Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Conservation
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A review by Czech and colleagues (2000) finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity, emphasizing the uniquely far-reaching transformations that accompany urban sprawl as discussed by the authors.Abstract:
A the many human activities that cause habitat loss (Czech et al. 2000), urban development produces some of the greatest local extinction rates and frequently eliminates the large majority of native species (Vale and Vale 1976, Luniak 1994, Kowarik 1995, Marzluff 2001). Also, urbanization is often more lasting than other types of habitat loss. Throughout much of New England, for example, ecological succession is restoring forest habitat lost from farming and logging, whereas most urbanized areas in that region not only persist but continue to expand and threaten other local ecosystems (Stein et al. 2000). Another great conservation challenge of urban growth is that it replaces the native species that are lost with widespread “weedy” nonnative species. This replacement constitutes the process of biotic homogenization that threatens to reduce the biological uniqueness of local ecosystems (Blair 2001). Urban-gradient studies show that, for many taxa, for example, plants (Kowarik 1995) and birds and butterflies (Blair and Launer 1997), the number of nonnative species increases toward centers of urbanization, while the number of native species decreases. The final conservation challenge of sprawl is its current and growing geographical extent (Benfield et al. 1999). A review by Czech and colleagues (2000) finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity. Species threatened by urbanization also tend to be threatened by agriculture, recreation, roads, and many other human impacts, emphasizing the uniquely far-reaching transformations that accompany urban sprawl. About 50% of the US population lives in the suburbs, with another 30% living in cities (USCB 2001). Over 5% of the total surface area of the United States is covered by urban and other built-up areas (USCB 2001). This is more land than is covered by the combined total of national and state parks and areas preserved by the Nature Conservancy. More ominously, the growth rate of urban land use is accelerating faster than land preserved as parks or conservation areas by the Conservancy (figure 1). Much of this growth is from the spread of suburban housing. It is estimated, for example, that residential yards occupy 135,000 acres in the state of Missouri (MDC 2002). This residential landscape represents nearly 1% of the total area of Missouri and is nearly three times the area occupied by Missouri state parks. Here I review the growing literature that documents how urban (and suburban) expansion harms native ecosystems. This knowledge can aid conservation efforts in two major ways. One is through the use of ecological principles—such as preserving remnant natural habitat and restoring modified habitats to promote native species conservation—to reduce the impacts of urbanization on native ecosystems. Rare and endangered species sometimes occur in urbanized habitats (Kendle and Forbes 1997, Godefroid 2001) and thus could be conserved there. Managing the large amount of residential vegetation (1% of the state area, as noted above) in ways that promote native plants and animals could also make a significant contribution to conservation.read more
Citations
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Ecological and socio-economic factors affecting extinction risk in parrots
George Olah,Stuart H. M. Butchart,Stuart H. M. Butchart,Andy Symes,Iliana Medina Guzmán,Ross B. Cunningham,Donald J. Brightsmith,Robert Heinsohn +7 more
TL;DR: It is found that the likelihood of parrot species being classified as threatened was less for species with larger historical distribution size, but was greater for Species with high forest dependency, large body size, long generation time, and greater proportion of the human population living in urban areas in the countries encompassing the parrots’ home ranges.
Journal ArticleDOI
Urbanisation and the loss of phylogenetic diversity in birds
TL;DR: It is shown that highly urbanised environments supported on average 450 million fewer years of evolutionary history than the surrounding natural environments, implying a disproportionate loss of evolutionaryhistory.
Journal ArticleDOI
Habitat and landscape characteristics underlying anuran community structure along an urban–rural gradient
TL;DR: This study underscores the importance of a regional approach to amphibian conservation in urban and urbanizing areas; in fragmented landscapes, a network of interconnected wetland and upland habitats may be more likely to support a successful, diverse anuran community than will isolated sites.
Journal ArticleDOI
The evaluation for the impact of land use change on habitat quality: A joint contribution of cellular automata scenario simulation and habitat quality assessment model
Jianhua He,Junlong Huang,Chun Li +2 more
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors proposed an integrated framework with cellular automata (CA) scenario simulation and the integrated valuation of environmental services and trade-offs (InVEST) model to evaluate how different landscape dynamics could exert influences on habitat quality.
Journal ArticleDOI
Breeding bird species richness in Taiwan: distribution on gradients of elevation, primary productivity and urbanization
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the richness of breeding bird species in relation to elevation, primary productivity and urbanization, and found that bird species richness showed a hump-shaped relationship with elevation.
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, an open definition of urban systems that accounts for the exchanges of material and influence between cities and surrounding landscapes is presented, which sets the stage for comprehensive understanding of urban ecosystems.
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Worldwide urbanization and its effects on birds
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Posted Content
Economic associations among causes of species endangerment in the United States
TL;DR: Associations among causes of species endangerment in the United States reflect the integration of economic sectors, supporting the theory and evidence that economic growth proceeds at the competitive exclusion of nonhuman species in the aggregate as discussed by the authors.