response.

Description: Urban ecosystems’ demands for energy and materials are rapidly growing, as is the burden of wastes produced in utilizing these resources. Current consumption patterns are considered unsustainable, as they degrade resource stocks and ecosystem services that support human populations. While an urban metabolism approach is useful in analyzing resource flow dynamics that affect sustainability, challenges regarding data resolution and temporal and spatial consistency have been persistent issues in both time-series and comparative cross-sectional analyses. We envisioned that addressing these issues would allow a deeper examination of changes in metabolic trends and more robust comparison between urban ecosystems. To minimize inconsistencies, we conducted a time-series and cross-sectional metabolism analysis of three proximate urban ecosystems over a common time period. Our study compared the metabolism of Durham, Orange, and Wake Counties in North Carolina, USA using the highest available data resolution from 1985 to 2005. We found that high resolution temporal data made it possible to identify specific metabolic trends and suggest connections to changes in infrastructure, policy, and weather patterns using additional data resources. Analyzing proximate urban ecosystems over a common time period allowed us to identify the metabolic effects of policy, weather patterns, infrastructure, and waste management programs. In evaluating these outcomes, we demonstrate how urban metabolism analyses could be a valuable tool for management and planning related to resource and energy flows.

Description: Many street trees in urban areas are deciduous and drop leaves during autumn. These leaves are a potential growing substrate for fungi, which when aerosolized and inhaled, can lead to allergy along with more serious diseases. This investigation assessed the potential contribution of fallen leaves to the diversity of airborne fungal propagules during autumn. The senescent leaves of five deciduous tree species prevalent in urban environments were subject to a manipulative experiment in which their phyllospheric fungi were aerosolized, cultured and identified. Aerosolized fungi were compared with fungi detected from direct observation of the phyllosphere. Thirty-nine fungal genera were identified across the plant species sampled, of which twenty-eight were present in corresponding air samples. Significant differences were observed amongst the fungal genera growing on the leaves of the different trees, however few differences were found in the composition of fungal spores that were aerosolized. The dominant genera that were aerosolized were: Penicillium , Cladosporium , Alternaria , Chaetomium , Botrytis and Trichothecium . Some of these fungi are known to produce allergy and other symptoms in humans. As these fungal genera have been commonly identified in autumn air samples in other studies, it is likely that the phyllospheric fungi present on deciduating leaves contribute to the aeromycota of urban areas.

Description: Habitat fragmentation plays a major role in species extinction around the globe. Previous research has determined that species richness in fragments is affected by a number of characteristics. These include fragment age, size, and isolation, edge effects, vegetation coverage, habitat heterogeneity, and matrix content. Although most studies focused on one or a few of these characteristics, multiple characteristics work together to affect species richness, showing that the effects of habitat fragmentation are complex. The goal of our study was to partition the complex effects of habitat fragmentation by determining the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of multiple habitat fragment characteristics on rodent species richness. In 2013, we determined rodent species richness in 25 habitat fragments within Thousand Oaks, California. In addition, we measured the following characteristics for each fragment: fragment age, area, isolation, shrub coverage, habitat heterogeneity, perimeter/area ratio, and percent non-urban buffer. Path Analysis was used to test the hypothesized model which described the direct, indirect, and cumulative effect of each habitat fragment characteristic on rodent species richness. Overall, the path model explained 67 % of the variation in rodent species richness among habitat fragments. Habitat heterogeneity had the greatest direct and total effect on rodent species richness. Fragment size had the next greatest total effect on rodent species richness but this was nearly entirely indirect through its influence on habitat heterogeneity, suggesting that large fragments containing the greatest diversity of habitats will support the most species. Our study shows that large habitat fragments support the greatest habitat diversity, which provides the highest likelihood of conserving rodent species richness in an urban landscape.

