Abstract
Many studies have described the effects of urbanization on species richness. These studies indicate that urbanization can increase or decrease species richness, depending on several variables. Some of these variables include: taxonomic group, spatial scale of analysis, and intensity of urbanization. Recent reviews of birds (the most-studied group) indicate that species richness decreases with increasing urbanization in most cases but produces no change or even increases richness in some studies. Here I expand beyond the bird studies by reviewing 105 studies on the effects of urbanization on the species richness of non-avian species: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and plants. For all groups, species richness tends to be reduced in areas with extreme urbanization (i.e., central urban core areas). However, the effects of moderate levels of urbanization (i.e., suburban areas) vary significantly among groups. Most of the plant studies (about 65%) indicate increasing species richness with moderate urbanization whereas only a minority of invertebrate studies (about 30%) and a very small minority of non-avian vertebrate studies (about 12%) show increasing species richness. Possible explanations for these results are discussed, including the importance of nonnative species importation, spatial heterogeneity, intermediate disturbance and scale as major factors influencing species richness.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acosta R, Mesones RV, Nunez A (2005) Anuran fauna front Salta City, Argentina. Rev Biol Trop 53:569–575
Adams LW (1994) Urban wildlife habitats. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
Alaruikka D, Kotze DJ, Matveinen K, Niemelä J (2002) Carabid beetle assemblages along a forested urban–rural gradient in southern Finland. J Insect Conservat 6:195–206
Alberti M, Botsford E, Cohen A (2001) Quantifying the urban gradient: linking urban planning and ecology. In: Marzluff JM, Bowman R, Donnelly R (eds) Avian ecology in an urbanizing world. Kluwer, Norwell, Massachusetts, pp 68–85
Andrzejewski R (1982) Problems and prospects of faunistical investigations in towns. In: Jablona, M. Luniak, B. Pisarski (eds) Animals in the urban environment. Proceedings of Symposium, Warszawa, pp 9–15
Andrzejewski R, Babinskawerka J, Gliwicz J, Goszczynski J (1978) Synurbization processes in a population of Apodemus agrarius. Acta Theriol 23:341–358
Avondet JL, Blair RB, Berg DJ, Ebbert MA (2003) Drosophila (Diptera: Drosophilidae) response to changes in ecological parameters across an urban gradient. Environ Entomol 32:347–358
Banta BH, Morafka D (1966) An annotated checklist of the recent amphibians and reptiles of San Francisco, California. Wasmann J Biol 24:223–238
Beebee TJ (1979) Habitats of the British amphibians: suburban parks and gardens. Biol Conservat 15:241–258
Blair RB (2001) Birds and butterflies along urban gradients in two ecoregions of the U.S. In: Lockwood JL, McKinney ML (eds) Biotic homogenization. Kluwer, NewYork, pp 33–56
Blair RB, Launer AE (1997) Butterfly diversity and human land use: species assemblages along an urban gradient. Biol Conservat 80:113–125
Bolund P, Hunhammar S (1999) Ecosystem services in urban areas. Ecol Econ 29:293–301
Burton ML, Samuelson LJ, Pan S (2005) Riparian woody plant diversity and forest structure along an urban–rural gradient. Urban Ecosyst 8:93–106
Centeno N, Almorza D, Arnillas C (2004) Diversity of Calliphoridae (Insecta: Diptera) in Hudson, Argentina. Neotrop Entomol 33:387–390
Chace JF, Walsh JJ (2006) Urban effects on native avifauna: a review. Landsc Urban Plan 74:46–69
Chocholouskova Z, Pysek P (2003) Changes in composition and structure of urban flora over 120 years: a case study of the city of Plzen. Flora 198:366–376
