Diversity of vascular plants growing on walls of a Brazilian city

Reis, Valéria Aparecida dos; Lombardi, Júlio Antônio; Figueiredo, Rodolfo Antônio de

doi:10.1007/s11252-006-5528-1

Cited by 25 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…Nevertheless, this is relatively high amount of vascular species for entirely artificial anthropogenic habitats and is comparable to numbers reported for terrestrial walls elsewhere (e.g. dos Reis et al 2006;Lundholm and Marlin 2006), although direct comparison is difficult due to variations in area surveyed and sample effort. In particular it is noteworthy that plant establishment and growth is relatively common on river walls (most sites supporting some vegetation), despite the initial perception of such wall habitats being hostile to plant colonisation.…”

Section: River Wall Florasupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Despite the degradation and loss of many habitats within urban areas, several researchers have noted that abundant anthropogenic artificial structures such as walls, pavements and roofs within urban areas can support ecological communities (see Rishbeth 1948;Segal 1969;Darlington 1981;Hruška 1987;Werner et al 1989;Guggenheim 1992;Jim 1998;Andeweg 2000;Duchoslav 2002;Larson et al 2004;Lundholm and Marlin 2006), although research into the factors influencing the biodiversity of such habitats is limited. The Urban Cliff Hypothesis (Larson et al 2000(Larson et al , 2004 hypothesises that built structures common to urban areas are comparable to vertical and horizontal rock surfaces and therefore support species primarily found in skeletal and resource-poor rock or cliff habitats (Larson et al 2000(Larson et al , 2004Grime et al 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Urban river wall habitat and vegetation: observations from the River Thames through central London

Francis

Hoggart

2009

Urban Ecosyst

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Along heavily engineered urban rivers, river walls and embankments represent the most common habitat available to riparian vegetation. This paper presents the first study into river wall vegetation and the influence of wall surface materials on plant diversity. We were concerned with investigating the plant diversity of such wall habitats, assessing relationships between different wall surface materials and plant diversity, and determining whether river wall and embankment habitats along the River Thames through central London could support native riparian species alongside more typical urban wall flora. Fifteen sites along the River Thames through central London were surveyed to describe wall flora and establish relationships between plant diversity and wall materials. Walls were not species rich, but contained a mix of terrestrial and riparian species. Stone walls with surface fractures and heterogeneous wall surfaces were conducive to plant diversity at the local scale, while wall surface heterogeneity was also important at the landscape scale. Some stratification of vegetation was observed based on wall position relative to flow disturbance. The potential exists for walls to act as sites for habitat improvement and reconciliation ecology within urban rivers.

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Section: River Wall Florasupporting

confidence: 76%

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confidence: 99%

Urban river wall habitat and vegetation: observations from the River Thames through central London

Francis

Hoggart

2009

Urban Ecosyst

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“…Research on birds [42] confirmed that green walls could play a critical role in the ecological functioning of very fragmented areas. Based on the surroundings, the spontaneous plants are mostly weeds [33], or show different life/growth forms (mosses, lichens, ferns, herbs, woody species) (e.g., Reference [27]). Few data are available to examine how height could impact wall biodiversity.…”

Section: In the Connectivity Of Green Walls And Roofs To The Ground-lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Roofs and Green Walls for Biodiversity Conservation: A Contribution to Urban Connectivity?

Mayrand

Clergeau

2018

Sustainability

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Green roofs and walls have recently emerged as conservation tools, and they offer promising additional opportunities to enhance biodiversity in cities. However, their ecological conditions remain poorly considered when planning wildlife corridors. To discuss the role of vegetated buildings in landscape connectivity, we reviewed the ecological and technical specificities of green walls and green roofs in light of the key factors concerning urban wildlife (patch size, quality, abundance, and isolation). Green roofs and walls show limited patch sizes, distinct habitat quality at the building scale, and limited redundancy of patch quality within the landscape. We also highlight that the abundance of roof and wall patches is often low. Future research is needed to establish if walls can be vertical corridors for wildlife, thereby reducing the isolation of green roofs. We argue that creating 3D ecological connectivity within the city requires substantial modifications of the design and maintenance of existing green building systems. We suggest that research is needed to integrate the biotic and abiotic characteristics of green buildings to make them more closely resemble those of open green spaces.

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“…In the urban and sub-urban areas, some specifically artificially conditioned areas, just like walls, were colonized only by plant species with specific adaptations for development and reproduction [33]. Furthermore, the diversity of the flora found on the walls is known to vary depending on many different criteria such as geography [3], plant characteristics [34] and even the history of the cities [35]. Herbaceous plants are generally considered the most common among wall vegetation all over the world.…”

Section: The Wall Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wall Vegetation Characteristics of Urban and Sub-Urban Areas

Yalçınalp

Meral

2017

Sustainability

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Unfortunately, we live in a greedy little world and horizontal areas are often too expensive to leave to nature on them. Therefore, creating gardens on vertical surfaces of urban areas has recently been very important to supporting sustainability because these surfaces are still found to be commercially useless compared with green areas which are generally under pressure from commercial demands and politics. However, these artificial vertical green surfaces are still too far from being common, while too many ordinary walls are spontaneously covered with vegetation already. In this study, we try to address the dynamics of wall vegetation as it has a great potential to make the cities more sustainable. Totally 70 walls (35 in urban and 35 in suburban areas) in Trabzon city were examined regarding their ecological, physical and vegetation characteristics. Having identified 1540 plant samples collected from the walls during a year-round intensive field study, we performed statistical analyzes to enumerate the wall vegetation depending on the ecological characteristics; to evaluate if there are different wall vegetation compositions in urban and suburban areas; and finally to evaluate growth conditions and basic challenges for the wall vegetation.

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Diversity of vascular plants growing on walls of a Brazilian city

Cited by 25 publications

References 15 publications

Urban river wall habitat and vegetation: observations from the River Thames through central London

Urban river wall habitat and vegetation: observations from the River Thames through central London

Green Roofs and Green Walls for Biodiversity Conservation: A Contribution to Urban Connectivity?

Wall Vegetation Characteristics of Urban and Sub-Urban Areas

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