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Notes on the evolution and organization of the urban ecosystem

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Abstract

The continual spread of human settlements over the world’s surface has transformed the natural environment on a global scale. Human’s intervention has changed primary ecosystems (protoecosystems or euecosystems) into anthropoecosystems. The spread of urban ecosystems, cultivated surfaces (agroecosystems), and various areas differentiated by their level of anthropization has facilitated the progressive reduction of euecosystems. The evolution of urban areas over the course of history with transformations of cities and surrounding territory, has created very complex mosaics. A proper study of the city, drawing together historical, cultural, social, and other factors, as well as abiotic ones (urban climate, soil, water, air), requires appropriate, uniform terminology for expressing the complex relationships existing among these factors. We therefore propose that the city (or metropolis) be considered as a set of ecosystems, a “synecosystem”. The entire urban area should be termed a “synbiotope”. It is divided into numerous partial biotopes (macro-, meso- and microbiotopes), the result of modifications wrought through the historical and cultural vicissitudes of the human population. Urban biotopes host not only humans, but also a characteristic vegetable and animal component, the “biosyncoenosis”, formed of numerous plant and animal communities, selected on the basis of the environmental conditions of the individual biotopes, which differ from each other in structure, dynamics, age, and position in the urban space. This terminology should facilitate study of the biotic component and its connection to the urban territory, as well as interpretation of results obtained in the different disciplines in terms of the human population’s quality of life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Università di Camerino, Via Pontoni 5, I-62032, Camerino, Italy

    Krunica Hruska

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  1. Krunica Hruska
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Correspondence to Krunica Hruska.

Glossary

Agrobiocoenosis

A group of different organisms characterized by a domination of one species (animal or plant) imposed by humans through various cultivation methods.

Agroecosystem

A model of functioning of a system with all its inputs and outputs dealing with the cultivation of plants and animals useful to humans.

Anthropized

Referring to environmental alterations resulting from the presence or activities of humans.

Anthropoecosystem

A model of functioning of a system with all its inputs and outputs partially or completely controlled by humans.

Biocoenosis

A group of different organisms characterized by a distinctive combination of both animal and vegetal species that together occupy an area and interact among each other.

Biosyncoenosis

A sum of all the biocoenoses or communities present in an area.

Biotope

The area of uniform environmental conditions occupied by a biocoenosis.

Ecological niche

The functional and structural dimensions occupied by an organism.

Ecosystem

A functional unity which includes the biological community together with its environment and all the interactions between biotic, physical and chemical components.

Eubiocoenosis

A group of different animal and vegetal organisms united together in a distinctive combination and occupying a pristine natural environment.

Euecosystem

A functional natural system that includes various animal and plant species together with the pristine environment they occupy.

Habitat

A part of the physical environment in which an organism lives.

Land use

Human activities on the environment to obtain areas destined for different utilizations (industrial, commercial, residential, mixed, and recreational, among others).

Protoecosystem

See “euecosystem”.

Synbiotope

All the biotopes present in an area taken together.

Synecosystem

All the ecosystems present in an area taken together.

Urban ecosystem

A model of functioning of a system with all its inputs and outputs where humans are the dominant component.

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Hruska, K. Notes on the evolution and organization of the urban ecosystem. Urban Ecosyst 9, 291–298 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-006-0006-3

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