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Horizontal and vertical island biogeography of arthropods on green roofs: a review

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Abstract

From an ecological perspective, urban green roofs can be viewed as green islands embedded in an urban matrix. Island biogeography theory suggests that species richness on an island is the outcome of dynamic equilibrium between immigration and extinction. Immigration is affected by the size of an island and distance of an island from a colonizing source. In the context of green roofs, building height and horizontal distance from green areas can potentially be a limiting factor for many species. Here, we considered two distance components of green roofs - vertical (building height) and horizontal (distance of building from open green areas). Based on island biogeography theory, we would expect species richness or community similarity to be negatively related to horizontal or vertical distances from colonizing sources. The green roof literature addressing such questions is currently sparse. In our review comprised of 10 studies, we were unable to identify consistent statistically significant richness-distance or community similarity-distance (vertical or horizontal) relationships. The absence of statistically significant relationships could be due in large part to low statistical power as a consequence of both the paucity of roofs and limited range of vertical distances in many of the existing studies. In addition, these roofs differ in numerous aspects (e.g. roof size, age, substrate type, plant composition and building height). The low number of replicates, combined with the lack of homogeneity among replicates combines to reduce statistical power and our ability to detect differences.

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Acknowledgements

The study was generously funded by Peter and Gyongyver Kadas through the Kadas Green Roofs Ecology Research Center at the University of Haifa. We are grateful to Jessica Gurevitch for constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, ARO, Volcani Center, 50250, Bet Dagan, Israel

    Lior Blank

  2. Kadas Green Roofs Ecology Center, Institute of Evolution and Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, 3498838, Haifa, Israel

    Amiel Vasl, Bracha Y. Schindler, Gyongyver J. Kadas & Leon Blaustein

  3. Environmental Research Group, Sustainability Research Institute, University of East London, London, E16 2RD, UK

    Gyongyver J. Kadas

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  1. Lior Blank
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  2. Amiel Vasl
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  3. Bracha Y. Schindler
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  4. Gyongyver J. Kadas
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  5. Leon Blaustein
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Correspondence to Lior Blank.

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Blank, L., Vasl, A., Schindler, B.Y. et al. Horizontal and vertical island biogeography of arthropods on green roofs: a review. Urban Ecosyst 20, 911–917 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-016-0639-9

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