THE EFFECTS OF URBAN GREENERY ON BIODIVERSITY

Abstract

Greenery has been used in urban planning to improve the quality of life for human residents, but has also been thought to be able to improve habitat quality for urban wildlife. Using surveys of birds, butterflies, and greenery in Singapore, higher natural vegetation cover was associated with higher alpha diversity (in terms of species richness) of both birds and butterflies, while higher cultivated tree cover was associated with higher alpha diversity of birds. However, transects with low greenery and high cultivated greenery cover was found to have homogenous communities compared to transects with high natural greenery cover. While increasing traffic intensity (measured as road lane density) generally has negative impacts on alpha diversity, there was also evidence of interaction between traffic intensity and tree cover. In conclusion, cultivated greenery has not been a good substitute for natural greenery in terms of supporting diverse bird and butterfly communities.