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BIOL3030 Mid-Sem
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| What is urban ecology? | the pursuit of ecology in an urban environment |
| What is ecology IN urban areas? | investigates ecological patterns,processes in urban areas; often aims to quantify impacts of urbanisation on the diversity, abundance of plants, animals; similar methods used as traditional ecology; often uses land-use contracts and urbanisation gradients |
| What is ecology OF urban areas? | the ecology of how urban areas function as aggregated wholes (e.g. entire cities); urban areas treated as ecosystems; increases the scale to entire socio-ecological systems |
| What is ecology FOR urban areas? | ecological research should inform and advance the social goals of urban sustainability; encourages ecologists to engage with other specialists and urban dwellers to shape a more sustainable future |
| What is urbanisation? | the process by which rural or natural areas become urban (a human settlement with a high population density, infrastructure and a 'built environment') |
| What is the history of urbanisation? | 1700, only 10% of the global human population lived in urban areas; changes in urbanisation throughout the years can be contributed to political decisions or industrialisation |
| What are the three modes of urbanisation? | infilling, edge-expansion, spontaneous growth |
| How can these modes of urbanisation occur? | via migration into an existing urban area (edge expansion or infilling); via population growth in an existing urban area (edge expansion or infilling); development of new urban areas (spontaneous growth) |
| What is the order of the patterns of expansion? | diffusion, coalescence, diffusion repeat |
| What is diffusion? | where transport can link up spontaneous growth areas; happens when you go from a small urban patch that has gotten bigger via expansion and spontaneous growth which occurred via transportation networks |
| What is coalescence? | where the separate clumps (spontaneous growth patches) become one big clump of large urban area |
| What is an example of transport directing expansion and growth? | Perth; once they expanded the railways and freeways which connected little patches over larger areas, the urban patch expanded; growth was facilitated by transport |
| What is urban form? | the physical characteristics and the environment of the city; there are different types of urban form related to density and the dwellings in there |
| What are some types of urban form? | high density urban form; suburban form; high density industrial dwellings; lower density of suburbs; periurban (bigger blocks with houses) |
| What are the three types of metrics used to quantify urbanisation? | demographic (related to people), physical, landscape; but these metrics tend to be fairly correlated |
| What are the drivers of urbanisation in China? | GDP per capita growth rate; done by development of new areas, migration from rural areas and population growth; influenced largely by the policies of the communist government |
| What are the drivers of urbanisation in Africa? | population growth rate; urbanisation has been rapid, drivnig people to urban areas and then contributing to population growth; mostly done to improve the livelihood |
| What is the problem of growing urbanisation on cropland? | cropland is a finite resource and urban land is swallowing it |
| What is an urban footprint? | geographic limit of urban land uses; different to ecological footprint as it is smaller |
| What is an ecological footprint? | measures the ecological assets that a given population requires to produce the natural resources it consumes and to absorb its waste, especially carbon emissions |
| What is food production FOR urban areas? | food mainly produced in agricultural areas outside the urban footprint; includes land used to grow feed for other food |
| What are the ecological impacts of agriculture? | original ecosystems transformed into agricultural land; methane and nitrous oxide emissions; salinity, erosion and other degradation; water quality issues |
| What is the Brigalow forest/belt? | large stretch of land in southern QLD that was cleared after WW2 to use for agriculture; only 8% left of the original Brigalow ecosystem; this released 1.54 billion tonnes of CO2 |
| How good is our waste treatment in urban areas? | it is sophisticated in that it replicates nature in developed countries; use microbes to breakdown some of the most damaging entities in waste |
| What are some consequences of urbanisation? | increased poverty, air pollution; loss of urban tree cover; animal populations inhibited; bright lights; concrete surface cover can magnify the risk of environmental hazards (e.g. flooding); generation of urban heat islands |
| What is the problem with bright lights in urban areas? | can lure migrating birds and animals can end up disoriented and collide; can drive away nocturnal predators, reducing plant ability to fruit; increase proportion of microorganisms in freshwater sediments; perturb an animal's circadian rhythms |
