What places are the most biodiverse in cities?

A study by authors Salinitro et. al. looked at what environments in an Italian town harbored the most plant species. Published in the journal nature on Oct 11, 2018, the researchers found that landscapes that retained native soil became a refugium for native plants and increased biodiversity. Rooftops and manholes were cited as having the least diversity. Other factors such as paving types had varying biodiversity levels, as well as available moisture levels. This information is distributed via Creative Commons license available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Why are there so many spiders in this house?

A recent study published in Nature (November 2017) looked at where spiders live in houses. Entitled “The Habitats Humans Provide: Factors affecting the diversity and composition of arthropods in houses” authors Leong, Bertone, Savage, Bayless, Dunn & Trautwein found in their study that access to the outdoors and carpeted rooms had more spider populations than house tidiness, pesticide use, and pet ownership. "Our findings suggest that the more opportunities arthropods have to get into a particular room in a home, the more diverse the arthropods in that room are likely to be."

The absurdity of lawns according to MichaeL Pollan

“The conceit of the American suburb is that we’re all in a great park together.”- Michael Pollan
By Radiowest
See it at https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/569329/michael-pollan/?utm_source=eb