scholarly journals High Diversity in Urban Areas: How Comprehensive Sampling Reveals High Ant Species Richness within One of the Most Urbanized Regions of the World

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 358
Author(s):  
François Brassard ◽  
Chi-Man Leong ◽  
Hoi-Hou Chan ◽  
Benoit Guénard
Keyword(s):  
Exotic Species ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Dual Roles ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
The World ◽  
Ant Diversity ◽  
The Vertical Distribution

The continuous increase in urbanization has been perceived as a major threat for biodiversity, particularly within tropical regions. Urban areas, however, may still provide opportunities for conservation. In this study focused on Macao (China), one of the most densely populated regions on Earth, we used a comprehensive approach, targeting all the vertical strata inhabited by ants, to document the diversity of both native and exotic species, and to produce an updated checklist. We then compared these results with 112 studies on urban ants to illustrate the dual roles of cities in sustaining ant diversity and supporting the spread of exotic species. Our study provides the first assessment on the vertical distribution of urban ant communities, allowing the detection of 55 new records in Macao, for a total of 155 ant species (11.5% being exotic); one of the highest species counts reported for a city globally. Overall, our results contrast with the dominant paradigm that urban landscapes have limited conservation value but supports the hypothesis that cities act as gateways for exotic species. Ultimately, we argue for a more comprehensive understanding of ants within cities around the world to understand native and exotic patterns of diversity.

scholarly journals The Urban Wildlife Institute: Exploring Chicago's wildlife

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Magle
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Urban Wildlife ◽  
Educational Outreach ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
The People ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World

The Lincoln Park Zoo founded the Urban Wildlife Institute (UWI) in 2008, with the goal of conducting science to minimize conflict between humans and wildlife in cities around the world. UWI has since created a massive and unprecedented urban wildlife biodiversity monitoring network throughout the Chicagoland region. We will briefly summarize some of our findings on Chicago’s mammal, bat, arthropod, and bird populations, with special emphasis on our database of over 200,000 images of urban wildlife captured using motion-triggered cameras. Our research has not only uncovered new information about how urban animals select habitat and persist within urban landscapes, but has also helped connect the people of Chicago to the natural world through educational outreach and citizen science initiatives such as Partners in Fieldwork, and Chicago Wildlife Watch. UWI is working to ensure humans and wildlife can coexist in cities around the world, and also to remind growing urban populations that urban areas are ecosystems that are just as capable of inspiring wonder as the wildest jungles.

scholarly journals Designing Towards Ecological Environments: A Modular Approach to Structure a Design Studio Sequence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oswald Jenewein ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Design Studio ◽  
Western World ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual

Architecture is a process that forms the physical background of every-day life. Both in academia and practice, a contemporary design studio must tackle ecological topics as architecture materializes itself within the rapidly changing natural environment. The premise for this paper are three timely challenges that the world is facing collectively in this stage of Post-Industrialization.First and foremost, the challenges arising from the Epoch of the Anthropocene. As the repercussions of climate change have started to materialize, the built environment needs to adapt to changing conditions, from sea-level-rise to extreme weather and cultural shifts, as climate migrants need to find new lands.Second, the challenges correlated with globalized economies and networks which have been a major force causing environmental threats and change. Capitalist democracies in the western world have developed complex logistical processes shipping commodities, goods, and thoughts around the world. These processes have shaped the (built) environment and life especially in urban areas. The relationship between the individual and the collective undergoes change as a consequence of how (political) regimes organize their economies and distribute wealth.Third, the challenges and opportunities digitalization offers to society. The dematerialization of (urban) landscapes through digital media enables the (re)distribution and access to information, education, and labor. Urban environments need to address these challenges as opportunities to create fairer and healthier places to live.These three challenges form the context of the studio modules presented here and link the contemporary discourse of architecture to a global cross-disciplinary discourse.

scholarly journals The Urban Wildlife Institute: Exploring Chicago's wildlife

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Magle
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Urban Wildlife ◽  
Educational Outreach ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
The People ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World

