Urban park area and age determine the richness of native and exotic plants in parks of a Latin American city: Santiago as a case study

Figueroa, Javier; Castro, Sergio A.; Reyes, Margarita; Teillier, Sebastián

doi:10.1007/s11252-018-0743-0

Cited by 40 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, trees and nontrees with low water requirements surpassed species with greater sensitivity to water stress. Similar to previous studies in MRS, our results showed a strong dominance of exotic over native species (Hernández & Villaseñor, 2018;Figueroa et al, 2018). Figueroa et al (2018) reported that only 16.2% of plant species in urban parks were native and showed that park area and age influenced native plant richness, but exotic plant richness was determined only by park age.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Vegetation survival and condition in public green spaces after their establishment: evidence from a semi-arid metropolis.

Steinfort

Contreras

Albornoz

et al. 2020

International Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

U. Steinfort, A. Contreras, F. Albornoz, S. Reyes-Paecke, and P. Guilleminot. 2020. Vegetation survival and condition in public green spaces after their establishment: Evidence from a semi-arid metropolis. Int. J. Agric. Nat. Resour. 90-104. Urban vegetation is generally exposed to adverse environmental conditions, such as high temperatures, compacted soils, low fertility, and a high pollutant concentration. The influence of biophysical and social factors on the survival and condition of trees and nontrees was analyzed using a census of plants in 37 green spaces of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile (MRS) several years after their establishment. The tree survival rate was higher (77%) than that of other species (24%). Survival was primarily explained by municipality management and species selection, but the relevance of these factors differed between trees and nontrees. Species with low water requirements outperformed species that were more sensitive to water stress. A high mechanical damage rate was observed, with 91% of trees showing severe or medium damage. Soil quality was better than expected, with a bulk density less than 1.0 g m -3 and moderate and high levels of P, and only 8% of sites had low K levels. The N content was highly variable, but most of the sites had levels greater than 20 mg kg -1 , which indicates a trend of accumulation that is consistent with urban soils. More in-depth studies are required to establish the factors that explain plant survival in public spaces of the MRS, and irrigation monitoring is especially needed.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Vegetation survival and condition in public green spaces after their establishment: evidence from a semi-arid metropolis.

Steinfort

Contreras

Albornoz

et al. 2020

International Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, the sample sizes were very small because, in most studies, there was no distinction made between native and exotic species. Previous studies have found differing responses of native and exotic species (Leong et al., 2018), in some cases the luxury effect being more strongly evident in native species (e.g., Lerman & Warren, 2011), whilst in others the overall relationship was driven by exotic species (Figueroa, Castro, Reyes, & Teillier, 2018; Loss et al., 2009). Our results support the contention that the luxury effect is more strongly associated with exotic species that have established self‐sustaining populations and that are typically good exploiters of urban habitats (Gaertner et al., 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Much evidence exists for the luxury effect, especially in plants (e.g., Baldock et al., 2019; Gerrish & Watkins, 2018; Hope et al., 2003; Martin, Warren, & Kinzig, 2004), but there is also evidence in birds (e.g., Chamberlain et al, 2019; Lerman & Warren, 2011) and other taxa (e.g., lizards, Ackley, Wu, Angilletta, Myint, & Sullivan, 2015; arthropods, Baldock et al., 2019; Leong et al., 2016). However, such relationships are not universal (Kuras et al., 2020; Leong et al., 2018), with several studies finding no significant associations between socioeconomic status and diversity measures (e.g., Figueroa, Castro, Reyes, & Teillier, 2018; MacGregor‐Fors & Schondube, 2011; Walker, Flynn, Ovando‐Montejo, Ellis, & Frazier, 2017), or even finding negative associations (e.g., Davis et al., 2012; Ewers, Didham, Wratten, & Tylianakis, 2005). The range of responses, therefore, suggests that the presence of a luxury effect may be more likely under certain socioeconomic and environmental conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wealth, water and wildlife: Landscape aridity intensifies the urban luxury effect

