Abstract
BackgroundHuman settlements are of increasing interest to ecologists, a fact demonstrated by the recent cluster of book-length treatments of the topic (Forman 2008, McDonnell et al. 2009, Gaston 2010, Niemelä et al. 2011, Wilson 2011, Forman 2014). The natural world as a fascinating feature of towns and cities has a much longer history (e.g. Fitter 1945), and has also played a strong part in local biological conservation in some countries over the late 20th Century (Goode 2014). Despite much existing information on urban plant and animal communities resulting from these trends, very little, easily accessible, systematic data on urban biodiversity is currently available.New informationFew systematic, randomised surveys at fine spatial grain exist for urban habitats, and even fewer of these surveys are in the public domain. This study was designed as a systematic florula (i.e. a small flora) of a relatively discrete urban habitat in order to provide a baseline that would enable robust insights into future environmental change. In addition, the dataset is likely to be useful for comparative studies of plant traits, particularly those of highly disturbed habitats (Williams et al. 2009). The survey is an occupancy study of the vascular plants of pavements (i.e. sidewalks) within 16 500 x 500 m (0.25 km2) urban grid cells, stratified by quadrant at the scale of the focal city (Sheffield, England) in order to provide more even coverage. The final dataset comprises 862 records of 183 taxa.
Highlights
Williams et al (2009) argue that a focus on the floras of urban environments is justified for several reasons: cities are increasingly the main point of contact between humans and the natural world; the inhabitants of cities depend on vegetation to provide numerous ecosystem services, including cultural ones; and urban areas contribute to the conservation of species
Few systematic, randomised surveys at fine spatial grain exist for urban habitats, and even fewer of these surveys are in the public domain
This study was designed as a systematic florula of a relatively discrete urban habitat in order to provide a baseline that would enable robust insights into future environmental change
Summary
Human settlements are of increasing interest to ecologists, a fact demonstrated by the recent cluster of book-length treatments of the topic (Forman 2008, McDonnell et al 2009, Gaston 2010, Niemelä et al 2011, Wilson 2011, Forman 2014). Few systematic, randomised surveys at fine spatial grain exist for urban habitats, and even fewer of these surveys are in the public domain. This study was designed as a systematic florula (i.e. a small flora) of a relatively discrete urban habitat in order to provide a baseline that would enable robust insights into future environmental change. The dataset is likely to be useful for comparative studies of plant traits, those of highly disturbed habitats (Williams et al 2009). Pescott O plants of pavements (i.e. sidewalks) within 16 500 x 500 m (0.25 km2) urban grid cells, stratified by quadrant at the scale of the focal city (Sheffield, England) in order to provide more even coverage. Vascular plants, systematic survey, randomised survey, Sheffield, England, urban ecology, pavement, sidewalk, urban flora, monitoring, baseline study, disturbance
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