been squeezed out from the rural hinterland (Denters 2020). Of course not all
cultivars and exotics have to disappear from the streets, but isn’t it obvious to take
advantage of the better environmental conditions in the urban areas and try to free up
places here for endangered endemic species from the rural areas.
For example, on the campus of the university and the academic hospital in
Nijmegen (Netherlands) an attempt is made to answer the question what a company
or organization can do to improve conditions on their terrain in order to accommodate the greatest possible biodiversity. A special way of monitoring is applied so that
almost everyone can participate. A communication strategy is being developed in
order to share experiences with all stakeholders including staff, students and visitors,
making it clear that we as humans live among other species on this piece of earth. A
bump of wood branches is not a mess, but a workplace for other species; such as an
office is a workplace for the Homo sapiens (Van Gemert 2019).
In a small and flat and endemic-poor country as the Netherlands where the
fraction of built-up area is over 15% (CBS 2012), an urban flora district or plantgeographical urban district can be distinguished. It consists of the larger city centres
of the Netherlands, railway yards, industrial areas and other stony areas (Denters
1994, 1998, 2007). The urban district in The Netherlands has flora and fauna that are
largely dependent on urban habitats. The Dutch urban areas are characterized by,
among others, a relatively high temperature, resulting in a specific type of flora with
a conspicuous high number of neophytes, mostly from warm and humid climates
(Denters 2007). Urban warming favours C4 plants in temperate European cities
(Duffy and Chown 2016). These species often originate from other regions. There is
a counter-influence: green infrastructure can improve thermal comfort in outdoor
urban spaces in moderate climates (Klemm et al. 2015).
The term anthropogenic biomes, also known as anthromes or human biomes, was
first coined by Ellis and Ramankutty (2008). They identified eighteen anthropogenic
biomes including dense settlements, villages, croplands, rangelands, forests and
wildlands. They found that anthropogenic biomes clearly dominate the terrestrial
biosphere, covering more than three quarters of the Earth’s ice-free land and
incorporating nearly 90% of terrestrial net primary production (NPP) and 80% of
global tree cover (Ellis and Ramankutty 2008). More than 75% of the Earth’s
ice-free land showed evidence of alteration as a result of human residence and
land use, with less than a quarter remaining as wildlands, supporting just 11% of
terrestrial net primary production.
5 Cities in Ecoregions, Ecoregions Represented by Cities
The world can be divided into biomes that can be subdivided into ecoregions.
Dinerstein et al. (2017) provide a map of the world’s 846 ecoregions. The flora
and fauna of cities in general is composed both of cosmopolitans that is species with
a very large distribution in the related climate zone and of others that are restricted to
the ecoregion.
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J. Jansen and C. Hobohm
cultivars and exotics have to disappear from the streets, but isn’t it obvious to take
advantage of the better environmental conditions in the urban areas and try to free up
places here for endangered endemic species from the rural areas.
For example, on the campus of the university and the academic hospital in
Nijmegen (Netherlands) an attempt is made to answer the question what a company
or organization can do to improve conditions on their terrain in order to accommodate the greatest possible biodiversity. A special way of monitoring is applied so that
almost everyone can participate. A communication strategy is being developed in
order to share experiences with all stakeholders including staff, students and visitors,
making it clear that we as humans live among other species on this piece of earth. A
bump of wood branches is not a mess, but a workplace for other species; such as an
office is a workplace for the Homo sapiens (Van Gemert 2019).
In a small and flat and endemic-poor country as the Netherlands where the
fraction of built-up area is over 15% (CBS 2012), an urban flora district or plantgeographical urban district can be distinguished. It consists of the larger city centres
of the Netherlands, railway yards, industrial areas and other stony areas (Denters
1994, 1998, 2007). The urban district in The Netherlands has flora and fauna that are
largely dependent on urban habitats. The Dutch urban areas are characterized by,
among others, a relatively high temperature, resulting in a specific type of flora with
a conspicuous high number of neophytes, mostly from warm and humid climates
(Denters 2007). Urban warming favours C4 plants in temperate European cities
(Duffy and Chown 2016). These species often originate from other regions. There is
a counter-influence: green infrastructure can improve thermal comfort in outdoor
urban spaces in moderate climates (Klemm et al. 2015).
The term anthropogenic biomes, also known as anthromes or human biomes, was
first coined by Ellis and Ramankutty (2008). They identified eighteen anthropogenic
biomes including dense settlements, villages, croplands, rangelands, forests and
wildlands. They found that anthropogenic biomes clearly dominate the terrestrial
biosphere, covering more than three quarters of the Earth’s ice-free land and
incorporating nearly 90% of terrestrial net primary production (NPP) and 80% of
global tree cover (Ellis and Ramankutty 2008). More than 75% of the Earth’s
ice-free land showed evidence of alteration as a result of human residence and
land use, with less than a quarter remaining as wildlands, supporting just 11% of
terrestrial net primary production.
5 Cities in Ecoregions, Ecoregions Represented by Cities
The world can be divided into biomes that can be subdivided into ecoregions.
Dinerstein et al. (2017) provide a map of the world’s 846 ecoregions. The flora
and fauna of cities in general is composed both of cosmopolitans that is species with
a very large distribution in the related climate zone and of others that are restricted to
the ecoregion.
434
J. Jansen and C. Hobohm