Urban Ecosystems
The expansion of urban areas around the world has led to organisms developing niche roles within an ecosystem in order to be able to survive. As a city expands and the urban ecosystem gets more complicated there are more niches for organisms to occupy. Some examples of organisms and their urban niches include:
- plants growing in cracks in the pavement, on wastelands and in gardens
- invertebrate such as woodlice living under paving stones and in rubble
- birds near waste dumps feeding on human waste food.
The growth of urban areas has led to the development of lots of small-scale ecosystems.
For example urban gardens and parks:
- Gardens and plants have a large variety of plants and gardeners often increase biodiversity by planting both native and exotic species.
- Lots of invertebrate live in or feed off the plants.
- Birds feed off invertebrates and plant seeds and nest in shrubs and trees.
- Some gardens have ponds and aquatic insects, fish and amphibians live in these.
- Mammals live in or visit urban gardens and parks.
There are many different small ecosystems found in the rural-urban fringe. A variety of land uses can be found here from agricultural to residential and recreational to commercial. Both rural and urban ecosystems can be found in the rural-urban fringe. As urban areas grow, ecosystems are affected:
- as population grows there are often new developments which destroy ecosystems
- rural ecosystems can be broken up by new developments
- humans bring water and air pollution
- lots of recreational activities are carried out in the rural-urban areas, this c