Dataset Information

Walls offer potential to improve urban biodiversity.

ABSTRACT: Within urban environment with high-rise buildings and structures, walls represent the most common vertical spaces. Conventionally, such spaces are viewed as abiotic areas, where spontaneous flora is neglected. Through investigations in a typical mountainous city Chongqing, this study concerns the spontaneous species diversity on walls and the influences of wall factors and the adjacent environment. A total of 239 vascular plant species belonging to 172 genera and 75 families were found; 90% of the species are indigenous. More fern species inhabit walls, compared with xerophytes that dominate general urban environment. Variation partitioning indicated that wall attributes played a more important role in explaining the total variation in wall vegetation composition and structure than did the adjacent environment. Given that there are limited possibilities to extend more green space in urban land environment, we support a "let Nature take its course" approach to improve urban biodiversity, where vertical urban space with spontaneous flora can act as a valuable complement to biodiversity and ecosystem services in dense urban environment. This study should raise urban designers' and ecosystem managers' awareness of the possibilities of this type of informal, unconventional habitat as a "supplement" for urban greening and landscaping.

SUBMITTER: Chen C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7303168 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Walls offer potential to improve urban biodiversity.

Chen Chundi C Mao Longfei L Qiu Yonggui Y Cui Jian J Wang Yuncai Y

Scientific reports 20200618 1

Within urban environment with high-rise buildings and structures, walls represent the most common vertical spaces. Conventionally, such spaces are viewed as abiotic areas, where spontaneous flora is neglected. Through investigations in a typical mountainous city Chongqing, this study concerns the spontaneous species diversity on walls and the influences of wall factors and the adjacent environment. A total of 239 vascular plant species belonging to 172 genera and 75 families were found; 90% of t ...[more]

PMID: 32555243

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Project description:BackgroundWith the increase in human population, and the growing realisation of the importance of urban biodiversity for human wellbeing, the ability to predict biodiversity loss or gain as a result of land use change within urban settings is important. Most models that link biodiversity and land use are at too coarse a scale for informing decisions, especially those related to planning applications. Using the grounds of the Natural History Museum, London, we show how methods used in global models can be applied to smaller spatial scales to inform urban planning.MethodsData were extracted from relevant primary literature where species richness had been recorded in more than one habitat type within an urban setting. As within-sample species richness will increase with habitat area, species richness estimates were also converted to species density using theory based on the species-area relationship. Mixed-effects models were used to model the impact on species richness and species density of different habitat types, and to estimate these metrics in the current grounds and under proposed plans for redevelopment. We compared effects of three assumptions on how within-sample diversity scales with habitat area as a sensitivity analysis. A pre-existing database recording plants within the grounds was also used to estimate changes in species composition across different habitats.ResultsAnalysis estimated that the proposed plans would result in an increase of average biodiversity of between 11.2% (when species density was modelled) and 14.1% (when within-sample species richness was modelled). Plant community composition was relatively similar between the habitats currently within the grounds.DiscussionThe proposed plans for change in the NHM grounds are estimated to result in a net gain in average biodiversity, through increased number and extent of high-diversity habitats. In future, our method could be improved by incorporating purposefully collected ecological survey data (if resources permit) and by expanding the data sufficiently to allow modelling of the temporal dynamics of biodiversity change after habitat disturbance and creation. Even in its current form, the method produces transparent quantitative estimates, grounded in ecological data and theory, which can be used to inform relatively small scale planning decisions.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Biodiversity informatics is a relatively new discipline extending computer science in the context of biodiversity data, and its development to date has not been uniform throughout the world. Digitizing effort and capacity building are costly, and ways should be found to prioritize them rationally. The proposed 'Biodiversity Informatics Potential (BIP) Index' seeks to fulfill such a prioritization role. We propose that the potential for biodiversity informatics be assessed through three concepts: (a) the intrinsic biodiversity potential (the biological richness or ecological diversity) of a country; (b) the capacity of the country to generate biodiversity data records; and (c) the availability of technical infrastructure in a country for managing and publishing such records. METHODS: Broadly, the techniques used to construct the BIP Index were rank correlation, multiple regression analysis, principal components analysis and optimization by linear programming. We built the BIP Index by finding a parsimonious set of country-level human, economic and environmental variables that best predicted the availability of primary biodiversity data accessible through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) network, and constructing an optimized model with these variables. The model was then applied to all countries for which sufficient data existed, to obtain a score for each country. Countries were ranked according to that score. RESULTS: Many of the current GBIF participants ranked highly in the BIP Index, although some of them seemed not to have realized their biodiversity informatics potential. The BIP Index attributed low ranking to most nonparticipant countries; however, a few of them scored highly, suggesting that these would be high-return new participants if encouraged to contribute towards the GBIF mission of free and open access to biodiversity data. CONCLUSIONS: The BIP Index could potentially help in (a) identifying countries most likely to contribute to filling gaps in digitized biodiversity data; (b) assisting countries potentially in need (for example mega-diverse) to mobilize resources and collect data that could be used in decision-making; and (c) allowing identification of which biodiversity informatics-resourced countries could afford to assist countries lacking in biodiversity informatics capacity, and which data-rich countries should benefit most from such help.

Project description:Objectives: Canadian epidemiologic data demonstrate the fallibility of established HIV testing approaches to reach, diagnose, and link to care a significant portion of the population thereby contributing to missed opportunities to reduce onward HIV transmission. Increasing and diversifying entry points to accessing HIV testing may be a successful strategy to reach people who remain undiagnosed. We sought to determine the perspectives of patients on the acceptability of an offer of routine non-targeted provider-initiated HIV counseling and point-of-care (POC) testing in the health services program of a Community Health Centre in downtown Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Methods: Patients aged 18 years and over accessing the Health Services Program for scheduled clinical appointments were approached by research staff with the offer of a POC HIV test with pre- and post-test counseling. All patients accepting the offer and those declining the offer were offered the opportunity to complete an Acceptability Questionnaire. Results: Questionnaire responses from eligible patients over four consecutive weeks in 2018 strongly endorse the acceptability of an offer of an HIV test in the context of their scheduled health services appointment for a separate clinical condition. This contention held both for those patients accepting the offer and proceeding to testing and for those patients declining the offer. Conclusions: The perspectives of the patients in our study demonstrate that a routine offer of non-targeted provider-initiated HIV counseling and POC testing was considered not only to be an acceptable, but also an appropriate and welcome intervention in a community health services program. These results suggest the potential for actively engaging more individuals-including those less likely to be engaged through a targeted testing approach-in the documented benefits of the HIV care and treatment cascade by increasing the HIV test offer through routine provider initiation. In addition, at the population level, shifting the offer through venue diversification, similarly shows potential for reducing engagement in ongoing HIV transmission behaviors and practices attributed to those unaware of their HIV positive status. Both outcomes fundamental to the goal of eliminating AIDS by 2030.

Dataset Information

Walls offer potential to improve urban biodiversity.

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Walls offer potential to improve urban biodiversity.

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