ABSTRACT
Maintaining and improving ecosystem services in urban areas and human well-being are essential for sustainable development and therefore constitute an important topic in urban ecology. Here we reviewed studies on ecosystem services in urban areas. Based on the concept and classification of urban ecosystem services, we summarized characteristics of urban ecosystem services, including the human domination, high demand of ecosystem services in urban areas, spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services supply and demand in urban areas, multi-services of urban green infrastructures, the socio-economic dimension of ecosystem services supply and ecosystem disservices in urban areas. Among different urban ecosystem services, the regulating service and cultural service are particularly indispensable to benefit human health. We pointed out that tradeoffs among different types of ecosystem services mostly occur between supportive service and cultural service, as well as regulating service and cultural service. In particular, we emphasized the relationship between landscape design (i.e. green infrastructure) and ecosystem services supply. Finally, we discussed current gaps to link urban ecosystem services studies to landscape design and management and pointed out several directions for future research in urban ecosystem services.
Subject(s)
Cities , Conservation of Natural Resources , Ecosystem , EcologyABSTRACT
In the article, pollutant content of 220 road dust samples within the sixth ring road of Beijing have been investigated by using grid stationing sampling method. The changing characteristics of road nude number per unit area, road network density and pollutant content within buffering areas along urban to rural gradient were also studied. Three following variation trends are presented as each index varies widely within the research areas. Firstly, road nude number per unit area, road network density and Cu, Cr, Pb content decrease along urban to rural gradient, and they decrease sharply in the beginning. Secondly, Mn, Cd content change a little along urban to rural gradient, and mean value remains stable. Thirdly, the content of Ni, TOC, TN decreases along with the distance fluctuations in the beginning and their mean values are then rising slowly in the suburbs. The turning point of pollutant content are found in places 15-20 km away from city center. The article shows that the road index and Cd content are irrelevant, and weak correlations are found between road index, TS, Mn and pH. And other relevance ranking are described as follows: Cu > TN > TOC > Pb > Ni > Cr. In contrast with road network density, higher correlations between road nude number per unit area and each element are fond, and element pollution of Cu, TN, TOC, Pb, Ni and Cr could be indicated by these indicators.
