Impact of climate change and urban development on the flora of a southern European city: analysis of biodiversity change over a 120-year period.

ABSTRACT: Ecological studies in cities are not only aimed at investigating floristic diversity, but also represent informative test cases for understanding ecological system dynamics and responses to urban and climate changes since cities represent microcosms of environmental changes happening globally. The city of Bologna was selected as a case study since two specific and complete studies have been carried out in a 120-years timespan, one in 1894 and one in 2018. Since 1894, a large increase occurred in the number of taxa (families from 41 to 101, species from 176 to 477) and alien species (from 22 to 144), with a 65% total species turnover. The comparison of species life forms pointed out a noticeable recent expansion of phanerophytes and geophytes at the expense of therophytes and hemicryptophyt

SUBMITTER: Salinitro M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6603027 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature