Untangling the role of urban ecosystems as habitats for endangered plant species

Planchuelo, Greg; Lippe, Moritz von der; Kowarik, Ingo

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.05.007

Cited by 84 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Recent studies have shown that cities can also host a considerable number of endangered species, e.g., [173]. This is true of novel urban ecosystems as well, as shown for Berlin [23,174] and beyond [42]. Our study contributes insights into the role of alien-vs. native-dominated emerging forests for endangered species of different taxonomic groups since Red Lists of endangered plants, spiders, and carabid beetles were available for the city of Berlin.…”

Section: Endangered Speciessupporting

confidence: 56%

“…While on average each forest patch harbored 1-2 endangered invertebrate species, an endangered plant species was only found in about 1 out of 10 patches. Accordingly, Planchuelo et al [174] revealed a significantly lower probability of occurrence of highly endangered plant species in forests that had been classified as novel ecosystems. In contrast, natural forest remnants harbored the highest number of populations of highly endangered plant species.…”

Section: Endangered Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

et al. 2019

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Many cities aim to increase urban forest cover to benefit residents through the provision of ecosystem services and to promote biodiversity. As a complement to traditional forest plantings, we address opportunities associated with “emerging urban forests” (i.e., spontaneously developing forests in cities) for urban biodiversity conservation. We quantified the area of successional forests and analyzed the species richness of native and alien plants and of invertebrates (carabid beetles, spiders) in emerging forests dominated by alien or native trees, including Robinia pseudoacacia, Acer platanoides, and Betula pendula. Emerging urban forests were revealed as shared habitats of native and alien species. Native species richness was not profoundly affected by the alien (co-)dominance of the canopy. Instead, native and alien plant species richnesses were positively related. Numbers of endangered plants and invertebrates did not differ between native- and alien-dominated forest patches. Patterns of tree regeneration indicate different successional trajectories for novel forest types. We conclude that these forests (i) provide habitats for native and alien species, including some endangered species, (ii) allow city dwellers to experience wild urban nature, and (iii) support arguments for adapting forests to dynamic urban environments. Integrating emerging urban forests into the urban green infrastructure is a promising pathway to sustainable cities and can complement traditional restoration or greening approaches.

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Section: Endangered Speciessupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Endangered Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

et al. 2019

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“…Cities can harbor a high biological richness (Kühn et al, 2004;Aronson et al, 2014), also including a considerable richness of endangered plant species (Schwartz et al, 2002;Lawson et al, 2008;Lenzen et al, 2009;Shwartz et al, 2014;Ives et al, 2016;Kowarik and von der Lippe, 2018;Planchuelo et al, 2019). Urban areas in Australia, for example, host 30% of the country's endangered plant species (Ives et al, 2016), with some of them occurring today exclusively in urban environments (Soanes and Lentini, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endangered Plants in Novel Urban Ecosystems Are Filtered by Strategy Type and Dispersal Syndrome, Not by Spatial Dependence on Natural Remnants

2020

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“…• As a low productivity ecosystem, urban dry grassland is particularly sensitive to nutrient influxes from the urban matrix or from local human activities [63]; • Urban grassland can harbor a broad range of diverse and self-assembled plant and animal communities including endangered species of particular conservation interest [8,[64][65][66]; • Urban grassland is often invaded by alien plant species [57,67] as is the urban dry grassland in Berlin, with an average proportion of 25% of alien species [68]. Grassland, as a shared habitat of many native and alien species, allows analyses of multiple biotic interactions (e.g., native-alien, plant-animal, or belowground-aboveground interactions); • Urban grassland has a limited structural heterogeneity due to the prevalence of grasses and herbs and a similar management intensity on low productivity sites-dry grassland in Berlin, for example, is usually mown up to two times a year, or less; • Urban grassland often spans a large gradient of ecological novelty, from near-natural sites to designed greenspaces to novel ecosystems on vacant land [66], encompassing sites with natural and anthropogenic soils and including patches with different land-use legacies and current or historical habitat connectivity [61].…”

Section: Model Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2020

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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.

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Untangling the role of urban ecosystems as habitats for endangered plant species

Cited by 84 publications

References 66 publications

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

Endangered Plants in Novel Urban Ecosystems Are Filtered by Strategy Type and Dispersal Syndrome, Not by Spatial Dependence on Natural Remnants

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

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