Socioeconomics drive urban plant diversity

Abstract

Spatial variation in plant diversity has been attributed to heterogeneity in resource availability for many ecosystems. However, urbanization has resulted in entire landscapes that are now occupied by plant communities wholly created by humans, in which diversity may reflect social, economic, and cultural influences in addition to those recognized by traditional ecological theory. Here we use data from a probability-based survey to explore the variation in plant diversity across a large metropolitan area using spatial statistical analyses that incorporate biotic, abiotic, and human variables. Our prediction for the city was that land use, along with distance from urban center, would replace the dominantly geomorphic controls on spatial variation in plant diversity in the surrounding undeveloped Sonoran desert. However, in addition to elevation and current and former land use, family income and housing age best explained the observed variation in plant diversity across the city. We conclude that a functional relationship, which we term the ''luxury effect,'' may link human resource abundance (wealth) and plant diversity in urban ecosystems. This connection may be influenced by education, institutional control, and culture, and merits further study.

Landscape Sustainability in a Sonoran Desert City

“…Recovery of Sonoran Desert ecosystem diversity and function after natural disturbances such as fire might require some 60 to 100 years. In contrast, the relatively lush landscapes of this rapidly expanding urban area are normally irrigated, generally have greater vegetative cover, and have plant diversities that are site independent and highly variable (Martin 2001;Hope et al 2003;Walker and Briggs 2007).…”

“…The compositional structure of landscape plantings in Phoenix is sharply segmented by property boundaries often demarcated by 1.5-to 2.5-m concrete block walls. In addition, the structural composition of residential landscape is affected by a strong positive relationship between urban neighborhood socioeconomic status and vegetation richness up to an apparent limit of diversity complexity of about 20 different woody plant genera per 1000 m 2 of landscaped area (Hope et al 2003;Martin et al 2004a). As a result, Phoenix residents in high socioeconomic neighborhoods are more likely to enjoy rich assemblages of vegetation in their neighborhoods than people who live in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status.…”

Urban Principles for Ecological Landscape Design and Management: Scientific Fundamentals

“…The second example concerns the controls on plant species richness in the Central ArizonaPhoenix region, as elucidated by Hope et al (2003). General ecological theory, focusing on noninhabited landscapes, posits that species diversity is related to resource heterogeneity, as controlled by such features as elevation and disturbance.…”

Quantifying the impacts of socio-economic factors on air quality in Chinese cities from 2000 to 2009

“…As cities are wholly created by humans (Whitney and Adams, 1980;Hope et al, 2003), the ecology and environment in and around cities reflects social, economic, and cultural influences (Liu, 2001). For example, income and education are robust determinants of household air pollution (Papineau et al, 2009), urban population density can influence total passenger vehicle emissions (Marshall et al, 2005), and economic development has positive contribution to environmental quality (Xepapadeas and Amri, 1998).…”