The Lincoln Park Zoo founded the Urban Wildlife Institute (UWI) in 2008, with the goal of conducting science to minimize conflict between humans and wildlife in cities around the world. UWI has since created a massive and unprecedented urban wildlife biodiversity monitoring network throughout the Chicagoland region. We will briefly summarize some of our findings on Chicago’s mammal, bat, arthropod, and bird populations, with special emphasis on our database of over 200,000 images of urban wildlife captured using motion-triggered cameras. Our research has not only uncovered new information about how urban animals select habitat and persist within urban landscapes, but has also helped connect the people of Chicago to the natural world through educational outreach and citizen science initiatives such as Partners in Fieldwork, and Chicago Wildlife Watch. UWI is working to ensure humans and wildlife can coexist in cities around the world, and also to remind growing urban populations that urban areas are ecosystems that are just as capable of inspiring wonder as the wildest jungles.

scholarly journals The Spiraling Case of a Yellow Chef: Isolated Hyperbilirubinemia

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Jiang ◽  
Ahmad Najdat Bazarbashi ◽  
Sami Dahdal ◽  
Adina Voiculescu ◽  
Natalia Khalaf
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Delayed Diagnosis ◽  
Gastrointestinal Symptoms ◽  
Domestic Animals ◽  
Bacterial Disease ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Hepatic Involvement ◽  
The World ◽  
Exposure History

Leptospirosis is a common bacterial disease in tropical regions of the world due to greater exposure to rodents and domestic animals; however, this condition can also occur in US urban areas, though it often goes unrecognized. Gastrointestinal symptoms are very commonly seen, and icteric leptospirosis is often confused for other conditions resulting in delayed diagnosis and worse outcomes. As mortality increases with more extensive hepatic involvement, gastroenterologists should be aware of the constellation of gastrointestinal symptoms related to leptospirosis, as it can occur in the absence of classic exposure history.

Urban Transport

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
José van
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Transport Services ◽  
Ride Sharing ◽  
The World ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Selection Mechanisms

Platformization affects the entire urban transport sector, effectively blurring the division between private and public transport modalities; existing public–private arrangements have started to shift as a result. This chapter analyzes and discusses the emergence of a platform ecology for urban transport, focusing on two central public values: the quality of urban transport and the organization of labor and workers’ rights. Using the prism of platform mechanisms, it analyzes how the sector of urban transport is changing societal organization in various urban areas across the world. Datafication has allowed numerous new actors to offer their bike-, car-, or ride-sharing services online; selection mechanisms help match old and new complementors with passengers. Similarly, new connective platforms are emerging, most prominently transport network companies such as Uber and Lyft that offer public and private transport options, as well as new platforms offering integrated transport services, often referred to as “mobility as a service.”

scholarly journals Remarkable Species Diversity of the Leafhopper Genus Xestocephalus (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Aphrodinae) in Thailand

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 514
Author(s):  
Zonglei Liang ◽  
Christopher H. Dietrich ◽  
Wu Dai
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Comparative Morphology ◽  
Malaise Trap ◽  
Field Sampling ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Trap Field ◽  
The World ◽  
First Time

Xestocephalus Van Duzee is among the most common and widespread genera of Cicadellidae in the temperate and tropical regions of the world. In the present study, 205 specimens of the genus Xestocephalus were collected in Thailand, whereas only a single species of the genus was recorded previously using Malaise trap field sampling, studied by comparative morphology. Seventeen species were recognized, including twelve new species: X. binarius sp. nov., X. chrysanthemum sp. nov., X. cowboyocreus sp. nov., X. densprint sp. nov., X. dimiprocessus sp. nov., X. exproiecturus sp. nov., X. gracilus sp. nov., X. limpidissimus sp. nov., X. malleus sp. nov., X. nonattribus sp. nov., X. recipinams sp. nov., and X. tenusis Liang sp. nov. Four species were recorded in Thailand for the first time: Xestocephalus abyssinicus Heller and Linnavuori, Xestocephalus asper Linnavuori, Xestocephalus ishidae Matsumura, and Xestocephalus toroensis Matsumura. Detailed morphological descriptions of all 17 species are given; photographs of external habitus and male genitalia of the species from Thailand are provided. A checklist of species of the genus is also given, and a key to all Thailand Xestocephalus species is also provided.

