Urban biotope
An urban biotope is a delimitable habitat ( biotope ) for plants and animals in an enclosed urban space. Urban biotopes belong to the settlement biotopes .
In the early 1980s, so-called urban biotope mapping was systematically started in German cities . Here, the species composition of the inner city areas is to be determined, which deviates strongly from those of the biotopes of the rural area and can be worth preserving.
Like the root term "biotope", the term is fuzzy and used in two slightly different meanings. According to scientific definition, a biotope is the habitat of a species or a community, the term is neutral. According to this, a damp cellar is also a "city biotope" - if it is home to wood lice. Biotope mapping is primarily about recording species-rich habitats in order to preserve them. In this context, urban biotope means a particularly species-rich urban landscape that is worthy of protection. The term was introduced because mapping keys have been used in the "biotope mapping" of the federal states that have been carried out for about thirty years, which specifically did not take into account valuable urban habitats.
Urban biotopes include, for example, industrial or railway tracks, parks, ruderal or fallow areas , cemeteries and possibly older trees . The value of urban biotopes grows with their networking ( biotope network ), which also enables immobile plant and animal species to spread. The possibilities of integrating nature into urban space are also discussed under the heading Biotope City .
See also
literature
- Josef H. Reichholf : Stadtnatur - A new home for animals and plants . oekom, 2007, ISBN 3-86581-042-X