The Distinguishing Features of the Study of the Ecology of Urban Landscapes

The urban transformation of the planet has spurred interest across a wide variety of disciplines in the fundamental changes to human society and the environment that result from urbanization. Landscape ecology is no exception. Since the late 1980s, the number of papers devoted to the study of the ecology of urban landscapes has risen dramatically. This trend prompted the question I address in this paper: what are the distinguishing features of the study of the ecology of urban landscapes? To answer this question, I reviewed 894 papers, published between 1987 and 2011, describing the ecology of urban terrestrial landscapes. Landscape ecologists who study urban landscapes use the gradient paradigm and the urban ecosystem framework to shape their research questions. They study subjects such as land use/land cover change, the ecological effects of land use type and pattern, and human-made habitats that receive less attention from landscape ecologists studying non-urban areas. They also study a very wide variety of disturbances that occur in urban landscapes. And, increasingly, they are making use of citizen-generated data to answer their questions. Knowledge of the ecology of urban landscapes is largely based on comparisons of land use types, investigations along the urban gradient, and research centered on remnant habitat fragments in an urban matrix. Future directions for the study of the ecology of urban landscapes include testing whether understanding derived in less modified landscapes can be applied to intensively modified urban landscapes, investigating the interactions between agents of global change, such as climate change, and urbanization, investigating the effects of matrix quality on the biodiversity of habitat fragments, expanding our understanding of the ecological effects of land use pattern, and assessing the trade-offs between human needs and the needs of other species by means of transdisciplinary collaborations.