Department of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina 27402-6170, USA.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2011 Mar;1223:69-81. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05925.x.
The patterns of biodiversity changes in cities are now fairly well established, although diversity changes in temperate cities are much better studied than cities in other climate zones. Generally, plant species richness often increases in cities due to importation of exotic species, whereas animal species richness declines. Abundances of some groups, especially birds and arthropods, often increase in urban areas despite declines in species richness. Although several models have been proposed for biodiversity change, the processes underlying the patterns of biodiversity in cities are poorly understood. We argue that humans directly control plants but relatively few animals and microbes-the remaining biological community is determined by this plant "template" upon which natural ecological and evolutionary processes act. As a result, conserving or reconstructing natural habitats defined by vegetation within urban areas is no guarantee that other components of the biological community will follow suit. Understanding the human-controlled and natural processes that alter biodiversity is essential for conserving urban biodiversity. This urban biodiversity will comprise a growing fraction of the world's repository of biodiversity in the future.
城市生物多样性变化的模式现在已经相当明确，尽管温带城市的多样性变化比其他气候带的城市研究得更好。一般来说，由于外来物种的引入，城市中的植物物种丰富度往往会增加，而动物物种丰富度则会下降。尽管物种丰富度下降，一些群体的丰度，特别是鸟类和节肢动物，在城市地区经常增加。尽管已经提出了几种生物多样性变化的模型，但城市生物多样性模式背后的过程还了解甚少。我们认为，人类直接控制植物，但很少控制动物和微生物——其余的生物群落是由植物“模板”决定的，自然生态和进化过程在这个模板上发挥作用。因此，保护或重建城市区域内由植被定义的自然栖息地，并不能保证生物群落的其他组成部分也会随之而来。了解改变生物多样性的人类控制和自然过程对于保护城市生物多样性至关重要。未来，这种城市生物多样性将成为世界生物多样性库的一个不断增长的组成部分。
