Urban landscapes are the everyday environment for the majority of the global population, and almost 80 % of the Europeans live in urban areas. The continuous growth in the number and size of urban areas along with an increasing demand on resources and energy poses great challenges for ensuring human welfare in cities while preventing an increasing loss of biodiversity. The understanding of how ...

Great changes in land use/land cover from rapid urbanization have occurred in the PearlRiver Delta, China. As the primary cause of land development in the urbanization process,urban expansion has mostly occurred on land with higher NPP, significantly impacting theregional ecosystems. The primary purpose of this study was to reveal the impacts of urbanexpansion on the regional NPP. The land cove...

Microbial ecosystems are often assumed to be relatively stable over short periods of time, but this assumption is seldom tested. An urban stream influenced by both flow and varying levels of anthropogenic influences is expected to have high temporal variability in microbial composition, and short-term ecological instability. Thus, we analyzed the bacterioplankton composition of a weir-fragmente...

In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, actions to achieve a sustainable coexistence with wildfire need to be taken now. In this paper we suggest several important policy, planning, and management changes that should be made, regardless of the many uncertainties in predicting future fire regimes. Similar to how other natural hazards are addressed, a risk-based framework for fire-relat...

Urban habitats are characterized by high levels of disturbance, impervious paving, and heat retention. These factors, acting in concert, alter soil, water, and air conditions in ways that promote the growth of stress-tolerant, earlysuccessional vegetation on abandoned or unmaintained land. In most urban areas, a cosmopolitan array of spontaneous plants provide important ecological services that...

Since the industrial revolution, our world has experienced rapid and unplanned industrialization and urbanization. As a result, we have had to cope with serious environmental challenges. In this context, explanation of how smart urban ecosystems can emerge, gains a crucial importance. Capacity building and community involvement have always been the key issues in achieving sustainable developmen...

Soil biota play key roles in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, however, compared to our knowledge of above-ground plant and animal diversity, the biodiversity found in soils remains largely uncharacterized. Here, we present an assessment of soil biodiversity and biogeographic patterns across Central Park in New York City that spanned all three domains of life, demonstrating that even a...

Urban nature in all its forms—urban forests, parks, greenbelts—provides a range of benefits and services to society, most of which are not readily bought and sold. Economists calculate the “use value” of nature and ecosystems when tangible goods can be exchanged at market prices, such as timber or fisheries products. “Non-use values” set up a more complex economic puzzle. How can we estimate va...

Two Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites now include urban areas (Baltimore, Maryland and Phoenix, Arizona). A goal of LTER in these cities is to blend physical and social science investigations to better understand urban ecological change. Research monitoring programs are underway to investigate the effects of urbanization on ecosystems. Climate changes in these urban areas reflect the e...

The human pressure on natural ecosystems and protected areas is steadily increasing. Urban growth is undeniably and irreversibly converting natural habitats as it is constantly expanding with population growth. In this study we analyze the urban expansion of mega city Calcutta over four time-steps (1975, 1990, 2000, 2010) as an example of expansion over time and threat to the surrounding enviro...