Description: There is growing public interest and participation in food-producing urban community gardens in North America, yet little research has examined agricultural production and ecological processes in these spaces. We describe the agroecological and social characteristics of 61 food-producing gardens in New York City, drawing on gardener interviews, land-use maps, plant species inventories, arthropod scouting, and soil sampling and analysis. Gardens contained agricultural crops, food production infrastructure, ornamental plants, and recreational areas in varying proportions, indicating that gardens serve multiple and distinct purposes depending on community needs and interests. On average, gardeners devoted the greatest proportion of garden area (44 %) to food production, and supplied a large share of their households’ produce needs from their community gardens. Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, and Cucurbitaceae crops dominated food crop areas, hindering effective crop rotation to prevent disease and pest problems. Most gardeners grew crops in raised beds constructed with clean fill and compost. These soils generally had sandy textures, low water-holding capacity, high organic matter levels (with a large proportion from recent inputs) and excessive nutrient levels. Soil water content at field capacity increased exponentially with total soil carbon, suggesting that organic matter enhances water-holding capacity. Insect pest densities greatly exceeded action thresholds in nearly all gardens for aphids and whiteflies on Brassica crops, aphids on Cucurbit crops, and two-spotted spider mites on tomatoes. Predator and parasitoid densities were generally low (less than one per plant on average), perhaps partially due to low floral and woody perennial cover in most gardens (12 % and 9 % on average, respectively). Dominant groups of natural enemies were minute pirate bugs, spiders, and parasitoid wasps. A wide variety of people of differing experience levels, incomes, and ethnicities participate in community gardening in NYC, and most gardens host multiple languages. Promising directions for urban gardening research, education, and practice include: 1) Cover cropping to improve soil quality and nutrient management, and diversify crop rotations; 2) Improving access to soil testing and guidance on appropriate use of soil amendments, 3) Enhancing habitat for arthropod natural enemies that provide biological control of insect pests with floral and woody perennial plantings; and 4) Incorporating ecological knowledge and inquiry-based approaches into gardening workshops, educational materials, and technical support, and offering these resources in multiple languages.

Description: An adequate supply of plant-available nutrients and an appropriate chemical composition of soils in tree pits are important factors affecting the health and life span of trees in urban environments. We used Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) to explore relationships between nutrient availability, soil organic matter (SOM), soil pH, land use, soil age (time since tree transplanting from nursery to the tree pit), street width, and tree pit cover material in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Soil was collected to a depth of 20 cm from tree pits along commercial and residential streets and analyzed for concentrations of plant available K, Ca, Mg, P, and N, concentration of Na, SOM content and soil pH. Mulching with wood chips and soil age influenced the availability of K, P, and N in the tree pit soils. Sodium concentration was positively correlated with soil pH, possibly due to the displacement of H + by Na + originating from de-icing salt. Soil organic matter content was positively correlated with Mg and Na concentrations in tree pit soils in commercial zones, and with K and Ca concentrations in those of residential zones. Soil from tree pits located along wide streets in commercial zones had high concentrations of Na and Ca, possibly due to higher volumes of traffic on those streets splashing more de-icing salt, and increased weathering of buildings and sidewalk by de-icing salt. The information presented here can be a valuable baseline for managing nutrients in tree pits, in order to mitigate the stresses that can shorten the life of street trees.

Description: In this study, we investigated the effects of trees on the local urban microclimate and human thermal comfort under different local weather conditions, in a small urban area in Assen, the Netherlands. In both summer and winter, continuous air temperature and relative humidity measurements were conducted at five selected sites having obviously different environmental characteristics in tree cover. Measurements demonstrated that in summer the microclimatic conditions at each observation site showed significant differences. The cooling effects of trees on clear and hot days were two times higher than on cloudy and cold days. In winter, air temperature was slightly reduced by the evergreen trees, and weather conditions did not cause a notable change on performance of trees on the microclimate. ENVI-met, a three-dimensional microclimate model was used to simulate the spatial distribution of temperature and humidity. After selecting representative days, we simulated the study site as it currently is and for a situation without trees. Spatial differences of trees’ effects were found to vary strongly with weather conditions. Furthermore, human thermal comfort is indicated by the Predicted Mean Vote model. During the hottest hours, trees improved the thermal comfort level via reducing ‘very hot’ and ‘hot’ thermal perception by about 16 % on clear days and 11 % on cloudy days. Generally, our findings demonstrate that urban microclimate and human thermal comfort convincingly varies in close geographical proximity. Both are strongly affected by the presence of local trees. Weather conditions play an important role on the trees’ performance on the summer-time microclimate.

