Acceptance of near-natural greenspace management relates to ecological and socio-cultural assigned values among European urbanites

Grasslands are widespread elements of urban greenspace providing recreational, psychological and aesthetic benefits to city residents. Two urban grassland types of contrasting management dominate urban greenspaces: frequently mown, species-poor short-cut lawns and less intensively managed, near-natural tall-grass meadows. The higher conservation value of tall-grass meadows makes management interventions such as converting short-cut lawns into tall-grass meadows a promising tool for urban biodiversity conservation. The societal success of such interventions, however, depends on identifying the values urban residents assign to different types of urban grasslands, and how these values translate to attitudes towards greenspace management. Using 2027 questionnaires across 19 European cities, we identify the assigned values that correlate with people's personal greenspace use and their preferences for different types of urban grasslands to determine how these values relate to the agreement with a scenario of converting 50 of their cities� short-cut lawns into tall-grass meadows. We found that most people assigned nature-related values, such as wildness, to tall-grass meadows and utility-related values, such as recreation, to short-cut lawns. Positive value associations of wildness and species richness with tall-grass meadows, and social and nature-related greenspace activities, positively correlated with agreeing to convert short-cut lawns into tall-grass meadows. Conversely, disapproval of lawn conversion correlated with positive value associations of cleanliness and recreation potential with short-cut lawns. Here, people using greenspaces for nature-related activities were outstandingly positive about lawn conversion. The results show that the plurality of values assigned to different types of urban grasslands should be considered in urban greenspace planning. For example, tall-grass meadows could be managed to also accommodate the values associated with short-cut lawns, such as tidiness and recreation potential, to support their societal acceptance

Phylogenetic and functional structures of plant communities along a spatiotemporal urbanization gradient: Effects of colonization and extinction

1. The plant lists on ruderal species from 1955 and 2011 in Shanghai and Harbin.2.The occurrence data on ruderal species in spatial gradients (urban-rural gradients) and temporal gradients(1955&2011).3.The functional data of ruderal species. </div

Effects of disturbance and alien plants on the phylogenetic structure of riverine communities

Questions: Phylogenetic analyses provide important insights in the study of biological invasions. Previous studies have shown contrasting effects of alien species on the phylogenetic structure of recipient communities. In this study, we focus on two riparian plant communities with contrasting natural disturbance regimes: riparian forests and river bar communities. We ask whether these communities differ in alpha diversity and degree of plant invasion. Further, are the phylogenetic diversity (PD) and structure of these habitats related to the level of plant invasion?. Location: Northern Spain. Methods: We determined level of plant invasion in forest and river bar vegetation plots, and calculated PD using mean pairwise distance (MPD) and mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD). We applied null models to analyse the phylogenetic structure of plots, and we tested whether inclusion of alien plant species was associated with differences in observed phylogenetic structure. Results: River bar plots experienced more invasion than forest plots, but the level of invasion was only related to the PD of native species in forests. Most plots had random phylogenetic structure, with a minority of plots tending to phylogenetic overdispersion in forests and to phylogenetic clustering in river bars. MPD increased with the inclusion of alien plant species in forest plots, suggesting phylogenetic overdispersion, while no such pattern was detected with MNTD. MPD increased slightly with increasing invasion in river bar plots, suggesting reduced clustering, while MNTD values decreased with increasing invasion, suggesting the opposite trend. Conclusions: Invasion by alien plants is differentially associated with phylogenetic structure in riparian habitats with different disturbance levels. Our results contrast with those of previous studies of plant invasion of riparian communities, which suggests geographic and ecological variation in the relationship between invasion and phylogenetic community structure in riparian systems. Research is needed to identify the causal factors underlying this variation. © 2020 International Association for Vegetation Scienc