Resilient ecological solutions for urban regeneration

There is a need for biological conservation at the global scale, and urban conservation has the potential to support the delivery of this wider goal. Despite historic trends, efforts are underway to protect and enhance the quality, quantity and accessibility of green infrastructure within cities, including biodiversity features within new developments. However, there are questions over their long-term persistence and function. This paper applies an urban futures resilience analysis to a case study site to illustrate how such concerns may be explored and addressed in practice. The analysis identifies vulnerable sustainability solutions and clarifies the aspects that may be improved. The results suggest that the resilience of these solutions is questionable, even though resilience has clearly been considered. In particular, future compliance with, and enforcement of, planning conditions is questionable. The resilience of these ecological solutions may be improved by including some redundancy, designing for low maintenance, incorporating microclimate buffers and locating features in areas unlikely to be subject to future disturbance. The establishment of endowment funds or other dedicated funding mechanisms should also be explored. The paper also recommends that a futures-based resilience analysis be included within the development planning process

Differential temporal beta‐diversity patterns of native and non‐native arthropod species in a fragmented native forest landscape

An important factor that hinders the management of non‐native species is a general lack of information regarding the biogeography of non‐natives, and, in particular, their rates of turnover. Here, we address this research gap by analysing differences in temporal beta‐diversity (using both pairwise and multiple‐time dissimilarity metrics) between native and non‐native species, using a novel time‐series dataset of arthropods sampled in native forest fragments in the Azores. We use a null model approach to determine whether temporal beta‐diversity was due to deterministic processes or stochastic colonisation and extinction events, and linear modelling selection to assess the factors driving variation in temporal beta‐diversity between plots. In accordance with our predictions, we found that the temporal beta‐diversity was much greater for non‐native species than for native species, and the null model analyses indicated that the turnover of non‐native species was due to stochastic events. No predictor variables were found to explain the turnover of native or non‐native species. We attribute the greater turnover of non‐native species to source‐sink processes and the close proximity of anthropogenic habitats to the fragmented native forest plots sampled in our study. Thus, our findings point to ways in which the study of turnover can be adapted for future applications in habitat island systems. The implications of this for biodiversity conservation and management are significant. The high rate of stochastic turnover of non‐native species indicates that attempts to simply reduce the populations of non‐native species in situ within native habitats may not be successful. A more efficient management strategy would be to interrupt source‐sink dynamics by improving the harsh boundaries between native and adjacent anthropogenic habitats.Portuguese FCT‐NETBIOME – ISLANDBIODIV grant 0003/2011.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Birds as bioindicators of plastic pollution in terrestrial and freshwater environments:A 30-year review

Plastic pollution is a global concern that has grown ever more acute in recent years. Most research has focused on the impact of plastic pollution in marine environments. However, plastic is increasingly being detected in terrestrial and freshwater environments with key inland sources including landfills, where it is accessible to a wide range of organisms. Birds are effective bioindicators of pollutants for many reasons, including their high mobility and high intra- and interspecific variation in trophic levels. Freshwater and terrestrial bird species are under-represented in plastic pollution research compared to marine species. We reviewed 106 studies (spanning from 1994 onwards) that have detected plastics in bird species dwelling in freshwater and/or terrestrial habitats, identifying knowledge gaps. Seventy-two studies focused solely on macroplastics (fragments >5 mm), compared to 22 microplastics (fragments <5 mm) studies. A further 12 studies identified plastics as both microplastics and macroplastics. No study investigated nanoplastic (particles < 100 nm) exposure. Research to date has geographical and species’ biases while ignoring nanoplastic sequestration in free-living freshwater, terrestrial and marine bird species. Building on the baseline search presented here, we urge researchers to develop and validate standardised field sampling techniques and laboratory analytical protocols such as Raman spectroscopy to allow for the quantification and identification of micro- and nanoplastics in terrestrial and freshwater environments and the species therein. Future studies should consistently report the internalised and background concentrations, types, sizes and forms of plastics. This will enable a better understanding of the sources of plastic pollution and their routes of exposure to birds of terrestrial and freshwater environments, providing a more comprehensive insight into the potential impacts on birds

The value of Twitter data for determining the emotional responses of people to urban green spaces:A case study and critical evaluation

Interactions between humans and nature are understood to be beneficial for human well-being. In cities, urban green spaces are believed to provide many benefits to urban populations in terms of mental and emotional well-being. Through a case study of 60 urban green spaces in Birmingham, United Kingdom, this article investigates the spatial and temporal variation of the emotions experienced by individuals whilst using urban green spaces. Using a dataset obtained from Twitter as the basis for emotional explorations, sentiment analysis was performed on over 10,000 tweets to ascertain the positivity/negativity of individuals. Positive responses were more common than negative responses across all seasons, with happiness and appreciation of beauty being the common positive emotions identified. For the negative responses, fear and anger were present in similar amounts, with fewer tweets indicating sadness and disgust. Our findings show that Twitter data is a viable source of information to researchers investigating human interaction and emotional response to space in cities. Such information has implications for urban planners and park managers, enabling the creation of evidence-based spaces which enhance positive outdoor experience. Limitations in using Twitter data are discussed and these should be considered in future research.</jats:p