The Value of Urban Vacant Land to Support Arthropod Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Abstract

The expansion of urban areas is occurring globally, but not all city neighborhoods are gaining population. Because of economic decline and the recent foreclosure crisis, many U.S. cities are demolishing abandoned residential structures to create parcels of vacant land. In some cities, weak housing markets have, or will likely, recover in the near term, and these parcels will be redeveloped. However, in other cities, large numbers of abandoned parcels have no significant market value and no likelihood of near-term redevelopment. The creation of these vacated green spaces could offer opportunities to preserve declining species, restore ecosystem functions, and support diverse ecosystem services. Arthropods are an important indicator of the ability of urban vacant land to serve multiple functions, from conservation to food production. Across Europe, vacant lands have been found to support a diversity of rare species, and similar examinations of arthropods within this habitat are underway in the United States. In addition, using vacant land as a resource for local food production is growing rapidly worldwide. Arthropods play key roles in the sustainability of food production in cities, and land conversion to farming has been found to influence their community composition and function. A greater focus on quantifying the current ecological value of vacant land and further assessment of how changes in its ecosystem management affect biodiversity and ecosystem processes is clearly needed. Herein, we specifically focus on the role of arthropods in addressing these priorities to advance our ecological understanding of the functional role of vacant land habitats in cities.

Conserving herbivorous and predatory insects in urban green spaces

“…oldfields) and urban (e.g. brownfields, derelict sites, vacant lots) environments have been documented to be rich in rare and endangered insect biodiversity3334. Additionally, in a parallel study the same golf course plots used in this study had higher native plant species richness than residential and park plots35, further supporting our findings that increases in the proportion of native plants may also benefit herbivore and predatory bugs in this system.…”

Big cityBombus: using natural history and land-use history to find significant environmental drivers in bumble-bee declines in urban development

“…Therefore, these lots can provide various flowering plants [57,58] and suitable nesting substrate [24]. Indeed, vacant lots have been shown to support bee diversity and abundance comparable to nearby green spaces [59]. In general, our results suggest that shrinking cities present unique ecological patterns and may offer avenues for research in sustainable city development.…”

Transforming Life: A Broad View of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Concept from an Ecological Justice Perspective

“…This degradation may have negative impacts on lifestyle behaviors such as leisure time spent outdoors in nature [360]. On the other hand, green remediation of vacated urban blight may be set up in such a way as to be aesthetically pleasing, yet also host biodiversity [361]. Relatively simple transformation of vacant urban lots with trees and vegetation has been associated with improved perceptions of the neighborhood, more physical activity, less stress and decreasing violence [362,363,364].…”