The importance of small urban reserves for plant conservation

Abstract

There has been much debate about the effectiveness of different sized reserves for nature conservation. However, in human-dominated landscapes such as cities, conservation reserve systems are, by necessity, often determined without using conservation planning principles. This can result in reserve systems that are small, fragmented and disconnected. In this study, we conducted a floristic survey of 68 urban grassland conservation reserves to assess how reserves of different areas contribute to species conservation. Species accumulation curves, species-area relationships, and proportion of native cover were explored. We found that 87% of all native plant species were found in small reserves <..