The future of urban agriculture and biodiversity-ecosystem services: Challenges and next steps

Lin, Brenda B.; Philpott, Stacy M.; Jha, Shalene

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2015.01.005

Cited by 375 publications

(295 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Urban allotment gardens are one element of the urban green infrastructure that is becoming increasingly important in urban landscape planning. As reported in Breuste and Artmann (2014), they combine utility, social meaning, beauty and several ecosystem services such as food supply (Drescher 2004), air filtering (Davies et al 2011), urban temperature and climate regulation (Phelan et al 2015), noise reduction (Aylor 1972), runoff mitigation (Zhang et al 2012) and biodiversity development (Lin et al 2015). However, plant cultivation within cities may present environmental risks associated to both air and soil pollution (Alloway 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These include the production of crop and livestock goods not only within cities and towns (Zezza and Tasciotti 2010) but also peri-urban agricultural areas which may provide product to the local population, such as vegetables, medicinal plants, fruit trees, ornamental plants, milk, meat and wool (Lin et al 2015). Urban allotment gardens are one element of the urban green infrastructure that is becoming increasingly important in urban landscape planning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soilless system on peat reduce trace metals in urban-grown food: unexpected evidence for a soil origin of plant contamination

Pennisi

Orsini

Gasperi

et al. 2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Urban horticulture is increasingly popular for social and economic benefits. However, edible urban crops may be contaminated by airborne pollutants, thus leading to serious health risks. Therefore, a better understanding of contamination risks of urban cultivation is needed in order to define safe practices. In particular, whereas it is commonly accepted that the contamination of urban-grown food comes from airborne pollutants, little is known on a possible contamination by soils. Here, we studied trace metal risk in horticultural crops grown in an experimental urban allotment garden in Bologna, Italy. Seven experiments were conducted between June and November 2015 on tomato, sweet basil, onion, lettuce, kale, bulb fennel and radish. Treatments included two growing systems, soil and soilless, and two fertilization managements, mineral and organic. Trace metal concentrations were measured in soils, substrates and edible plant tissues. We identified preferentially translocated metals by partitioning analysis of tomato, sweet basil and kale. Results showed that crops grown in a soilless system have a lower metal content of −70 % for Cr, −61 % for Cu, −45 % for Cd and −81 % for Ni, compared with those grown in soil. This finding demonstrates that the major contamination risk in an urban area is unexpectedly related to soil pollution.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soilless system on peat reduce trace metals in urban-grown food: unexpected evidence for a soil origin of plant contamination

Pennisi

Orsini

Gasperi

et al. 2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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“…Thus, diversity of vertebrates and invertebrates can be conserved through the maintenance of urban green spaces, including, but not limited to, parks, backyard gardens, and small-scale agricultural systems (McKinney 2002, Pardee andPhilpott 2014). Local characteristics, such as garden size, floral diversity, and vegetation complexity, are important predictors of invertebrate species richness in urban areas (McGeoch and Chown 1997, Frankie et al 2005, Matteson and Langellotto 2010, Lin et al 2015). Yet, urban habitat fragments might be too small or too disconnected from other patches to preserve biodiversity long-term, and the impacts of local habitat enhancements on biodiversity are contingent on surrounding landscape quality (e.g., Tscharntke et al 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Green spaces within urban areas with significant amounts of vegetation can provide a refuge for species of plants, animals, and microbes (Kong et al 2009, Lin et al 2015. Thus, diversity of vertebrates and invertebrates can be conserved through the maintenance of urban green spaces, including, but not limited to, parks, backyard gardens, and small-scale agricultural systems (McKinney 2002, Pardee andPhilpott 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape and Local Correlates of Bee Abundance and Species Richness in Urban Gardens

Quistberg

Bichier²,

Philpott³

2016

Environ Entomol

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103

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“…In this regard, the unique productivity of collectively managed green space is often overlooked by local planning authorities (Francis, 1987) in favour of more familiar urban green space types such as municipal parks and nature reserves. Work has been carried out which demonstrates that stakeholder managed gardens exhibit greater biodiversity than more conventionally managed urban green space types (Orsini et al, 2014;Lin et al, 2015;Speak et al, 2015) and that biodiversity increases proportional to levels of user participation (Dennis and James, 2016). However, the benefits issuing from participatory approaches to green space management have yet to be effectively investigated as comprising discrete ecosystem services, nor the relationships between such services.…”

Section: Participatory Approaches To Management Of Urban Green Commonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site-specific factors in the production of local urban ecosystem services: A case study of community-managed green space

Dennis

James

2016

Ecosystem Services

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1 Site-specific factors in the production of local urban ecosystem services: a case study of community-managed green space. AbstractPockets of green space in cities can provide important ecosystem services for urban residents. As naturalistic spaces in urban areas become increasingly sparse, communities are beginning to co-manage existing incidental pockets of land towards the creation of communal natural resources. Such green commons can be productive in terms of ecosystem services through targeted management such as in the case of urban agriculture. Although some work has been done to explore the motives behind and potential benefits of informal green space management, further research is required to understand those characteristics of site management and community input which contribute to the enhancement of sitespecific ecosystem service production. A case study of ten examples of community-managed green space was undertaken to evaluate the contributory factors relating to site character and management which influenced productivity as defined by the cumulative provision of four urban-relevant ecosystem services. The analysis revealed that the level of community involvement, measured as intensity of volunteer hours, was highly instrumental in the productivity of sites. Food production also proved to be catalytic for the enhancement of ecosystem services whereas extent of vegetative cover and increasing site size were, counter-intuitively, detrimental to overall site productivity. The study therefore supports the promotion of participatory approaches to the management of ecosystems services in urban areas, particularly those which take small-scale urban agriculture as a primary practice.

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The future of urban agriculture and biodiversity-ecosystem services: Challenges and next steps

Cited by 375 publications

References 90 publications

Soilless system on peat reduce trace metals in urban-grown food: unexpected evidence for a soil origin of plant contamination

Soilless system on peat reduce trace metals in urban-grown food: unexpected evidence for a soil origin of plant contamination

Landscape and Local Correlates of Bee Abundance and Species Richness in Urban Gardens

Site-specific factors in the production of local urban ecosystem services: A case study of community-managed green space

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