Clark PJ, Reed JM, Chew FS (2007) Effects of urbanization on butterfly species richness, guild structure, and rarity. Urban Ecosyst 10:321–337
Collins JT, McDuffie GT (1972) Snakes of the Cincinnati region. Explorer 14:24–28
Cornelis J, Hermy M (2004) Biodiversity relationships in urban and suburban parks in Flanders. Landsc Urban Plan 69:385–401
Cumming MS, Wesolowska W (2004) Habitat separation in a species-rich assemblage of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) in a suburban study site in Zimbabwe. J Zool 262:1–10
Czech B, Krausman PR, Devers PK (2000) Economic associations among causes of species endangerment in the United States. BioScience 50:593–601
Czechowski W (1979) Urban woodland areas as the refuge of invertebrate fauna. Bull Acad Pol Sci Biol 27:179–182
Davis BNK (1978) Urbanisation and the diversity of insects. In: Mound LA, Waloff N (eds) Diversity of insect fauna. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 126–138
Deichsel R (2006) Species change in an urban setting: ground and rove beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae and Staphylinidae) in Berlin. Urban Ecosyst 9:161–178
Delis PR, Mushinsky HR, McCoy ED (1996) Decline of some west-central Florida anuran populations in response to habitat degradation. Biodiv Conservat 5:1579–1595
Denys C, Schmidt H (1998) Insect communities on experimental mugwort plots along an urban gradient. Oecologia 113:269–277
Deutschewitz K, Lausch A, Kühn I, Klotz S (2003) Native and alien plant species richness in relation to spatial heterogeneity on a regional scale in Germany. Global Ecol Biogeogr 12:299–311
Dickman CR (1987) Habitat fragmentation and vertebrate species richness in an urban environment. J Appl Ecol 24:337–351
Ehrenfeld JG (2005) Vegetation of forested wetlands in urban and suburban landscapes in New Jersey. J Torrey Bot Soc 132:262–279
Falk JH (1976) Energetics of a suburban lawn ecosystem. Ecology 57:141–150
Findlay CS, Lenton J, Zheng LG (2001) Land-use correlates of anuran community richness and composition in southeastern Ontario wetlands. Ecoscience 8:336–343
Frankie GW, Ehler LE (1978) Ecology of insects in urban environments. Annu Rev Entomol 23:367–387
Frankie GW, Thorp RW, Schindler M, Ertter B, Rizzardi M (2005) Ecological patterns of bees and their host ornamental flowers in two northern California cities. J Kans Entomol Soc 78:227–246
Fortunato L, Ruszczyk A (1997) Communities of fruit-feeding butterflies in urban and extraurban green areas of Uberlandia, Minas Gerais. Rev Bras Biol 57:79–87
Forys EA, Allen CR (2005) The impacts of sprawl on biodiversity: the ant fauna of the lower Florida Keys. Ecol Soc 10:25–35
Fowler HG, Venticinque EM (1995) Ground spider (Araneae) diversity in differing habitats in the Ilha do Cardoso State Park. Naturalia Rio Claro 20:75–81
Fraser JB, Frankie GW (1986) An ecological comparison of spiders from urban and natural habitats in California. Hilgardia 54:1–24
Gaston KJ, Quinn RM, Blackburn TM, Eversham BC (1998) Species-range size distributions in Britain. Ecography 21:361–370
Germaine SS, Wakeling BF (2001) Lizard species distributors and habitat occupation along an urban gradient in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Biol Conservat 97:229–237
Germaine SS, Schweinsburg RE, Germaine HL (2001) Effects of residential density on Sonoran desert nocturnal rodents. Urban Ecosyst 5:179–185
Gibbs JP, Stanton EJ (2001) Habitat fragmentation and arthropod community change: carrion beetles, phoretic mites, and flies. Ecol Appl 11:79–85
Godefroid S, Koedam N (2003) Distribution pattern of the flora in a peri-urban forest: an effect of the city-forest ecotone. Landsc Urban Plan 65:169–185
Goszczynski J (1979) Penetration of mammals over urban green spaces in Warsaw, Poland. Acta Theriol 24:419–423
