An Analysis of Trends in Urban Landscape Ecology Research in Spatial Ecological Literature Between 1986 and 2016

Abstract

Growth of scientific literature on human-environment interactions in urban landscapes is occurring at an exponential rate, prompting a need to synthesize the literature to guide future research. Using a systematic review process, we quantified trends in urban landscape ecology studies published in spatial ecology literature from nine spatial ecology journals between 1986 and 2016. Specifically, we identified publication trends and assessed geographic and taxonomic focus, study approach, data types, temporal scale, spatial extent of study area, spatial resolution of remotely sensed data, and study site types. Results indicated that field-collected and socioeconomic data are the common data types, whereas remotely sensed data are infrequent. Although few studies employed remote sensing, those that did tended to use moderate to high spatial resolution imageries at spatiotemporal scales of < 10,000km2 and < 2 years. Birds, plants, and mammals were the most frequently studied taxa, whereas insects and cross-taxa studies were few. Intensely built-up areas and urban forests were the most frequently studied ecosystem types, followed by grassland, aquatic, and wetland ecosystems. Urban core areas were studied more than suburban, exurban, and rural-urban gradients. The majority of studies were from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, while studies from Africa, South America, and across regions were limited. Our results suggest that urban landscape ecology research is receiving a limited but growing focus in the spatial ecology literature (< 9% of publication by volume). Therefore, urban landscape ecological studies which integrate coupled data across-taxa and varying spatiotemporal scales are imperative.