Renaissance of a rural artifact in a city with a million people: biodiversity responses to an agro-forestry restoration in a large urban traditional fruit orchard

Horák, Jakub; Rom, Jiří; Rada, Patrik; Šafářová, Lenka; Koudelková, Jitka; Zasadil, Petr; Halda, Josef P.; Holuša, Jaroslav

doi:10.1007/s11252-017-0712-z

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Urban forests provide a wide range of ecosystem functions including habitat for native species and recreation for residents [ 15 , 16 ]. Both forests and orchards in cities can serve as refugia for rare and threatened specialist species and thus can be of high conservation value [ 12 , 17 ]. Within urban landscapes, forest sites differ substantially in site history, management and disturbance intensity and consequently in species composition [ 3 , 4 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverse effects of degree of urbanisation and forest size on species richness and functional diversity of plants, and ground surface-active ants and spiders

et al. 2018

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Urbanisation is increasing worldwide and is regarded a major driver of environmental change altering local species assemblages in urban green areas. Forests are one of the most frequent habitat types in urban landscapes harbouring many native species and providing important ecosystem services. By using a multi-taxa approach covering a range of trophic ranks, we examined the influence of degree of urbanisation and forest size on the species richness and functional diversity of plants, and ground surface-active ants and spiders. We conducted field surveys in twenty-six forests in the urban region of Basel, Switzerland. We found that a species’ response to urbanisation varied depending on trophic rank, habitat specificity and the diversity indices used. In plants, species richness decreased with degree of urbanisation, whereas that of both arthropod groups was not affected. However, ants and spiders at higher trophic rank showed greater shifts in species composition with increasing degree of urbanisation, and the percentage of forest specialists in both arthropod groups increased with forest size. Local abiotic site characteristics were also crucial for plant species diversity and species composition, while the structural diversity of both leaf litter and vegetation was important for the diversity of ants and spiders. Our results highlight that even small urban forests can harbour a considerable biodiversity including habitat specialists. Nonetheless, urbanisation directly and indirectly caused major shifts in species composition. Therefore, special consideration needs to be given to vulnerable species, including those with special habitat requirements. Locally adapted management practices could be a step forward to enhance habitat quality in a way to maximize diversity of forest species and thus ensure forest ecosystem functioning; albeit large-scale factors also remain important.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverse effects of degree of urbanisation and forest size on species richness and functional diversity of plants, and ground surface-active ants and spiders

et al. 2018

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“…Several recent studies have indicated that some of the artificial habitat types, such as orchards, military training areas, and post-mining areas, could promote high diversity within bird communities [7,10,11,28]. During our brief analysis based on species numbers, we found that traditional fruit orchards hosted more specialist birds than opportunists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Disentangling the Roles of Topography, Patch, and Land Use on Conservation Trait Status of Specialist Birds in Marginal Forest Land Use Types

Zasadil

Romportl

Horák

2020

Forests

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One of the main questions in ecology and conservation is how organisms are governed and affected by their traits within the context of abiotic gradients. The main question of our study addresses how patch, topography, and land use influence conservation trait status (rarity and red-list index) of birds generally, and of farmland and woodland specialists specifically, in marginal forest landscape types. We sampled birds from 68 traditional fruit orchards existing as remnants of agroforestry within the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic during two consecutive years. We recorded 57 bird species, of which 31 species were forest dwellers and 16 farmland dwellers. Topographical predictors played the most significant role in influencing traits of the bird community as a whole. Farmland bird traits indicated the most balanced values, as they were significantly influenced by all studied predictor sets. Their responses nevertheless differed among the studied traits and also showed a more complex pattern because the values of interaction between some predictor categories were relatively high. Traits of woodland birds were most influenced by the patch configuration. We found that a structurally diversified marginal habitat type of traditional fruit orchards is able to promote a number of specialist species and also reveals important relationships between bird conservation traits and different predictor sets. Researchers should pay more attention to the conservation traits of birds and their interactions with environmental predictors. Furthermore, conservationists should be more attentive to the biodiversity value and sustainable management of traditional fruit orchards.

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“…Urban forests function as habitat of native species as well as recreation site for citizens [9,10]. Urban forests can play a role of refugia of rare and threatened species and thus can display high conservation value [11,12]. Among urban landscape elements, forest has substantially different site history, intensity of management and disturbance, and consequently different species composition from other landscape elements [3,12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Urban forests are remnants of former continuous forests, a result of succession or artificial plantation [14]. They can also include urban orchards, urban park, cemeteries overgrown by trees, or residential garden [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Decline Under Progress in the Urban Forest of Seoul, Central Korea

Lee¹,

Jung²,

Lim³

et al. 2020

Forest Degradation Around the World

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Vegetation in the urban area showed not only a difference in species composition but also lower diversity compared with that of the natural area. Successional trend was normal in natural area, but that in urban areas showed a retrogressive pattern. Korean mountain ash (Sorbus alnifolia (Siebold & Zucc.) K.Koch), a shade intolerant species, dominated such a retrogressive succession. The vegetation decline is due to changes of mesoclimate and soil properties that imbalanced distribution of green space induced as the result of urbanization. In recent years, new environmental stress due to climate change is imposed additively to this forest decline. Drought is the very environmental stress. Drought-induced plant damage started from withering of leaves of plants introduced for landscaping in the urban area. Over time, branches died and death of the whole plant body followed. In particular, damage of Korean mountain ash, the product of retrogressive succession, was remarkable. As retrogressive succession has already progressed much, thus such phenomenon could be recognized as crisis of urban forest.

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Renaissance of a rural artifact in a city with a million people: biodiversity responses to an agro-forestry restoration in a large urban traditional fruit orchard

Cited by 12 publications

References 16 publications

Diverse effects of degree of urbanisation and forest size on species richness and functional diversity of plants, and ground surface-active ants and spiders

Diverse effects of degree of urbanisation and forest size on species richness and functional diversity of plants, and ground surface-active ants and spiders

Disentangling the Roles of Topography, Patch, and Land Use on Conservation Trait Status of Specialist Birds in Marginal Forest Land Use Types

Forest Decline Under Progress in the Urban Forest of Seoul, Central Korea

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