Let's Not Forget the Biodiversity of the Cities |
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Authors: | Ariel E. Lugo |
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Affiliation: | 1. USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry, 1201 Calle Ceiba, Jardín Botánico Sur, Río Piedras, PR 00926, Puerto Rico 2Corresponding author;2. e-mail: alugo@fs.fed.us |
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Abstract: | Cities contain over half of the world's population and are the source of many anthropogenic effects on the world's biota. Close examination of San Juan, Puerto Rico, a tropical city, reveals a significant green infrastructure. The city contains natural and human-constructed forests, urban aquatic systems with native and introduced species, and a thriving and diverse biota adapted to urban conditions. It behooves tropical ecologists to pay attention to the biodiversity of urban environments to learn lessons about ecological persistence and adaptation to novel anthropogenic environments. |
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Keywords: | novel ecosystems Puerto Rico San Juan urban forests urban rivers |
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