History of Urban Ecology
Ecology has historically focused on pristine, natural environments, however, by the 1970’s many ecologists began to turn their interest towards the ecological interactions taking place in, and caused by urban environments. Brian Davis’s 1978 publication, “Urbanization and the diversity of insects” as well as Sukopp et al.’s 1979 article, “The soil, flora and vegetation of Berlin’s wastelands” are some of the first publications to recognize the importance of urban ecology as a separate and distinct form of ecology the same way one might see landscape ecology as different from population ecology. Forman and Godron’s 1986 book, Landscape Ecology, first distinguished urban settings and landscapes from other landscapes by dividing all landscapes into five broad types. These types were divided by the intensity of human influence ranging from pristine natural environments to urban centers.
Urban ecology is recognized as a diverse and complex concept which differs in application between North America and Europe. The European concept of urban ecology examines the biota of urban areas while to the North American concept which has traditionally examined the social sciences of the urban landscape. as well as the ecosystem fluxes and processes.
Read more about this topic: Urban Ecology
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, urban and/or ecology:
“When the history of guilt is written, parents who refuse their children money will be right up there in the Top Ten.”
—Erma Brombeck (20th century)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“And New York is the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban night is like the night there.... Squares after squares of flame, set up and cut into the aether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.”
—Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)