Description: Effective landscape management decisions require knowledge of the relative effects of landscape variables on ecological responses, so that the most important landscape variables can be targeted for management. The relative effects of wetland cover and urbanization on remaining wetland quality are poorly understood because of correlations between these landscape variables. We determined the relative effects of wetland cover and urbanization on wetland quality by selecting a set of focal wetlands in which the percentages of the surrounding landscape in wetland cover and impervious cover were uncorrelated, at multiple spatial scales (extents). Wetland quality was inferred through abundance, taxa richness and taxa composition measures of vegetation and benthic macroinvertebrates. We found that reduced wetland cover was more detrimental than urbanization to remaining wetland quality, at least within the ranges of wetland cover (0 to 10%) and impervious cover (0 to 22%) in our study. In addition, we found that the spatial scale of these effects was large, in an area within 0.8 to 1.8 km of the wetlands. Our results indicate that policies aimed at reducing the impacts of urbanization around remaining wetlands will be only partly successful. Wetland management policies should also include wetland restoration in the landscape. Furthermore, our results indicate that management actions limited to buffer areas within tens of metres of wetlands will be only partly successful, because the influences of wetland cover and impervious cover on wetland quality extend much farther (0.8–1.8 km from wetlands). Policies applied to the whole landscape are needed.

Description: House crows, Corvus splendens , are highly successful emigrants from the Indian subcontinent that have colonized urban and rural habitats in many locations in Asia. We conducted counts of crows, recorded sound intensities (db) and used a Likert scale to score cleanliness, traffic, trees, and people along 500 m transects in three residential, park and business areas in three urban and rural landscapes respectively, in Selangor and Perak, Malaysia to determine the use of rural and urban landscapes by crows. Significantly more crows were recorded in urban than rural landscapes ( p  = 0.016), and in business than park areas in both urban and rural sites ( p  〈 0.001). In urban landscapes they were of similar abundance in business and residential areas at two sites but not the third ( p  〈 0.001). The availability of rubbish (primarily food scraps) was the most important factor explaining 68 % of C. splendens abundance and this was consistent with gut analysis of carcasses obtained from council culls. These results suggest that crow management would benefit from cleanliness around business areas in particular.

Description: Urbanization is worldwide among the biggest threats to amphibian populations. However, hardly any studies have been conducted on the effects thereof in developing countries. Amphibian distribution and community assemblages are not well understood in aquatic and terrestrial habitats that are rapidly changing due to human modification. We conducted four surveys using three detection methods for both anuran larvae and predatory fish in 61 ponds in and around the city of Potchefstroom, South Africa. Tadpoles of eight anuran species and seven fish species were detected during the field surveys. The common river frog ( Amietia quecketti ) was the most abundant species, occurring in 39 % of the sites, whereas the bubbling kassina ( Kassina senegalensis ) was detected in only one pond. The remaining six species were detected in 6.6–26.2 % of the sites. Predatory fish were detected in 64 % of the wetlands with mosquitofish ( Gambusia affinis ) and the banded tilapia ( Tilapia sparrmanii ) detected respectively in 44 and 43 % of the sites. High species richness was associated with well-vegetated wetlands, low urban CBD surface area and conductivity, large pond areas and steeper bank slopes. Conductivity and pH showed only weak negative effects on species richness. This is the first study to quantify the effects of urbanization on frog communities in a developing city on the African continent. Our results demonstrate that both local and landscape variables affect amphibians in a small but rapidly developing city. Accordingly, management practices need to adopt a multi-scale approach if we are to conserve amphibians in African cities.

Description: Following the call from the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity “Cities & Biodiversity Outlook” project to better preserve urban biodiversity, this paper presents stakeholder-specific statements for bird conservation in city environments. Based upon the current urban bird literature we focus upon habitat fragmentation, limited habitat availability, lack of the native vegetation and vegetation structure as the most important challenges facing bird conservation in cities. We follow with an overview of the stakeholders in cities, and identify six main groups having the greatest potential to improve bird survival in cities: i) urban planners, urban designers and (landscape) architects, ii) urban developers and engineers, iii) homeowners and tenants, iv) companies and industries, v) landscaping and gardening firms, vi) education professionals. Given that motivation to act positively for urban birds is linked to stakeholder-specific advice, we present ten statements for bird-friendly cities that are guided by an action perspective and argument for each stakeholder group. We conclude with a discussion on how the use of stakeholder-specific arguments can enhance and rapidly advance urban bird conservation action.

