Garden and landscape-scale correlates of moths of differing conservation status: significant effects of urbanization and habitat diversity

Moths are abundant and ubiquitous in vegetated terrestrial environments and are pollinators, important herbivores of wild plants, and food for birds, bats and rodents. In recent years, many once abundant and widespread species have shown sharp declines that have been cited by some as indicative of a widespread insect biodiversity crisis. Likely causes of these declines include agricultural intensification, light pollution, climate change, and urbanization; however, the real underlying cause(s) is still open to conjecture. We used data collected from the citizen science Garden Moth Scheme (GMS) to explore the spatial association between the abundance of 195 widespread British species of moth, and garden habitat and landscape features, to see if spatial habitat and landscape associations varied for species of differing conservation status. We found that associations with habitat and landscape composition were species-specific, but that there were consistent trends in species richness and total moth abundance. Gardens with more diverse and extensive microhabitats were associated with higher species richness and moth abundance; gardens near to the coast were associated with higher richness and moth abundance; and gardens in more urbanized locations were associated with lower species richness and moth abundance. The same trends were also found for species classified as increasing, declining and vulnerable under IUCN (World Conservation Union) criteria

Heat Fluxes in a Green Façade System: Mathematical Relations and an Experimental Case

The need of greater environmental sustainability in today’s living contexts can be significantly coped through the introduction of green infrastructures. Their benefits concern improvement of climate and comfort conditions. Among green infrastructures, vertical greenery systems, applied to buildings, contribute to the energy efficiency of buildings and to the improvement of outdoor and indoor microclimatic conditions. Green façades, a typology of vertical greenings, allow a considerable energy saving for air conditioning, by reducing the surface temperature of buildings and increasing the envelope thermal insulation. A realistic description of the functioning of green façades is essential to comprehend the real extent of their advantages. This paper aims to provide a first answer to the need of energy simulation models for green façades’ thermal behavior. The paper proposes a theoretical and an experimental approach. The main heat fluxes involved into the green façade system are investigated and described, by resorting to a schematic representation. The defined mathematical relations are applied to data collected during an experiment on a green façade conducted at the University of Bari. This work represents a contribution to the development of a model to forecast the thermal behavior of green façades and of the microclimate of buildings equipped with them

Bioactive Facade System Symbiosis as a Key for Eco-Beneficial Building Element

7th Global Conference on Global Warming (GCGW) -- JUN 24-28, 2018 -- Izmir, TURKEYWOS: 000587895700005The problems in today's built environment have a strong interrelation with key factors like pollution, global warming, energy and limited natural resources. When thinking of an ideal city the management of all these factors plays an important role in sustainability. Searching a magical solution to all these problems in this dynamic structure is not realistic, but some novel approaches like using the greenery (plants and microalgae) as bioactive elements adapted throughout the urban environment especially in the form of living facades on the buildings is getting more attention with regards to their eco-friendly potential. Bioactive facades can create a positive impact on managing some important parameters like thermal comfort, energy efficiency, wastewater recycle, CO2 capture and real estate price increase in microscale focusing on a single building aswell as global warming, pollution control, urban heat islands, social wealth and sustainable future in macroscale focusing on a big city. the aim of this review will be the key parameters for an efficient bioactive facade with regards to pros and cons, challenges and future. the review will cover the background of using plants as living walls or green walls and then will focus on the microalgae and photobioreactor adapted buildings