The Ecology of Urban Forest Edges

Abstract

As of 2014, over half (54 percent) of the world’s population resides in urban areas, a number that is expected to increase to two-thirds of the global population by 2050 (UN 2014). Increased human flow into cities results in increased urbanization, a complex process consisting of people altering the landscape through settlement patterns and spatial distribution (Antrop 2000). Cities vary widely in how they reflect the impacts of urbanization and there is no universal model, but human development of rural areas tends to result in a fragmented landscape centered around an urban core, with shifting species composition, reduced vegetative productivity, and an overall loss in biodiversity (Xun et al. 2014).