Guntenspergen GR, Levenson JB (1997) Understory plant species composition in remnant stands along an urban-to-rural land-use gradient. Urban Ecosyst 1:155–169
Hahs AK, McDonnell MJ (2006) Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne’s urban–rural gradient. Landsc Urban Plan 78:435–448
Hardy PB, Dennis RL (1999) The impact of urban development on butterflies within a city region. Biodiv Conservat 8:1261–1279
Helden AJ, Leather SR (2004) Biodiversity on urban roundabouts—Hemiptera, management and the species-area. Basic Appl Ecol 5:367–377
Henderson RW (1976) Notes on reptiles in the Belize City area. J Herpetol 10:143–146
Hogsden KL, Hutchinson TC (2004) Butterfly assemblages along a human disturbance gradient in Ontario, Canada. Can J Zool 82:739–748
Honnay O, Piessens K, Van Landuyt W, Hermy M, Gulinck H (2003) Satellite based land use and landscape complexity indices as predictors for regional plant species diversity. Landsc Urban Plan 63:241–250
Hope D, Gries C, Zhu WX, Fagan WF, Redman CL, Grimm NB, Nelson AL, Kinzig MC (2003) Socioeconomics drive urban plant diversity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100:8788–8792
Ishitani M, Kotze DJ, Niemelä J (2003) Changes in carabid beetle assemblages across an urban–rural gradient in Japan. Ecography 26:481–489
Kim KH, Pauleit S (2005) Landscape metrics to assess the ecological conditions of city regions: application to Kwangju City, South Korea. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 12:226–244
Klangkaew C, Inoue T, Abe T, Takematsu Y, Kudo T, Noparatnaraporn N, Kirtibutr N (2002) The diversity and abundance of termites (Isoptera) in the urban area of Bangkok, Thailand. Sociobiology 39:485–493
Kitazawa T (1986) Recovery process of a disturbed soil animal community in Kitakyushu, Japan. J UOEH 8:19–26
Klausnitzer B, Richter K, Lehnert J (1980) The insect fauna of the newly built parkland area at the Swan Pond Center of Leipzig, East Germany. Hercynia 17:213–224
Kleyer M (2002) Validation of plant functional types across two contrasting landscapes. J Veg Sci 13:167–178
Kminiak M (2000) Application of some biogeographical zoning methods in a landscape-ecological classification of the Bratislava region (model groups amphibians and reptiles). Ekologia-Bratislava 19:295–306
Knutson MG, Sauer JR, Olsen DA, Mossman MJ, Hemesath LM, Lannoo MJ (1999) Effects of landscape composition and wetland fragmentation on frog and toad abundance and species richness in Iowa and Wisconsin, USA. Conserv Biol 13:1437–1446
Kowarik I (1990) Some responses of flora and vegetation to urbanization in central Europe. In: Sukopp H (ed) Urban ecology. SPB Academic, The Netherlands, pp 45–74
Kowarik I (1995) On the role of alien species in urban flora and vegetation. In: Pyšek P, Prach K, Rejmánek M, Wade M (eds) Plant invasions-general aspects and special problems. SPB Academic Publishing, Amsterdam, pp 85–103
Kozlov MV (1996) Patterns of forest insect distribution within a large city: microlepidoptera in St Petersburg, Russia. J Biogeogr 23:95–103
Kral B, Pellantove J, Koke J (1983) Amphibians and reptiles of the Brno urban agglomeration. Folia Zool 32:51–66
Kühn I, Brandl R, Klotz S (2004) The flora of German cities is naturally species rich. Evol Ecol Res 6:749–764
Kurta A, Teramino JA (1992) Bat community structure in an urban park. Ecography 15:257–261
Lehtinen RM, Galatowitsch SM, Tester JR (1999) Consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation for wetland amphibian assemblages. Wetlands 19:1–12
Lessard JP, Buddle CM (2005) The effects of urbanization on ant assemblages (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) associated with the Molson Nature Reserve, Quebec. Can Entomol 137:215–225
