The Biological Deserts Fallacy: Cities in Their Landscapes Contribute More than We Think to Regional Biodiversity

Abstract

Cities are both embedded within and ecologically linked to their surrounding landscapes. Although urbanization poses a substantial threat to biodiversity, cities also support many species, some of which have larger populations, faster growth rates, and higher productivity in cities than outside of them. Despite this fact, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the potentially beneficial links between cities and their surroundings. We identify five pathways by which cities can benefit regional ecosystems by releasing species from threats in the larger landscape, increasing regional habitat heterogeneity and genetic diversity, acting as migratory stopovers, preadapting species to climate change, and enhancing public engagement and environmental stewardship. Increasing recognition of these pathways could help cities identify effective strategies for supporting regional biodiversity conservation and could provide a science-based platform for incorporating biodiversity alongside other urban greening goals.

Breathing Artifacts of Urban BioClimatic Layers for Post-Anthropocene Urban Environment

“…Spotswood et al, in their review, pointed out that several species benefit more from urban settings than from other environments. This may be attributed to the few adaptations necessary for their survival [65]. Urban spaces are to become the stage for conditions to be specialised for nature and for producing food that is fit for the future, as well as becoming areas in which to experiment, by staging and testing out solutions to contemporary environmental, climate, and structural crises [84].…”

“…It seeks to identify how architecture could address climate extremes in mild climate regions and the need to accommodate other species in an urban environment. Such a need has been recently discussed by ecologists [40,65]. By reflecting on systemic relations in gigamaps, full-scale prototypes, and their confrontation with real life, new design speculations appear.…”

Biophilia beyond the Building: Applying the Tools of Urban Biodiversity Planning to Create Biophilic Cities

“…Actions to address any one of these characteristics are likely to yield some benefit to biodiversity, but integrated efforts aimed at most or all such characteristics are more likely to result in widespread city-scale improvements in ecological function and biodiversity support [20]. If high habitat quality is achieved, then the city may contribute to regional conservation goals [22].…”

Large ecological benefits of small urban greening actions

“…Urbanisation is an acute driver of these changes, with deep eco-evolutionary effects on species occurring in or around cities (Alberti et al 2017; Johnson & Munshi-South 2017; Palma et al 2017; Piano et al 2017; Merckx et al 2018; Fenoglio et al 2020; Mc Donald et al 2020; Lambert et al 2021). At local scales, however, urban greenspaces – whether large or small, permanent or temporary – are known to support functionally diverse ecological communities (Threlfall et al 2017; Baldock et al 2019; Mata et al 2019; Spotwood et al 2021), which in turn provide an array of socio-ecological benefits to urban residents (Lai et al 2019; Mata et al 2020; Stevenson et al 2020). Understanding, quantifying, and managing these benefits has become a sharp focus of practitioners, professionals, and policymakers (Nilon et al 2017; United Nations 2017; Mata et al 2020).…”