Description: The growing recognition of trees’ value in urban environments is resulting in increased investment in “green infrastructure.” However, generalizations that deciduous canopies reduce stormwater are based largely on closed-canopy forests, highlighting the need for more detailed study of isolated urban trees. We systematically studied the effect of canopy traits on stemflow percent and funneling ratios for isolated deciduous trees in a semi-arid climate characterized by mostly small precipitation events. High stemflow production was generally associated with high branch angles (single- and multi-leader trees) small diameter-at-breast-height (single-leader trees), furrowed bark in single-leader trees for rain events ≥ 10 mm, and smooth bark in multi-leader trees for all except the lowest rain depth class. Higher numbers of leaders converging at the base were associated with high stemflow yields. Individual-tree stemflow percent and funneling ratio values were variable, even for similar rain depths, suggesting that meteorological factors play a role. Event maximum stemflow percent was 22.8 % (25.6 mm rain depth) for a columnar English oak and event maximum funneling ratio was 196.9 (5.6 mm) for a Riversii European beech. Our findings highlight the importance of infiltration capacity at the base of urban trees and of designing for the rainfall regime when integrating stormwater management with vegetation and soils in cities.

Description: Urbanization poses a threat to long-lived vertebrates, particularly from road mortalities that can threaten population persistence. We studied movements, behavior and survivorship in a semi-aquatic turtle, Chelodina longicollis , during a La Niña period of above average rainfall (wet period) from 2012 to 2013. Our goals were to compare female turtles in a suburban environment to those in an adjacent nature reserve, and to interpret our results relative to a previous study in the same system during an El Niño period of drought from 2006 to 2007. During the wet period, turtles from suburban and nature reserve environments exhibited largely similar movements and use of space, and turtles did not aestivate terrestrially despite prolonged periods of aestivation during the 2006–2007 drought. Additionally, turtles from suburbs had reduced annual survivorship (0.67) compared to turtles in the nature reserve (1.00) during the wet period, which contrasts with previous estimates during drought, when survivorship did not differ between environments. Such a reduction in survivorship for suburban turtles resulted largely from vehicular collisions and may be a consequence of rapid increases in human population (79 %) and traffic volume (76 %) over the eight-year study period. Our study demonstrates that turtle behavior and survivorship can be variable in space and time, and that both urban development and climatic conditions can interact and change relatively quickly to influence important aspects of turtle behavior and population biology.

Description: The urban heat island effect poses a challenge in several cities, and may affect human and ecosystem health. It was proven that relatively small urban conglomerations in mid-latitudes, such as the case study region of Rostock, have undergone a considerable effect recently, noticeable particularly in the warm season. Due to climatic changes, these effects are expected to alter in intensity and/or frequency. This was investigated using a model that focuses on interactions between land use and surface temperatures and on specific air conditions in cities. The model enables urban surface temperature differences to be projected with regard to different assumptions of (future or planned) land use/land cover and its specific characteristics. In addition, 99th percentile summer days from the period 1961–1990 and scenario runs from regional climate models (RCMs) were used as an example of extreme heat events. The frequency of occurrence of extreme heat events resembling those occurring in the present day will be up to four (2041–2070) and six (2071–2100) times higher, respectively. Furthermore, the average temperature on defined extreme heat days will rise by 1.6 to 3.4 °C (2041–2070) and 2.2 to 4.4 °C (2071–2100), respectively. The model calculated no significant effects for differences in maximum surface temperatures between land use classes. Some parts of land use change scenarios constructed during scenario workshops in Rostock were integrated into the surface temperature model with regard to climate change adaptation. The results revealed a range of outcomes, from an enlargement of vulnerable areas to the near eradication of climate change-related heat effects in several areas.

Description: The present study proposes an original framework to investigate landscape transformations in economically-dynamic regions based on the spatial analysis of unchanged land-use patches over a given time-period. A multi-factor analysis of the stable patches classified at nine land-use classes during 1987–2007 in Attica, Greece, was developed using landscape metrics (number of patches, class area, mean shape index, mean patch size and its coefficient of variation) and territorial variables (elevation, distance from the central city). A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried out to explore the specific relations existing between landscape metrics and territorial variables for each use of land. Areas maintaining the same use of land during 1987–2007 covered 73 % of the total investigated region. Artificial surfaces/bare land and agricultural areas are the most persistent uses of land over time (respectively 95 % and 81 %) while the less persistent uses are shrubland (49 %) and coniferous forests (58 %). On average, stable patches are significantly bigger and more distant from the central city than the patches observed at the beginning of the study period. Deviations to this general pattern have been observed for specific land-use classes. The PCA identified patch area and shape as independent descriptors of the stable landscape, being correlated respectively with the distance from the inner city and elevation. Multivariate analysis proved to be a relevant tool for evaluating landscape transformations in rapidly evolving urban regions. Stable agro-forest landscapes are a promising target for environmental conservation policies.