Leveau CM, Leveau LM (2005) Avian community response to urbanization in the Pampean region, Argentina. Ornitol Neotrop 16:503–510
Liow LH, Sodhi NS, Elmquist T (2001) Bee diversity along a disturbance gradient in tropical lowland forests of south-east Asia. J Appl Ecol 38:180–192
Lopez-Moreno IR, Diaz-Betancourt ME, Landa TS (2003) Social insects in human environments—ants in the city of Coatepec (Veracruz, Mexico). Sociobiology 42:605–621
Loewenstein NJ, Loewenstein EF (2005) Nonnative plants in the understory of riparian forests across a land use gradient in the Southeast. Urban Ecosyst 8:79–91
Luiselli L, Akani GC (2002) An investigation into the composition, complexity and functioning of snake communities in the mangroves of south-eastern Nigeria. Afr J Ecol 40:220–227
Lundkvist E, Landin J, Karlsson F (2002) Dispersing diving beetles (Dytiscidae) in agricultural and urban landscapes in south-eastern Sweden. Ann Zool Fenn 39:109–123
Mack RN, Lonsdale WM (2001) Humans as global plant dispersers: getting more than we bargained for. BioScience 51:95–102
Mackin-Rogalska R, Pinowski J, Solon J, Wojcik Z (1988) Changes in vegetation, avifauna, and small mammals in a suburban habitat. Pol Ecol Stud 14:293–330
Magura T, Tothmeresz B, Molnar T (2004) Changes in carabid beetle assemblages along an urbanisation gradient in the city of Debrecen, Hungary. Landsc Ecol 19:747–759
Magurran AE (2004) Measuring biological diversity. Blackwell, Maldan, MA
Mahan CG, O’Connell TJ (2005) Small mammal use of suburban and urban parks in central Pennsylvania. Northeast Nat 12:307–314
Majer JD, Brown KR (1986) The effects of urbanization on the ant fauna of the Swan Coastal Plain near Perth, Western Australia. J R Soc West Aust 69:13–18
Maryan B (1993) Herpetofauna of an urban area near Perth, Western Australia. West Aust Nat 19:174–183
Marzluff JM (2001) Worldwide urbanization and its effects on birds. In: Marzluff JM, Bowman R, Donnelly R (eds) Avian ecology in an urbanizing world. Kluwer, Norwell, Massachusetts, pp 19–47
Marzluff JM (2005) Island biogeography for an urbanizing world: how extinction and colonization may determine biological diversity in human-dominated landscapes. Urban Ecosyst 8:157–177
Marzluff JM, Ewing K (2001) Restoration of fragmented landscapes for the conservation of birds: a general framework and specific recommendations for urbanizing landscapes. Restor Ecol 9:280–292
Mazgajska J (1996) Distribution of amphibians in urban water bodies (Warsaw agglomeration, Poland). EkologiaPolska 44:245–257
McGeoch MA, Chown SL (1997) Impact of urbanization on a gall-inhabiting Lepidoptera assemblage: the importance of reserves in urban areas. Biodivers Conserv 6:979–993
McIntyre NE (2000) Ecology of urban arthropods: a review and a call to action. Ann Entomol Soc Am 93:825–835
McIntyre NE, Hostetler ME (2001) Effects of urban land use on pollinator (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) communities in a desert metropolis. Basic Appl Ecol 2:209–218
McIntyre NE, Rango J, Fagan WF (2001) Ground arthropod community structure in a heterogeneous urban environment. Landsc Urban Plan 52:257–274
McKinney ML (2002) Urbanization, biodiversity, and conservation. BioScience 52:883–890
McKinney ML (2006a) Urbanization as a major cause of biotic homogenization. Biol Conserv 127:247–260
McKinney ML (2006b) Correlated nonnative species richness of birds, mammals, herptiles and plants: scale effects of area, human population and native plants. Biol Invasions 8:415–425
Miller JR (2005) Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience. Trends Ecol Evol 20:430–434
Miller JR (2006) Restoration, reconciliation, and reconnecting with nature. Biol Conserv 127:356–361
Miller JR, Hobbs RJ (2002) Conservation where people live and work. Conserv Biol 16:330–337
