| Urban ecology, or the study of relationships among plants, animals and humans in cities, is an interdisciplinary science. It integrates issues of environmental concern, for example, biodiversity and ecological health, with the practices of a sample of urban dwellers. Private backgardens and public urban green spaces (parkettes) in the Greater Toronto Area were sampled and compared with respect to plant diversity and environmental heterogeneity. With a greater number of microhabitats and higher plant species richness than public parkettes, private backgardens were found to be remarkable hotspots of biodiversity and environmental heterogeneity. A backgarden microcosm experiment looked at the interaction of structural features of backgardens and the incidental recruitment of invertebrates, seeds, and plants. These small supplements of space served as habitats for recruitment of plants and seeds as it was determined that invertebrate abundance and diversity, incidental seed recruitment and above-ground vegetation growth were enhanced regardless of soil or grass substrate treatment in microcosms. Backgarden characteristics, specifically the number of woody plants (trees and shrubs) and the number of plant species significantly predicted seed recruitment and winged invertebrate visitation, respectively, to microcosms. Lastly, a spatial analysis evaluated local and regional green space composition and heterogeneity of the urban landscape. Nearly 74% of the Greater Toronto Area is comprised of green space, however, more than 50% is made up of low vegetation (i.e., grass and herbaceous ground cover). Approximately 8% of the urban landscape was appraised as private backgardens; 6% of the urban landscape, conservatively, was estimated as backgarden green space. The percent green space composition of backgardens differed between neighbourhoods, and based on different human population densities, while neighbours were found to be statistically similar in their backgarden percent green space composition. This research study thus promotes citizen science and ecological practices within backgardens to enhance urban biodiversity and regional green space connectivity. |
