Where economic parity meets ecology: Neither biodiversity nor ecosystem integrity values relate to wealth in the context of a medium-sized Finnish city

Abstract

Ecological conditions are heavily influenced by human–environment interactions, which is why understanding the relationships between people and nature is crucial. While earlier studies have indicated a pattern of positive correlations between economic wealth and biodiversity in urban areas, there are some examples that suggest that such associations are more intricate than initially presumed. In this study, we aimed to assess whether such a relation holds in Lahti, a medium-sized city in southern Finland, considering two biodiversity proxies (i.e., bird and woody plant species richness) and the Urban Ecosystem Integrity Index (UEII) of the city. Our results show no clear relationship between economic wealth (average annual income per statistical area) reported for 2019 and the two assessed biodiversity proxies and the UEII. These findings shed new light on the “luxury effect” in urban areas and reveal the nature of such relationship in highly green cities embedded in economic parity scenarios.