Minton SA (1968) The fate of amphibians and reptiles in a suburban area. J Herpetol 2:113–116
Montes J (2005) Culicidae fauna of Serra da Cantareira, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Rev Saude Publica 39:578–584
Nagy B (1997) Orthoptera species and assemblages in the main habitat types of some urban areas in the Carpathian Basin. Biologia 52:233–240
Nelson GS, Nelson SM (2001) Bird and butterfly communities associated with two types of urban riparian areas. Urban Ecosyst 5:95–108
Niemelä J (1999) Ecology and urban planning. Biodivers Conserv 8:119–131
Niemelä J, Kotze DJ, Venn S, Penev L, Stoyanov I, Spence J, Hartley D, de Oca EM (2002) Carabid beetle assemblages (Coleoptera, Carabidae) across urban–rural gradients: an international comparison. Landsc Ecol 17:387–401
Nuhn TP, Wright CG (1979) An ecological survey of ants in a landscaped suburban habitat. Am Midl Nat 102:353–362
Owen J (1981) Trophic variety and abundance of hover flies in an English garden. Holarctic Ecol 4:221–222
Parris KM (2006) Urban amphibian assemblages as metacommunities. J Anim Ecol 75:757–764
Pautasso M (2007) Scale-dependence of the correlation between human population presence and vertebrate and plant species richness. Ecol Lett 10:16–24
Pawlikowski T, Pokorniecka J (1990) Observations on the structure of bumblebee communities of the town-forest areas in Torun Basin, North Poland. Acta Univ Nicolai Copernici Biol 37:3–22
Porter EE, Forschner BR, Blair RB (2001) Woody vegetation and canopy fragmentation along a forest-to-urban gradient. Urban Ecosyst 5:131–151
Posa MRC, Sodhi NS (2006) Effects of anthropogenic land use on forest birds and butterflies in Subic Bay, Philippines. Biol Conserv 129:256–270
Pouyat RV, Parmelee RW, Carreiro MM (1994) Environmental effects of forest soil, invertebrate and fungal densities in oak stands along an urban-rural land use gradient. Pedobiologia 38:385–399
Pysek P (1998) Alien and native species in Central European urban floras: a quantitative comparison. J Biogeogr 25:155–163
Racey GD, Euler DL (1982) Small mammal and habitat response to shoreline cottage development in central Ontario, Canada. Can J Zool 60:865–880
Rango JJ (2005) Arthropod communities on creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) in desert patches of varying degrees of urbanization. Biodivers Conserv 14:2185–2206
Rebele F (1994) Urban ecology and special features of urban ecosystems. Glob Ecol Biogeogr Lett 4:173–187
Reichard SH, White P (2001) Horticulture as a pathway of invasive plant introductions in the United States. BioScience 51:103–113
Riley SPD, Busteed GT, Kats LB, Vandergon TL, Lee LFS, Dagit RG, Kerby JL, Fisher RN, Sauvajot RM (2005) Effects of urbanization on the distribution and abundance of amphibians and invasive species in southern California streams. Conserv Biol 19:1894–1907
Rosch M, Chown SL, McGeoch MA (2001) Testing a bioindicator assemblage: gall-inhabiting moths and urbanization. Afr Entomol 9:85–94
Rubbo MJ, Kiesecker JM (2005) Amphibian breeding distribution in an urbanized landscape. Conserv Biol 19:504–511
Ruszczyk A, De Araujo AM (1992) Gradients in butterfly species diversity in an urban area in Brazil. J Lepid Soc 46:255–264
Sadler JP, Small EC, Fiszpan H, Telfer MG, Niemelä J (2006) Investigating environmental variation and landscape characteristics of an urban–rural gradient using woodland carabid assemblages. J Biogeogr 33:1126–1138
Savard JPL, Clergeau P, Mennechez G (2000) Biodiversity concepts and urban ecosystems. Landsc Urban Plan 48:131–142
Sax DF, Brown JH White EP, Gaines SD (2005) The dynamics of species invasions: insights into the mechanisms that limit species diversity. In: Sax DF, Stachowicz JJ, Gaines SD (eds) Species invasions: insights into ecology, evolution and biogeography. Sinauer, Sunderland, MA, pp 447–466