Chamberlain

Reynolds

Amar

et al. 2020

Global Ecol Biogeogr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim: Urban biodiversity, and its associated ecosystem services, is an important component of the quality of life of urban residents. The "luxury effect" posits a positive association between biodiversity and socioeconomic status in urban areas, and is thus reflective of environmental injustice, as the benefits associated with biodiversity are not equitably shared across society. We aimed to determine the generality of the luxury effect, and to identify the factors causing its variation across published studies. Location: Urbanized landscapes globally. Time period: Current. Major taxa studied: Terrestrial animals and plants. Methods: We tested the luxury effect across a sample of 337 estimates of the relationship between biodiversity measures and socioeconomic status from 96 studies via a metaanalysis, addressing three hypotheses: (a) the luxury effect is more pronounced where water availability is limited, (b) the luxury effect is more pronounced in developing than developed countries, (c) the luxury effect is stronger in exotic compared to native species. Results: There was a significant overall luxury effect: there was a positive association between terrestrial biodiversity measures and socioeconomic status. The strength of the luxury effect was greater in arid areas. There was limited support for a stronger luxury effect in exotic species, but no support for any association with development status. Main conclusions: Many key and emerging climate impacts are concentrated in urban areas. Therefore, the degree of environmental injustice represented by the luxury effect may be amplified in the future, especially in arid regions. The objective to increase urban biodiversity through more equitable management and provision of water resources could form part of a wider strategy for sustainable development of cities to promote environmental justice, enhancing the quality of life of urban residents across all sectors of society. Challenges remain to ensure that any such strategy prioritizes conservation goals for native biodiversity.

show abstract

“…Santiago is placed within the Central Chile Biodiversity Hotspot [30]. But even though the urban area has developed towards the most biodiverse Mediterranean zone of Chile, urban parks are not remnants from natural areas since they were built during the last century during the centenary celebrations, using exotic flora from Europe and Asia [31,32]. Additionally, the urban zone possesses a total of 3825 ha of green areas, but only 3% (n=358) have a size of 1 ha or more [33].…”

Section: Research Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring perceived wellbeing from urban parks: Insights from a mega-city in Latin America

Parra-Saldívar¹,

Abades²,

Celis‐Diez³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urbanization has impacted biodiversity and ecosystems at a global scale. At the same time, it has been recognized as a driver of the gap between humans and nature. The lack of direct contact with nature can deteriorate several aspects of human wellbeing, and change knowledge and attitudes of people towards the environment. However, this phenomenon is still poorly understood in Megacities outside developed countries. Here, we explore the relationship between ecological knowledge and self-reported wellbeing in an important urban park in Santiago, Chile. We conducted semi-structured surveys to park users to explore their notions, preferences, ecological knowledge of plants and birds and self-reported wellbeing. Citizens associated urban parks mainly with “nature”, and particularly with the presence of trees and plants. Trees were recognized as the most relevant elements of urban parks, in turn, birds were ranked as the less relevant. Regarding ecological knowledge, respondents correctly identified an average of 2.01 plants and 2.44 birds out of a total of 10 for each taxon, and exotic species were more likely to be recognized. Park users also reported high scores for self-reported wellbeing. Interestingly, variance of self-reported wellbeing scores tended to increase at low levels of ecological knowledge of trees, but no significant relationship was detected with knowledge of birds, nor native species. These results suggest that parks can positively contribute to bring people closer to nature. Ecological knowledge was related to self-reported wellbeing. Improving ecological knowledge can be critical to restore the relationship between humans and nature in megacities.

show abstract

Urban park area and age determine the richness of native and exotic plants in parks of a Latin American city: Santiago as a case study

Cited by 40 publications

References 47 publications

Vegetation survival and condition in public green spaces after their establishment: evidence from a semi-arid metropolis.

Vegetation survival and condition in public green spaces after their establishment: evidence from a semi-arid metropolis.

Wealth, water and wildlife: Landscape aridity intensifies the urban luxury effect

Exploring perceived wellbeing from urban parks: Insights from a mega-city in Latin America

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About