Some Native Bird and Plant Species Thrive in Urban Areas

Urban life is typically viewed as nature-less, surrounded by buildings and concrete with trees sparsely placed throughout. However, researchers have found that some cities worldwide provide a robust habitat for some bird and plant species.

Although urbanization has historically contributed to great losses in biodiversity through the destruction of habitats and small local networks of ecosystems, two studies that examined over 200 cities worldwide found that a surprisingly high number of plant and animal species persist in urban environments and a fifth of the world's bird diversity is supported by cities.

In one study conducted by researchers from Rutgers University and the University of California Santa Barbara, researchers created the largest global dataset of two diverse taxa in cities, which were birds in 54 cities and plants in 110 cities. They found that despite a city's overall unlikelihood of supporting a wide-range of species, there do exist some plant and animal species that thrive in urban areas. For example, cities that conserve green spaces and restore native plant species actually help the nature in their environment.

An example of this would be New York City's Central Park. The Central Park Conservancy relies on donations for the park's upkeep of facilities as well as nature life. Such green space in an urban area has shown to be a source of refuge for native species and migrating wildlife.

"This can be a cup half-full or half-empty scenario. If we act now and rethink the design of our urban landscapes, cities can play a major role in conserving the remaining native plant and animal species and help bring back more of them," said Madhusudan Katti of California State University, Fresno, in this Futurity.org article.

The other study specifically focused on the prevalence of birds in urban areas. Researchers at Melbourne University in Australia conducted the study. Co-author Dr. Nick Williams of Melbourne said he and his researchers were surprised when they discovered that a fifth of the world's bird diversity is supported by cities. Similar to the other study, Dr. Williams believes that cities need to provide a diverse mix of habitats to maintain native species, such as New York City's Central Park.

The Melbourne University study also found that pigeons, house sparrows, starlings, and barn swallows - otherwise known as "early urban adaptors" - are present in most of the world's cities, revealing that urban areas do indeed effectively support some species of birds.

To read more about these biodiversity issues in urban areas, visit this Futurity.org article and this Australian Yahoo News article.