| How are Urban Heat Islands (UHI) formed in urban areas? | increased surface area for solar absorption; reduced ventiliation within street canyons traps hot air; polluted atmosphere increases longwave emission; less evaporation; lower albedo |
| What can be done to combat these UHI effects? | change materials from concrete/asphalt to something more reflective and less heat-retaining; increase tree cover in urban areas |
| What is Connell's intermediate disturbance hypothesis? | if disturbance is frequent/intense, only a few species able to colonise and complete lifecycles; infrequent/low intensity (diversity decline --> competition); intermediate (enough time between disturbances for larger number/variety of species to colonise) |
| How can UHI affect species? | can lead to changes in species distributions and local extinctions; can be exacerbated by climate change; however some species can adapt (e.g. leaf cutter ants from urban areas tolerate high temp. exposure for longer than 'rural' ants) |
| What are ecosystem services? | the benefits provided to humans through the transformations of resources (or environmental assets, including land, water, vegetation and atmosphere) into a flow of essential goods and services, e.g. clean air, water and food |
| Examples of ecosystem services: | mitigation of droughts and floods; pollination of crops and natural vegetation; nutrient cycling; maintenance of biodiversity; provision of aesthetic beauty; protection of coastal shores from erosion |
| What was the issue with the NYC water supply? | used to use natural filtration from a spring until the water became undrinkable due to unregulated pollutants, e.g. fertilisers, sewage and pesticides |
| How was the NYC water supply issue solved? | restored the integrity of the regulation system; implemented restricted used areas (no pesticides etc., trees planted) around the water area |
| What are the ecosystem services that trees provide in urban areas? | reduce stormwater runoff, improve air quality, store carbon, provide shade, ameliorate the UHI effect |
| What are the inequalities of trees within urbanised areas? | inner-city vacant lots characterised by urban spontenous vegetation of mainly exotic species that may be unable to support a diversity of native fauna |
| Why do human-wildlife conflicts occur? | urban area in close proximity to wildlife habitat; urbanisation provides/concentrates resources for wildlife |
| Different types of human-wildlife conflicts in urban areas: | aggressive encounters; competition for resources; nuisance; property damage; vehicle collisions; pet predation; diseases |
| What is the general opinion of people regarding wildlife near them? | overall a positive consensus; e.g. bandicoots in Brisbane study, wildlife study in England (has changed a lot form 2010-2020 due to living closer with them) |
| How do aggressive encounters differ in places with different regional incomes? | more attacks in low income countries are just from everyday activities as they typically live in closer proximity to wildlife and are more likely to be attacked |
| How can we manage these aggressive encounters? | different species attack under different conditions, specific management needed; education actions should provide the public with practical information; landscape planners develop plans to balance human health, wildlife conservation and conflict risk |
| How can we manage diseases and disease vectors? | e.g. Wolbachia infection can suppress mosquito populations, therefore if there is a disease in the population, the risk of transmission will be lesser; can also use pesticides but can be harmful to human health |
| How can novel ecosystems be created in urban environments? | when at least some vegetation survives in the built environment; also tends to be places we've created that have led to more interactions of wildlife |
| What negative aspects does urbanisation involve? | habitat loss; habitat degradation/modification; habitat fragmentation |
| What is remnant vegetation? | surviving patches of natural pre-urban vegetation (advanced regrowth can provide similar habitat); often include some exotic plants |
| What is managed vegetation? | crop or ornamental plantings maintained by humans; includes both exotics and natives; composition and structure would not persist without constant human management |
| What is ruderal vegetation? | early-successional, disturbance-opportunist plants independently colonising vacant growing sites or 'waste ground'; perhaps native, but typically naturalised (wild-breeding) exotics |
| What are the impacts of habitat degradation? | predation (especially from pets); light pollution (change behaviour of nocturnal animals) |
| What are the different types of habitat fragmentation? | overall loss of habitat area; reduction in patch size; skewed representation (clearing fertile land, only leaving infertile land); change in shape (e.g. unnatural strips); edge effects; isolation |