scholarly journals “We Make Our Community”: Youth Forging Environmental Identities in Urban Landscapes

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7736
Author(s):  
Erin Gallay ◽  
Alisa Pykett ◽  
Constance Flanagan
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
School Students ◽  
Environmental Leadership ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Insofar as race, class, and gender have profound effects on people’s environmental experiences, and consequently their activism, the environmental field needs more work on the environmental experiences and insights of groups whose voices have been missing, including youth of color who live in urban areas in the U.S. In this paper, we focus on African American and Latinx students engaged in environmental projects in their urban communities and the impact of such projects on promoting pro-environmental leadership, agency, and behavior. We draw from written reflections and focus group interviews of several hundred 4th–12th graders (majority middle- and high-school students) who participated in place-based civic science projects. Thematic analyses of student responses found that students engaged in work on local environmental issues cultivated an appreciation for the natural world and an understanding of human-nature interdependence and the ties between the local environment and their communities’ health. Through taking action with others in their communities, students viewed themselves as contributors to their communities and started to form environmental identities in ways that are not traditionally measured. Findings point to the need for forms of environmental education that are contextually grounded and centered on environmental justice in urban areas.

Beyond studentification in United States College Towns: Neighborhood change in the knowledge nodes, 1980–2010

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1341-1360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan S Foote
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Neighborhood Change ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
College Towns ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Geographies

With the rise of the cognitive-cultural (or knowledge) economy, urban areas around the world have experienced significant changes in their social geographies. Studentification is one such change that has occurred in cities hosting major universities around the world. This study extends the analysis of social change to vital knowledge nodes in the networked global economy: United States college towns. K-means cluster analysis is used to identify neighborhood types in ten cities with major research universities across four Census years: 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. Temporal and spatial analyses are then conducted to determine how these knowledge nodes have changed with the decline of the industrial economy and the rise of the knowledge economy. The analysis indicates the presence of six neighborhood types in these college towns: Middle Class, Minority-Concentrated, Stability, Elite, Mix/Renter, and Student. Over the course of the study period, the number of Elite neighborhoods increased considerably, while the number of Middle Class neighborhoods plummeted. The number of Mix/Renter neighborhoods also increased. Spatially, Student and Minority-Concentrated neighborhoods generally remained fairly clustered in the same areas across the study period. Elite neighborhoods spread across wider geographical areas over the course of the study period. These results are compared to previous studies on neighborhood change. The comparisons reveal that the knowledge nodes show some similar patterns to studentifying cities and to rapidly growing nodes in areas with ties to the global knowledge economy.

Reconceptualizing the Public Spaces of New Urban Areas in Hanoi: The End or the New of Public-Making?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minh-Tung Tran ◽  
◽  
Tien-Hau Phan ◽  
Ngoc-Huyen Chu ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Public ◽  
Doi Moi ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Neighborhood Level

Public spaces are designed and managed in many different ways. In Hanoi, after the Doi moi policy in 1986, the transfer of the public spaces creation at the neighborhood-level to the private sector has prospered na-ture of public and added a large amount of public space for the city, directly impacting on citizen's daily life, creating a new trend, new concept of public spaces. This article looks forward to understanding the public spaces-making and operating in KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi - new urban areas) in Hanoi to answer the question of whether ‘socialization’/privatization of these public spaces will put an end to the urban public or the new means of public-making trend. Based on the comparison and literature review of studies in the world on public spaces privatization with domestic studies to see the differences in the Vietnamese context leading to differences in definitions and roles and the concept of public spaces in KDTMs of Hanoi. Through adducing and analyzing practical cases, the article also mentions the trends, the issues, the ways and the technologies of public-making and public-spaces-making in KDTMs of Hanoi. Win/loss and the relationship of the three most important influential actors in this process (municipality, KDTM owners, inhabitants/citizens) is also considered to reconceptualize the public spaces of KDTMs in Hanoi.

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