Journal article
Urbanisation, plant traits and the composition of urban floras
NSG Williams, AK Hahs, PA Vesk
Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics | Published : 2015
Abstract
Given the increasing prevalence of cities, a better mechanistic and functional understanding of plant responses to urbanisation will assist biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services. Plant functional traits offer an opportunity to do this. To explore the relationship between plant traits and the urban environment, we synthesised the results of 29 studies that specifically examined plant traits or niche indicators (e.g. Ellenberg numbers) of urban floras. Niche indicators for nutrients, temperature and alkalinity were found to consistently increase across many studies. Some plant traits (e.g. woodiness, seed mass and height) tended to increase in response to urbanisati..
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Funding Acknowledgements
Many of the ideas presented in this paper were initially discussed during an ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function workshop investigating Urbanisation and Plant Functional Traits. We thank the other participants, Richard Corlett, Steven Clemants (deceased), Richard Duncan, Michael McCarthy, Mark McDonnell, Briony Norton, Mark Schwartz and Ken Thompson for their insights. AKH would like to acknowledge the generous support of The Baker Foundation. PAV is supported by funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions. We thank Mark Schwartz, Jeremy Lundholm and Jill Rapson for constructive comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.