CityScapeLab Berlin: A Research Platform for Untangling Urbanization Effects on Biodiversity

Abstract

Urban biodiversity conservation requires an understanding of how urbanization modulates biodiversity patterns and the associated ecosystem services. While important advances have been made in the conceptual development of urban biodiversity research over the last decades, challenges remain in understanding the interactions between different groups of taxa and the spatiotemporal complexity of urbanization processes. The CityScapeLab Berlin is a novel experimental research platform that allows the testing of theories on how urbanization affects biodiversity patterns and biotic interactions in general and the responses of species of conservation interest in particular. We chose dry grassland patches as the backbone of the research platform because dry grasslands are common in many urban regions, extend over a wide urbanization gradient, and usually harbor diverse and self-assembled communities. Focusing on a standardized type of model ecosystem allowed the urbanization effects on biodiversity to be unraveled from effects that would otherwise be masked by habitat- and land-use effects. The CityScapeLab combines different types of spatiotemporal data on (i) various groups of taxa from different trophic levels, (ii) environmental parameters on different spatial scales, and (iii) on land-use history. This allows for the unraveling of the effects of current and historical urban conditions on urban biodiversity patterns and the related ecological functions.

Ground-dwelling invertebrate diversity in domestic gardens along a rural-urban gradient: Landscape characteristics are more important than garden characteristics

“…A commonly used measure for degree of urbanisation is the percentage of sealed area (e.g. [ 3 , 53 , 54 ]). We determined the percentages of both sealed and green area within a radius of 200 m around the centre of each garden.…”

Urban Hedgehog Behavioural Responses to Temporary Habitat Disturbance versus Permanent Fragmentation

“…By using the same measuring method, the same number of animals, the same gender ratio, the same season, similar park sizes (in parts of the city with comparable urbanity index) and hedgehog population densities, we tried to achieve the greatest possible comparability between the two study areas and years. The two study areas, Treptower Park and Tierpark, are comparable considering their sealing index [ 59 ], which closely corresponds to other urbanization indices, such as human population density, disturbance by humans and pets, noise and light pollution [ 60 , 61 ]. In hedgehogs with main natural prey being earthworms and ground beetles, the sealing index will also be linked to food availability.…”

Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Urban Development

“…Challenges remain, however, in understanding the interactions between different groups of animals and plants and the spatiotemporal complexity of urbanization processes. The CityScapeLab Berlin, presented by von der Lippe et al [28], is a novel experimental research platform, based on grasslands as a model system and aiming at an enhanced understanding of the effects of urbanization on biodiversity and related ecological functions.…”

“…This Special Issue covers a broad geographical range, with contributions from Africa [17], Asia [18][19][20], Australia [21,22], Europe [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and North America [31][32][33]. It explores a range of ecosystems in the urban realm, spans natural remnants such as forests [30,32], wetlands [18,21], and natural grasslands [17,22], traditional urban greenspaces including cemeteries [33], gardens [29,31], and, finally, novel urban ecosystems such as green roofs and constructed wetlands [20,26], built-up areas [23], railway bridges [24] and emerging forests on vacant land [27].…”

“…Several papers explore biodiversity in relation to diverse features of urban environments and address a range of animal groups [21,24,27,31,33] and plants [17,18,20,22,27,30,32], including some multi-taxa studies [24,26,27]. Other papers explicitly address urban environments as socio-ecological systems [19,22,25], or further methodological approaches in understanding the people-nature intersection in cities [23,28,29]. Our selection of papers address four current topics in urban ecological research: pressures on biodiversity in cities, opportunities for biodiversity in cities, biodiversity as a component of socio-ecological systems, and new methodological approaches to urban biodiversity conservation and sustainable urban development ( Figure 1).…”