| How do edge effects become a problem for wildlife? | more edges = less core habitat; a lot of species don't persist in an area if they only have edges available to them, some might need greater ranges and are at more risk of predation |
| What are metapopulations? | a collection of populations connected by occasional dispersal; populations may go locally extinct quite frequently, but can be recolonised if dispersal is possible from elsewhere in the metapopulation |
| What are sink populations? | populations where deaths exceed births, the populations may persist due to constant immigration from source populations that are reproducing and dispersing more successfully |
| What are the conservation priorities when it comes to populations? | need to protect the source populations and landscape connectivity between populations; ideally improve conditions so that urban populations are not sinks |
| What are minimum viable populations? | the number of individuals required to sustain a breeding population; estimated using population viability analyses; use demographic data (e.g. first age of female reproduction, mortality rate etc.); larger, slower-breeding species have higher MVPs |
| What is the 'extinction debt'? | time lag between environmental damage and consequent species extinctions; the future outcome of ongoing population declines; exaggerated when long-lived individuals can persist for years or decades without successfully reproducing |
| What is the 'species credit'? | time lag between environmental improvement and consequent diversity increase; takes time for recovering populations to grow, for locally extinct species to recolonise etc.; enhanced by improved or expanded habitat and landscape connectivity |
| What positive aspects does urbsanisation involve? | more resources (in general) and more reliable resources (for some species) |
| What are some qualities of good urban habitats? | urban resources subsidies (increased availability for some resources, e.g. fruiting plants, roadkill); increased light, soil nutrients); increased reliability of resources overtime (e.g. permanent water) can lead to reduced exposure to some disturbances |
| What are urban avoiders? | species sensitive to habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation or human persecution; decline or go locally extinct in repsonse to urbanisation; e.g. koala's |
| What are urban adapters? | use both wild resources and urban resource subsidies (such as garbage or cultivated plants); usually relatively generalist species, adaptable to broad diets; may be preadapted to more open habitats urbanisation creates; e.g. ibis, brush-tail possums |
| What are urban exploiters? | almost entirely reliant on resources humans add artificially to urban systems; largely independent of urban vegetation; typically non-native cosmopolitan exotics; e.g. black rates, pigeon, gecko |
| What are the three different types of surface geology and their land zone numbers under St Lucia? | bunya phyllite (Land Zone 11), quaternary alluvium (Land Zone 3), Brisbane tuff (Land Zone 12) |
| How does the regional ecosystem description work? | first number describes the bioregion (SEQ is 12); second number is the land zone; last number is the vegetation community (diagnostic species) |
| What are some qualities of Bunya phyllite (Land zone 11)? | dominant surface geology around St Lucia; least fertile soils but tall forests can still be supported (e.g. eucalypt forest of some type) |
| What are some qualities of quaternary alluvium (Land zone 3)? | recent sediment deposits; present in the low lying areas that used to be rainforests or wetlands; most fertile soils |
| What are some qualities of Brisbane tuff (land zone 12)? | volcanic rock; soil that gets derived from it is quite fertile |
| What are the four categories of ecosystem services? | provisioning services; regulating services; supporting services; cultural services |
| What are provisioning services? | direct provisions of products such as food, timber, fibre and medicines, water etc. |
| What are regulating services? | maintenance and control of natural processes such as floods, fire and climate |
| What are supporting services? | nutrient cycling, pollination, water purification and soil fertility |
| What are cultural services? | aesthetic, spiritual or recreational assets |
| What are the types of cultural services provided by Brisbane parks? | visit park for nature interaction, social interactions, relaxation, exercise |
| What do constructed wetlands do? | filter nutrients from stormwater far better than concrete drains; increase the richness of macroinvertebrates by 50% (also good for other species) |
| What are some ways we can manage vehicle collisions with wildlife? | fauna exclusion fencing, culvert underpasses, land-bridge overpasses, koala refuge and glider poles; rope bridges |
Created by:
tkeen40
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