Restoration of urban green environments based on the theories of vegetation ecology

Ecosystem Restoration Using the Near-Natural Method in Shanghai

“…The near-natural method is based on the concepts of potential natural vegetation and succession theory in vegetation ecology (Miyawaki 1998 ;Wang et al 2002 ). In natural forest ecosystems, the succession from the establishment of pioneer plant communities to forested climax communities can take hundreds of years.…”

“…The seedlings of the target climax community demonstrated a higher growth rate with lower mortality than in the original experiment. In this case, the deciduous trees grew faster than the evergreen ones, and the resulting closed (Miyawaki 1998 ;Miyawaki 1999 ), therefore, we proposed a planting method based on multilayer deciduous-evergreen mixed forests comprising trees of different ages. The key to the new method is to create a mixed deciduous-evergreen community by simultaneously planting shade-tolerant evergreen broad-leaved species and light-demanding deciduous broad-leaved species, but using smaller individuals for the former and bigger individuals for the latter to form a multilayer vegetation structure.…”

“…This remains a pressing goal for urban areas (Kloor 2000 ). Based on experience gained by many researchers over several decades (Miyawaki 1998 ;Wang et al 2002 ), we used a method emulating natural processes-specifi cally the "near-natural" method as described below-to restore the degraded natural sub-ecosystem in Shanghai.…”

Multiple Approach for Plant Biodiversity Conservation in Restoring Forests

“…Detection of the soil profile, topography, and land utilization can improve our grasp of the potential natural vegetation. After these field surveys, all intermediate and late successional species are mixed and densely planted, with as many companion species as possible (Kelty, 2006;Miyawaki, 1998a), and soil between them is mulched. In fact, biocoenotic relationships involve autoregulations between species, favouring a dynamic equilibrium and avoiding any further silvicultural practice and need no insecticides or herbicides (with some exceptions).…”

New Opportunities for the Horticultural Industry

“…= carbon reduction: (AKBARI 2002;CAREY, 2013;LEUNG et al, 2011;MIYAWAKI, 1998;OTTELE et al, 2011;SHEWEKA and MAGDY, 2011) = phytoremediation: (CAREY, 2013;LEUNG et al, 2011;OTTELE et al, 2010;PUGH et al, 2012;SHEWEKA and MAGDY, 2011). Biodiversity: both ecosystem services and species retention and regeneration: (BAUMANN, 2006;BRENNEISAN, 2006;COOK-PATTON and BAUERLE, 2012;GRANT, 2006;MADRE et al, 2014;NEWMAN, 2014) Reduction of urban heat island effect (AKBARI, 2002;KONTOLEON and EUMORFOPOULOU, 2010;WONG et al, 2010) Reduction of energy consumption (AKBARI, 2002;CHENG et al, 2010;JAFFAL et al, 2012;HONGMING and JIM, 2010;LEUNG et al, 2011 SHEWEKA andMOHAMED, 2012;SPROUL et al, 2014;SUSCA et al, 2010;ADHIKARI et al, 2016) Social benefits Access to greenery, or even a view of a vegetated roof, can bring social benefits.…”