More parks and green spaces in urban areas equals more bird species

 Northern flicker

A 2003 study published in Conservation Ecology has determined that more bird species are found in urban areas with parks and natural features than in more densely developed areas. The study by Melles, Glenn and Martin collected data at 285 stations in Vancouver and Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The authors counted the number of bird species present and noted the types of land uses around their sampling sites. In particular, they found that certain landscape features such as freshwater streams, large trees, and berry producing shrubs were correlated with the number of bird species. They conclude that parks and green areas should be integrated into city planning and development to enhance bird diversity. Housing developments adjacent green reserves should “minimize impervious surface cover (concrete, roofs and asphalt), minimize house size, maintain native tree cover and berry shrubs, integrate new ponds, and maintain and develop natural freshwater sources into planning designs.”

How old is your landscape?

 

Youthful landscape

Is it better to manage your landscape as an older woodland model or as a younger and youthful grassland? It depends. The context of what the property has on it and what is around it are important factors. But if it is biodiversity that you are after, then periodic disturbances might be your answer. Something called the “intermediate disturbance hypothesis” by Connell (1978) states that heavily impacted landscapes (regularly mown or burned) and undisturbed landscapes (older mature forest) results in less species richness. 

 

Medium aged forest

But those in-between aged forests, not too young and not too old (“overmature”), tends to have the most species present. This has been documented for birds (Jokimaki and Suhonen 1993) and butterflies (Blair and Launer 1997), but obviously this is not the case for all animal types. So to increase biodiversity on your property it may be advantageous to reduce the amount of lawn and convert it to woodland plants, while in a heavily wooded landscape it may be useful to thin the canopy branches or remove a few trees to open it to more sunlight. But then again, it depends.

Older woodland

49 Farms, San Francisco

I first saw Jay 'Blue Tape' Rosenberg a few years ago at Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco. This urban permaculture garden had fat green squash plants interspersed with fava beans, marigolds, and rampant tomatoes. The garden was built upon the rubble of an abandoned interstate exit and yet it thrived with plants. 

 Jay Rosenberg

It began in layers with volunteers laying down thick sheets of cardboard to kill weeds, and then adding a mountain of horse manure and mulch. Within a few short years, the compost became black gold. Jay explained that he wasn't growing the plants to sell, but instead to give away-- to the volunteers and local folks who needed fresh food. It was a great success, and urban permaculture gardens took hold in the City by the Bay. 

Hayes Valley Farm was decommissioned by the City of San Francisco a few years ago, but it provided the seeds for starting other permaculture gardens in other neighborhoods. Now known as 49 Farms, their goal is to have a public permaculture garden for every square mile of the city. And it works. Find out more about 49 Farms and their good work at their website at https://sites.google.com/site/49farms/home

SURE-- Society for Urban Ecology

 Mission Statement

“In order to develop an understanding of the structure and function of urban ecosystems and to advance a balanced interaction between humans and their environments in cities and towns worldwide, the Society for Urban Ecology (SURE) exists to foster and develop knowledge and implementation of urban ecology worldwide by strengthening contacts and enriching the dialogue between researchers and practitioners, by representing the interests of the academic community within the wider international institutional context and by making the collective expertise of SURE available, where appropriate, in furthering the discussion of urban ecological issues.”

Find out more about Society for Urban Ecology at their website at http://www.society-urban-ecology.org/

 

 

Just what is Biodiversity, anyway?

More....of everything. Biologists define biodiversity as a richness of species, genes, and landscape types (Noss and Cooperrider 1994, Takacs 1996, Stein et. al. 2000). Lydia Schultz, a birder friend of mine from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, fully applies this concept to her 1/3 acre house lot.

 Zero Diversity

Schultz says that in order to attract more bird species to your property, simply plant more.....of everything. And arrange these into diverse groupings--grassy areas, aquatic zones, woodland types--even if these are no larger than 100 square feet each. And of course, the bigger the better.

Some Diversity

Creating your backyard habitat can be very easy once you understand that wildlife have three basic needs. These needs, food, water, and cover, promote use and provide the lifecycle needs of wildlife. 

FOOD—planting a variety of native trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowering plants that provide nuts, seeds, nectar, fruit, and other sources of nourishment. Providing food through natural vegetation is preferred. It tends to encourage the “natural feeding mechanism” that wildlife use.

WATER – Providing water for both drinking and bathing is vital to wildlife. You can include it by having birdbaths, drippers, or small ponds.

SHELTER/REPRODUCTIVE AREAS (space) – Nesting and shelter areas where wildlife are protected from the weather and predators is essential. Various species require different landscape features for these needs. Providing a diversity of plant material that includes evergreen and deciduous trees, vines, shrubs, herbaceous plants, grasses, and ground covers lets wildlife select the right areas for their feeding, nesting, and shelter needs.





Very biodiverse



Dr. Aldo Leopold, the “father of wildlife management,” said, “Habitat is like spokes in a wheel….” By removing one or more spokes you virtually weaken its stability. To make a habitat more sustainable try to visualize replacing the “spokes” that may be missing. For more information on how to increase biodiversity on your property, see Establishing a Backyard Wildlife Habitat pdf available online from MSUCares at http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2402.pdf



Urban Parks Home to Biodiverse Soil Microbes

We all know that there are many social, environmental, and economic benefits to preserving green spaces within the city. But we are still learning how important these benefits are, in some cases, many years after these parks were initially established. In 1853, the state legislature of New York voted to purchase over 700 acres of land in central Manhattan. Then occupied with swamps and rocky outcroppings, this land would become one of the nation's first landscaped public spaces in the United States--now known as Central Park. Back then, New Yorkers just wanted a public space to ride their carriages and have an alternative activity to sitting with their family in a tavern. Today, Central Park has a variety of outdoor activities and is the most visited urban park in the nation. It also offers a wealthy array of urban diversity with  nearly 400 plant species and around 350 animal species. Kelly Ramirez, Netherlands Institute of  Ecology, did her postdoc work on the soil microbes of Central Park in 2014. She sampled nearly 600 soil locations, and compared the life found within these to other soil samples taken across the globe. According to her team, they found 122,081 bacterial, 1659 archaeal, and 43,429 eukaryotic phylotypes (phylotypes are single-celled organisms that are difficult to identify). This stunning amount of soil biodiversity was unexpected, and shows that this urban oasis is on par with tropical regions, the Arctic, and the desert. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the authors state that most of the phylotypes were previously undescribed, and only 16.2 % of their genetic sequences showed in the Greengene database. They stated in their paper (2014) that "the broad range of cover types and management practices (fertilizer, compost, mulching, irrigation) within the Park allowed us to examine the factors structuring soil communities across environmental gradients while holding climatic conditions nearly constant." So the diverse areas of the park that includes wetlands, woodlands and managed garden spaces creates a diverse soil biota. The case for urban biodiversity may very well be found under our own feet.

The Battle of Maldon and other Old English Poems

"Wonderful is this wall of stone,
wrecked by fate,
The city buildings crumble,
the bold words of the giants decay.
Roofs have caved in, towers collapsed,
Barred gates have gone,
gateways have gaping mouths,
Hoarfrost clings to the mortar."
--unknown, quoted in Mitchell's The Archeology of Anglo-Saxon England