1. Research gaps in knowledge of the impact of urban growth on biodiversity
- Author
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Robert I. McDonald, Thomas Elmqvist, M’Lisa Colbert, Andrea Pacheco, Burak Güneralp, Fernando Ascensão, Carly Ziter, Andressa V. Mansur, Henrique M. Pereira, Maike Hamann, Andrew Gonzalez, Belinda Kahnt, Katie Crossman, Rohan Simkin, Dagmar Haase, Karen C. Seto, Brenna Walsh, Alexandra S. Werner, Oliver Hillel, David Maddox, and Kangning Huang
- Subjects
Global and Planetary Change ,Ecology ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,Natural resource economics ,Geography, Planning and Development ,Biodiversity ,Food consumption ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,Urban land ,Urban Studies ,Geography ,Habitat ,Nature and Landscape Conservation ,Food Science - Abstract
By 2030, an additional 1.2 billion people are forecast in urban areas globally. We review the scientific literature (n = 922 studies) to assess direct and indirect impacts of urban growth on habitat and biodiversity. Direct impacts are cumulatively substantial, with 290,000 km2 of natural habitat forecast to be converted to urban land uses between 2000 and 2030. Studies of direct impact are disproportionately from high-income countries. Indirect urban impacts on biodiversity, such as food consumption, affect a greater area than direct impacts, but comparatively few studies (34%) have quantified urban indirect impacts on biodiversity. The world is urbanizing. This Review assesses impacts of urban growth on habitat and biodiversity, finding direct impacts more in high-income countries while indirect impacts affect more land but are lesser studied.
- Published
- 2019
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