城市生物多样性分布格局研究进展

城市生物多样性分布格局由自然生态环境和城市化过程所决定；其动态和机理与自然生态系统迥然不同.城市生物多样性为城市生态系统提供了诸多生态系统功能和服务,对改善城市环境、维持城市可持续发展有着重要的意义和作用.城市化过程深刻改变了城市的生物多样性分布格局,导致了诸如本地物种多样性降低、外来物种多样性增加、物种同质化等一系列问题.近年来,城市生物多样性受到学界高度关注,大量研究结果既回答了一些关键性问题,又提出了诸多新的论题和挑战.分析了当前城市生物多样性分布格局研究的若干热点问题,总结了影响城市生物多样性格局的主要因素,探讨了城市生物多样性格局研究方法的关键问题,指出了未来城市生物多样性研究的发展方向,特别强调了城市生物多样性的生态系统功能研究在未来城市生物多样性研究中的重要地位.

An overview of advances in distributional pattern of urban biodiversity

Urban biodiversity pattern is determined primarily by the local environmental conditions and urbanization processes; its dynamics and underlying mechanisms are fundamentally different from those in natural ecosystems. Nevertheless, biodiversity in urban areas provides a number of ecosystem functions and services which are critically important for improving urban environmental quality and maintaining urban sustainability. Over the world, urbanization has intensely affected the distributional pattern of biodiversity within and around cities, resulting in a series of problems such as reduced native biodiversity, increased exotic biodiversity, and species homogenization of the flora or fauna in an urban landscape. Here we review a number of recent advances in urban biodiversity research by selecting a set of key topics. We find that animal richness has declined definitely without human intervention; Whether urban environment can cause decreasing (or increasing) in plant diversity is still an arguable question, but native and exotic plant species correlate positively in urban environment. Land use change, landscape pattern,climate change, local environment and particularly socio-economic factors affect the distribution pattern of urban plants diversity significantly. Urban landscape has dual effects on biodiversity pattern: landscape fragmentation and natural vegetation disappearance cause decreasing and extinction of native species, while heterogeneous habitats will potentially increase species diversity. We suggest that the selection of a proper temporal-spatial scale is the first step in urban biodiversity study and using qualitative or quantitative urbanization gradient is based on specific question and extent of the study. The species-area relationship and moderate disturbance hypothesis in urban environment needs verified further and. In particular, we emphasize that urban biodiversity research is essential for understanding and maintaining ecosystem functions and services in urban landscapes and deserves a further exploration.