Description: Previous studies at the scale of a city have shown that surface soil nutrients, pH, and soil organic matter (SOM) can vary by land cover, land use, and management. This study was conducted in Baltimore County, Maryland, to quantify the differences in characteristics of soil in a residential neighborhood and adjacent forest patch sampling at a fine scale. The first objective was to compare soil characteristics in a residential neighborhood among ecotope types of forest, lawn, and planting beds that were underlain by the same parent material and thus only differed in plant cover. Another objective was to examine differences in soil properties of lawn soils that differed in age by 10 years. The final objective was to quantify the variation of these residential and forest soils. Composite soil samples from the surface to a depth of 5 cm were taken from planting beds and lawns from 50 residences and an adjacent forest patch. Results showed that the forest soil had 30 % more SOM and was more acidic than lawn soil. Conversely, Mg, P, K, and Ca were 47 to 67 % lower in forest compared to lawn soils even though both soils developed from similar parent materials. For the residential lawns, the older development had significantly higher concentration of soil P. There was also a difference between front and back lawns where front lawns had 26 and 10 % higher concentrations of Ca and Mg, respectively, and a higher pH than the back lawns. Finally, the variation of soil characteristics of all areas sampled, from lowest to highest was pH 〈 SOM 〈 K 〈 Mg 〈 Ca 〈 P. Results of this study suggest that anthropogenic factors appear to overwhelm natural soil forming factors in suburban residential areas in the Baltimore metropolitan area and these differences appear to increase with time.

Description: Spatial and temporal databases that integrate urban tree inventories and soil quality information are needed for modern-day sustainable urban forest management. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the usefulness of low-cost and widely-available technology, such as global positioning system (GPS)–enabled cameras to photo-document sites and cloud-based products and services (Google Picasa and Fusion Tables), to aid in developing sustainable street tree management programs. Google Fusion Tables provide a cloud platform to store, share and map urban tree and soil data over time using internet connected computers, tablets or mobile devices. Although indicators of urban soil quality and best methods to assess it are not yet standardized, we demonstrate here promising indicators that are both useful and easy to incorporate into spatial and temporal databases of trees managed in urban environments. By utilizing technology, we demonstrate that site-specific urban soil quality indicators can be used together with readily-available soil rating systems specific to different plant types as a means to better evaluate and manage conditions for optimal street tree growth and health.

Description: Industrialized areas represent a special group of urbanized areas, but sufficient attention has not been given to them concerning plant species richness and its importance for biodiversity conservation. These sites are considered the main drivers of biological invasions and biotic homogenization on a global scale, but the question of how and to what degree they contribute to biodiversity has yet to be raised. Data for 62 river ports (16 German, 26 Czech, 7 Hungarian, 4 Slovak, and 9 Austrian) on two important Central European waterways (the Elbe-Vltava and Danube waterways) were gathered for 40 years. In total, 1 240 plant species were found. Of these, 371 were classified as threatened and protected, nearly one third of the total number of species found in all of the studied Elbe, Vltava, and Danube ports. Significant differences in the proportion of threatened species in ports and cities were not found. More threatened species were found in the Danube ports than in the other ports, but their numbers fluctuated depending on the size of the port and the region (country). The results showed that the ports must be regarded as special types of species-rich industrial areas; thus, they should not be considered to be only sources of spreading invasive alien species. When planning port development, uniformity and vegetation management that is too intensive should be avoided. Extensively managed open areas and habitat diversity should be maintained.

