School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemHierarchical filters determine community assembly of urban species pools(WILEY, 2016-11)The majority of humanity now lives in cities or towns, with this proportion expected to continue increasing for the foreseeable future. As novel ecosystems, urban areas offer an ideal opportunity to examine multi-scalar processes involved in community assembly as well as the role of human activities in modulating environmental drivers of biodiversity. Although ecologists have made great strides in recent decades at documenting ecological relationships in urban areas, much remains unknown, and we still need to identify the major ecological factors, aside from habitat loss, behind the persistence or extinction of species and guilds of species in cities. Given this paucity of knowledge, there is an immediate need to facilitate collaborative, interdisciplinary research on the patterns and drivers of biodiversity in cities at multiple spatial scales. In this review, we introduce a new conceptual framework for understanding the filtering processes that mold diversity of urban floras and faunas. We hypothesize that the following hierarchical series of filters influence species distributions in cities: (1) regional climatic and biogeographical factors; (2) human facilitation; (3) urban form and development history; (4) socioeconomic and cultural factors; and (5) species interactions. In addition to these filters, life history and functional traits of species are important in determining community assembly and act at multiple spatial scales. Using these filters as a conceptual framework can help frame future research needed to elucidate processes of community assembly in urban areas. Understanding how humans influence community structure and processes will aid in the management, design, and planning of our cities to best support biodiversity.
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ItemMoving beyond biotic homogenization: searching for new insights into vegetation dynamics(WILEY, 2016-05)Abstract Biotic homogenization has been predicted to occur in cities across the world. However, the empirical evidence has been less than convincing. Lososová et al. explore the middle ground between these two points of view in this issue of Journal of Vegetation Science. They take a more sophisticated approach, linking homogenization to bigger questions of vegetation assembly in urban environments.
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ItemComposition of the soil seed bank in remnant patches of grassy woodland along an urbanization gradient in Melbourne, Australia(SPRINGER, 2013-10)Urban areas around the world are rapidly expanding, with flow-on consequences for the native plants and animals that inhabit these areas. The impacts of this urban growth are not always immediate, and in the case of the local extinction of plant species may take up to 100–150� years. Understanding how urbanization affects ecological patterns and processes may allow us to minimize the loss of species from these areas through better planning and conservation decisions. This study examined the composition of the soil seed bank in remnant patches of grassy woodland along an urbanization gradient in northern Melbourne, Australia, using an ex-situ glasshouse germination trial. A total of 108 species emerged from the soil seed bank, although a majority of the seedlings were seeds from 19 non-indigenous monocot species. Species richness per plot of emergent seedlings was best explained by average annual rainfall, rather than the degree of urbanization in the surrounding landscape. This indicates that the existing plant community may be responding to a natural productivity gradient. The persistence of 123 indigenous plant species in the existing vegetation, even when the soil seed bank is dominated by non-indigenous monocot species, suggests that these plant communities can exist within urban areas, particularly in combination with appropriate management activities that ensure the continuation of previously occurring natural processes.
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ItemThe future of urban biodiversity research: Moving beyond the 'low-hanging fruit'(SPRINGER, 2013-09)
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ItemWellbeing and urban living: nurtured by nature(SPRINGER, 2018-02)
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ItemWellbeing and urban living: nurtured by nature (vol 21, pg 197, 2018)(SPRINGER, 2018-12)
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ItemConserving herbivorous and predatory insects in urban green spaces(NATURE PORTFOLIO, 2017-01-19)Insects are key components of urban ecological networks and are greatly impacted by anthropogenic activities. Yet, few studies have examined how insect functional groups respond to changes to urban vegetation associated with different management actions. We investigated the response of herbivorous and predatory heteropteran bugs to differences in vegetation structure and diversity in golf courses, gardens and parks. We assessed how the species richness of these groups varied amongst green space types, and the effect of vegetation volume and plant diversity on trophic- and species-specific occupancy. We found that golf courses sustain higher species richness of herbivores and predators than parks and gardens. At the trophic- and species-specific levels, herbivores and predators show strong positive responses to vegetation volume. The effect of plant diversity, however, is distinctly species-specific, with species showing both positive and negative responses. Our findings further suggest that high occupancy of bugs is obtained in green spaces with specific combinations of vegetation structure and diversity. The challenge for managers is to boost green space conservation value through actions promoting synergistic combinations of vegetation structure and diversity. Tackling this conservation challenge could provide enormous benefits for other elements of urban ecological networks and people that live in cities.