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"This is the urban century in which, for the first time, the majority of people live in towns and cities. Understanding how people influence, and are influenced by, the 'green' component of these environments is therefore of enormous significance. Providing an overview of the essentials of urban ecology, the book begins by covering the vital background concepts of the urbanisation process and the effect that it can have on ecosystem functions and services. Later sections are devoted to examining how species respond to urbanisation, the many facets of human-ecology interactions, and the issues surrounding urban planning and the provision of urban green spaces. Drawing on examples from urban settlements around the world, it highlights the progress to date in this burgeoning field, as well as the challenges that lie ahead"--

Cover13; -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 The Macroecological Perspective -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Scale and avian ecology -- 1.3 A wider perspective -- 1.4 The macroecological approach -- 1.5 Testing macroecological hypotheses -- 1.6 The avifauna of Britain and this book -- 1.7 Organization of the book -- 2 Species Richness -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.1.1 Species richness at the smallest scales -- 2.1.2 Species richness at larger scales -- 2.1.3 Making sense of the numbers -- 2.2 Size of area -- 2.2.1 Why do larger areas contain more species? -- 2.3 Isolation -- 2.4 Local8211;regional richness relationships -- 2.5 Latitude -- 2.5.1 Why oh why? -- 2.5.2 Area again -- 2.5.3 Energy -- 2.5.4 Time hypotheses -- 2.5.5 A 'primary cause'8211;holy grail or wild goose? -- 2.6 Longitude -- 2.7 Altitude -- 2.8 Summary -- 3 Range Size -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Species8211;range size distributions -- 3.2.1 Range size measures -- 3.2.2 Patterns in the distribution of range sizes -- 3.3 Determinants of species8211;range size distributions -- 3.3.1 Random sampling -- 3.3.2 Range position -- 3.3.3 Metapopulation dynamics -- 3.3.4 Vagrancy -- 3.3.5 Niches -- 3.3.6 Speciation, extinction and temporal dynamics -- 3.3.7 Synthesis -- 3.4 Patterns of range overlap -- 3.4.1 Nestedness -- 3.4.2 Turnover -- 3.4.3 Rapoport's rule -- 3.4.4 Implications of patterns in range overlap for Eastern Wood -- 3.5 Summary -- 4 Abundance -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Abundance8211;range size relationships -- 4.2.1 The structure of abundance8211;range size relationships -- 4.2.2 What generates abundance8211;range size relationships? -- 4.2.3 Synthesis -- 4.3 Species8211;abundance distributions -- 4.3.1 Data -- 4.3.2 Descriptive models -- 4.3.3 Mechanistic models based on niche partitioning -- 4.3.4 Other mechanistic approaches -- 4.3.5 Synthesis: abundance, range size and their distributions -- 4.4 Summary -- 5 Body Size -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 The distribution of body sizes -- 5.2.1 Body size measures -- 5.2.2 Scale and the body mass distribution -- 5.2.3 Discontinuities -- 5.3 What determines the shape of species8211;body size distributions? -- 5.3.1 The ultimate explanation8212;speciation and extinction rates -- 5.3.2 Why is small body size favoured? -- 5.3.3 Why do small- and large-scale body size distributions differ? -- 5.4 Spatial variation in body mass -- 5.4.1 What determines spatial variation in species body sizes? -- 5.4.2 Bergmann's rule, species8211;body size distributions and abundance -- 5.5 Abundance8211;body size relationships -- 5.5.1 What is the relationship between abundance and body size? -- 5.5.2 Why do abundance8211;body size relationships show different forms? -- 5.5.3 What generates abundance8211;body size relationships? -- 5.5.4 Synthesis -- 5.6 Summary -- 6 Synthesis -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Knitting patterns -- 6.2.1 Energy and biomass -- 6.2.2 Population size and body mass -- 6.2.3 Range size -- 6.2.4 Density -- 6.2.5 Species richness -- 6.2.6 From macro to micro -- 6.3 Eastern Wood revisited -- 6.4 Human interference -- 6.5 Final words -- References -- Appendices -- I List of Common and Scientific Bird Names -- II Eastern Wood Bre.

Published ; Summary 1.Plants use light as a source of both energy and information. Plant physiological responses to light, and interactions between plants and animals (such as herbivory and pollination), have evolved under a more or less stable regime of 24-h cycles of light and darkness, and, outside of the tropics, seasonal variation in day length. 2.The rapid spread of outdoor electric lighting across the globe over the past century has caused an unprecedented disruption to these natural light cycles. Artificial light is widespread in the environment, varying in intensity by several orders of magnitude from faint skyglow reflected from distant cities to direct illumination of urban and suburban vegetation. 3.In many cases, artificial light in the night-time environment is sufficiently bright to induce a physiological response in plants, affecting their phenology, growth form and resource allocation. The physiology, behaviour and ecology of herbivores and pollinators are also likely to be impacted by artificial light. Thus, understanding the ecological consequences of artificial light at night is critical to determine the full impact of human activity on ecosystems. 4.Synthesis. Understanding the impacts of artificial night-time light on wild plants and natural vegetation requires linking the knowledge gained from over a century of experimental research on the impacts of light on plants in the laboratory and glasshouse with knowledge of the intensity, spatial distribution, spectral composition and timing of light in the night-time environment. To understand fully the extent of these impacts requires conceptual models that can (i) characterize the highly heterogeneous nature of the night-time light environment at a scale relevant to plant physiology; and (ii) scale physiological responses to predict impacts at the level of the whole plant, population, community and ecosystem. ; ERC under the European Union's Seventh Framework programme

PMCID: PMC3634108 ; Open access journal ; Artificial light is globally one of the most widely distributed forms of anthropogenic pollution. However, while both the nature and ecological effects of direct artificial lighting are increasingly well documented, those of artificial sky glow have received little attention. We investigated how city lights alter natural regimes of lunar sky brightness using a novel ten month time series of measurements recorded across a gradient of increasing light pollution. In the city, artificial lights increased sky brightness to levels six times above those recorded in rural locations, nine and twenty kilometers away. Artificial lighting masked natural monthly and seasonal regimes of lunar sky brightness in the city, and increased the number and annual regime of full moon equivalent hours available to organisms during the night. The changes have potentially profound ecological consequences. ; European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)

Open Access journal ; Many marine ecosystems are shaped by regimes of natural light guiding the behaviour of their constituent species. As evidenced from terrestrial systems, the global introduction of nighttime lighting is likely influencing these behaviours, restructuring marine ecosystems, and compromising the services they provide. Yet the extent to which marine habitats are exposed to artificial light at night is unknown. We quantified nightime artificial light across the world's network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Artificial light is widespread and increasing in a large percentage of MPAs. While increases are more common among MPAs associated with human activity, artificial light is encroaching into a large proportion of even those marine habitats protected with the strongest legislative designations. Given the current lack of statutory tools, we propose that allocating 'marine dark sky park' status to MPAs will help incentivize responsible authorities to hold back the advance of artificial light. ; European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)