Description: Tropical forested ecosystems provide multiple ecosystem services to rural and urban landscapes, with carbon storage gaining particular attention. Deforestation due to rural-urban transitions may lead to a reduction in carbon storage ability. Coastal mangrove forests are particularly at risk from deforestation due to their location in the rapidly urbanizing coastal zone, and the city state of Singapore is an extreme example, losing as much as 90 % of its original mangrove cover due to land reclamation and reservoir construction. Knowledge of mangrove ecosystem services may allow better conservation, restoration and incorporation of remaining mangrove patches into the urban landscape. Focusing on the regulating ecosystem service of carbon storage, mangrove carbon stocks have been estimated for Singapore using a combination of field and remote sensing techniques. Biomass carbon showed substantial spatial variation, with old, contiguous mangrove patches containing a higher density of biomass carbon than fragmented, river-fringing or restored mangroves. In total, national biomass carbon equated to 116,117.1 megagrams of carbon (Mg C), and a coarse estimate of the total carbon stock (including soil carbon) suggests that Singapore’s mangroves may store 450,571.7 Mg C. While lower than other regional estimates focused on natural, oceanic mangroves, this is a significant carbon stock for a disturbed, urban mangrove system, and may be equivalent to the average annual carbon emissions of 621,000 residents. This analysis, alongside a review of other urban forest studies, highlights the importance of forested ecosystems such as mangroves in providing a carbon storage ecosystem service to urban areas.

Description: The main objective of this study was to determine how stream salamander assemblages and species respond to varying levels of impervious surface cover within Maryland’s Piedmont physiographic province. We sampled stream salamanders in 21 first-order streams located in watersheds representing a range of impervious surface cover (0–24 %) across the northeastern part of Maryland’s Piedmont region. Habitat data, including stream substrate and riparian characteristics, were measured at each site. Eurycea bislineata was the predominant species of stream salamander encountered during this study (〉 99 % of individuals) and most of these individuals were larvae (〉 92 %). Consequently, statistical analysis was limited to E. bislineata larvae. We were unable to detect a difference in E. bislineata abundances or body mass index’s among varying levels of impervious surface cover % or any individual site habitat variables alone. These results suggest that in smaller watersheds within the Piedmont of Maryland, local habitat variables, in conjunction with land use variables, are necessary in determining the abundance and body mass index of E. bislineata larvae populations. This study makes a strong case for halting the over-simplification of the relationship between urbanization and the presence/abundance of stream salamanders.

Description: Many Midwestern cities in the United States have experienced high levels of economic decline and population loss. This deindustrialization has led to thousands of acres of vacant land maintained as grassy habitats. The communities living within these neighborhoods have conceptualized reutilization strategies for this land, including urban agriculture and the creation of small parks of native plantings. In this 2-year study, we examined the impacts of vacant land conversion on spiders within residential vacant lots, community gardens, and planted prairies within the peri-urban park system. At the time of the study, planted prairies on previously vacant land were not common, so those within the park system may serve as a foundation for future plantings. We found that maintained vacant lots contained the most numerous spider assemblages, which was dominated by disturbance-tolerant habitat generalist species. Community gardens contained numerically fewer spiders but a slightly richer assemblage than vacant lots. Similarly low numbers were also found in planted prairies but the assemblage was the most diverse of the greenspaces examined. We also contrasted results at the family versus genus level in order to assess the taxonomic sufficiency relevant for future studies, and found that genus level was important for elucidating the effects of urban land use on these spider assemblages. From this research, we conclude that spiders are an important indicator group of disturbance when examining urban greenspace management and revitalization, and that alteration in greenspace design will influence biodiversity and assemblage composition.

Description: Forest habitat is important for a variety of woodpecker species, and is under pressure from urbanization. Red-headed Woodpeckers ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus ; RHWO) were once abundant across Eastern North America, and their populations have been declining since the 1960s. Their distribution encompasses urban centers, and since urban habitats differ from natural forest areas, our goal was to understand RHWO nest-site selection in an urban context. We addressed two main questions 1) what are the characteristics of RHWO nest selection across multiple spatial scales and 2) how do RHWO nest tree characteristics in city parks compare to those in forest preserves? This work was done in Cook County, IL, which includes Chicago, the third-largest city in the USA by population. We examined 34 RHWO nest trees used between 2010 and 2013, their surrounding habitat, and the landscape within a 1 km radius. Used trees and habitats were compared to paired unused trees and habitats, and landscape-scale characteristics were compared to random locations. Advanced decay of the nest tree, low canopy cover and increased presence of fungus on trees in the surrounding habitat were the best predictors of RHWO nesting in the area. Nests were most commonly found in forested areas outside of dense urban areas. However, we did not detect significant differences in the characteristics of the nest trees located in forest preserves and city parks. Our findings are consistent with nest selection studies in rural and natural areas, suggesting that forest habitats in metropolitan landscapes can support RHWO nesting.