Scali S, Zuffi M (1994) Preliminary report on reptile community ecology in a suburban habitat of Northern Italy. Bollettino Zool 61:73–76
Schlauch FC (1980) Urban geographical ecology of the amphibians and reptiles of Long Island, N.Y. In: Kirkpatrick CM (ed) Wildife and people. J.S. Wright Forestry Commission Proceedings, pp 24–41
Semenov DV, Leontyeva OA, Pavlinov IJ (2000) Analysis of the environmental determinants of the amphibian (Vertebrata: Amphibia) distribution on the urbanized territories in Moscow City. Byulleten Mosk Obshchestva Ispytatelei Prirody Otdel Biol 105:3–9
Shapiro AM, Shapiro AR (1973) The ecological associations of the butterflies of Staten Island (Richmond County, New York). J Res Lepid 12:65–128
Shochat E, Stefanov WL, Whitehouse ME, Faeth SH (2004) Urbanization and spider diversity: influences of human modification of habitat structure and productivity. Ecol Appl 1:4:268–280
Shochat E, Warren PS, Faeth SH, McIntyre NE, Hope D (2006) From patterns to emerging processes in mechanistic urban ecology. Trends Ecol Evol 21:186–191
Stefanescu C, Herrando S, Paramo F (2004) Butterfly species richness in the north-west Mediterranean Basin: the role of natural and human-induced factors. J Biogeogr 31:905–915
Tait CJ, Daniels CB, Hill RS (2005) Changes in species assemblages within the Adelaide Metropolitan Area, Australia, 1836–2002. Ecol Appl 15:346–359
Thompson K, Austin KC, Smith RM, Warren PH, Angold PG, Gaston KJ (2003) Urban domestic gardens (I): putting small-scale plant diversity in context. J Veg Sci 14:71–78
Tikhova GN, Davydova LV, Tikhonov IA, Bogomolov PL (2006) Small mammals in Yaroslovl, Russia. Zoologicheskii-Zhurnal 85:1236–1246
Tonteri T, Haila Y (1990) Plants in a boreal city: ecological characteristics of vegetation in Helsinki and its surroundings. Annales Botanici Fennici 27:337–352
Venn SJ, Kotze DJ, Niemelä J (2003) Urbanization effects on carabid diversity in boreal forests. Eur J Entomol 100:73–80
Vincent LS, Frankie GW (1985) Arthropod fauna of live oak in urban and natural stands in Texas. J Kans Entomol Soc 58:378–385
Wania A, Kühn I, Klotz S (2006) Plant richness patterns in agricultural and urban landscapes in Central Germany—spatial gradients of species richness. Landsc Urban Plan 75:97–110
Weller B, Ganzhorn JU (2004) Carabid beetle community composition, body size, and fluctuating asymmetry along an urban–rural gradient. Basic Appl Ecol 5:193–201
Winfree R, Griswold T, Kremen C (2007) Effect of human disturbance on bee communities in a forested ecosystem. Conserv Biol 21:213–233
Yahner RH (2001) Butterfly communities in residential landscapes of central Pennsylvania. Northeast Nat 8:113–118
Yamamoto M (1977) A comparison of butterfly assemblages in and near Sapporo City, Japan. J Fac Sci Hokkaido Univ Series VI Zool 20:621–646
Zanette LRS, Martins RP, Ribeiro SP (2005) Effects of urbanization on Neotropical wasp and bee assemblages in a Brazilian metropolis. Landsc Urban Plan 71:105–121
Zerbe S, Maurer U, Schmitz S, Sukopp H (2003) Biodiversity in Berlin and its potential for nature conservation. Landsc Urban Plan 62:139–148
Zheng-hui X, Guang Z, Yong L, Feng H (1999) A study on communities of formicidae ants in different subtypes of vegetation in Xishuangbanna District of China. Zool Res 20:118–125
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix. Studies used as data for this paper
Appendix. Studies used as data for this paper
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McKinney, M.L. Effects of urbanization on species richness: A review of plants and animals. Urban Ecosyst 11, 161–176 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-007-0045-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-007-0045-4