Urban Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth. The word is derived from ‘bio’ meaning life and ‘diversity’ meaning different or varied. So what is different about urban biodiversity? The answer is sometimes very little and sometimes a lot. The word wildlife is often used alongside or instead of biodiversity to describe the plants and animals that are found around us. So urban wildlife or biodiversity is that found in the heart of cities, towns, villages or settlements.
Wildlife can be very adaptable and most urban biodiversity falls into this category.

For example both herring and black - backed gulls are now commonly found nesting on the roofs of many of our city buildings. Flat roofs in particular are used for nesting and the steep sides of tall buildings provide updrafts where gulls soar and glide, as at home as they would be on a natural sea cliff. The gulls lay their clutch of camouflaged eggs in a nest built of materials picked up from our streets and incubate them free from the attentions of predators like cats, rats and urban foxes, high above our city streets.
When the young hatch there is a plentiful supply of ‘fast food’ scraps available from human activities to keep the gull chicks and their parents well fed.

There are numerous other examples of wildlife sharing their living space with people. In winter the Albert Bridge in Belfast provides a safe roosting site for thousands of starlings which wheel in a dizzying display of aerial ballet as winter darkness falls disappearing under the arches of the bridge as crowds of commuters and shoppers pass hurriedly by.
As well as the obvious wildlife or biodiversity spectacles, what other plants and animals share urban spaces with people? Once you start to look you will be amazed at the variety of life which exists side by side with people and their places of work, worship, leisure, sport, recreation, transport and so on.
Look at the wildlife which shares our buildings. The moss and lichens on the roof of houses and the numerous birds and insects which find breeding places and shelter there. The algae, mosses, liverworts, lichens and insects on the bark, branches and leaves of street trees.

The ‘weed’ and other wild plant species which live in the cracks of pavements, on the sides of roads and railways, on our riverbanks and in our graveyards and cemeteries.
Then there are the gardens big and small, private and public and the public and private parks large and small.
There are also public and private gardens and parks, big and small and a huge number of green spaces, formal and informal, the churches, hospitals and school grounds, and sports and play areas big and small.

Then there are the grassy areas and the woods, the railways lines, the urban streams, the rivers, the allotments and numerous other green networks, or 'corrodors' make up the rest of what is sometimes called the 'green infrastructure' of our settlements. All these areas and many more make up a vast area of urban ‘habitats’, which is just another name for places where a plant or animal can live.
This vast array of habitats found in urban situations, just some of those that have been described above, mean that many ‘species’ can live here.

A species is another name for groups of related animals or plants. In the coming weeks and months we will be telling you about the huge number and range of habitats and species which make our urban biodiversity so rich. If you keep your eyes and ears open its amazing just what you will discover living along side people all over our urban areas.