The Biodiversity of Urban and Peri-Urban Forests and the Diverse Ecosystem Services They Provide as Socio-Ecological Systems

Abstract

Urban and peri-urban forests provide a variety of ecosystem service benefits for urban society. Recognising and understanding the many human-tree interactions that urban forests provide may be more complex but probably just as important to our urbanised society. This paper introduces four themes that link the studies from across the globe presented in this Special Issue: (1) human-tree interactions; (2) urban tree inequity; (3) carbon sequestration in our own neighbourhoods; and (4) biodiversity of urban forests themselves and the fauna they support. Urban forests can help tackle many of the "wicked problems" that confront our towns and cities and the people that live in them. For urban forests to be accepted as an effective element of any urban adaptation strategy, we need to improve the communication of these ecosystem services and disservices and provide evidence of the benefits provided to urban society and individuals, as well as the biodiversity with which we share our town and cities.

Attitudes toward Residential Trees and Awareness of Tree Services and Disservices in a Tropical City

“…Tree planting is marketed as a go-to solution to increase ecosystem services provision [109], mitigate and adapt to extreme events (climate change, increasing temperatures, extreme flooding) [9,[110][111][112], and biodiversity conservation [113][114][115]. In this study, residents were aware of many services, but did not always align with most of these goals.…”

Assessing methods for comparing species diversity from disparate data sources: the case of urban and peri‐urban forests

“…We may, for example, explore questions about the development of novel ecosystem assemblages in the Anthropocene (Groffman et al 2014). Similarly, data can be used to study the adequacy of human-dominated landscapes in providing adequate habitat for native tree species and fauna (Livesley et al 2016) or to understand the resilience of different forests to climate change and anthropogenic stressors. Similarly, data can be used to study the adequacy of human-dominated landscapes in providing adequate habitat for native tree species and fauna (Livesley et al 2016) or to understand the resilience of different forests to climate change and anthropogenic stressors.…”

“…Forest composition and tree species diversity have been recognized as primary drivers of ecosystem resilience and function (Jenerette et al 2016). For example, tree composition is a key factor in determining forest ecosystem resistance and susceptibility, and diverse forests enhance the provision of ecosystem services and goods (Chazdon et al 1999, Kendal et al 2014, Livesley et al 2016. Still, questions remain about how forest dynamics in rural contexts compare to those of urban environments (Blood et al 2016).…”

“…We can test hypotheses about the homogenization of species composition (Pearse et al 2018) or the abundance and occurrence of invasive species across urban-to-rural gradients (Staudhammer et al 2015). Similarly, data can be used to study the adequacy of human-dominated landscapes in providing adequate habitat for native tree species and fauna (Livesley et al 2016) or to understand the resilience of different forests to climate change and anthropogenic stressors. This type of data is key in estimating and modeling the supply of ecosystem services from urban and peri-urban forests (PF; Nowak et al 2008, Speak et al 2018.…”

“…Species richness and composition are oftenreported metrics across ecological disciplines, but have particular importance in urban forests in understanding biodiversity (Livesley et al 2016) and resistance to damage from disease and pest outbreaks (Raupp et al 2006, Jonnes 2016. To promote urban forest tree diversity and its management, metrics of species richness have been proposed.…”