#urban-ecology

#urban-ecology

Cities around the world share a common goal: to become healthier and greener, supported by civic infrastructure that restores ecosystems and strengthens public life. The question is how to reach this. Global climate targets, local building codes, and municipal standards increasingly guide designers and planners toward better choices. Still, many cities struggle to translate these frameworks into everyday, street-level comfort and long-term ecological protection.

New York's community gardens have always been tiny pockets of magic-places where tomatoes, neighbors and the occasional rogue pigeon can peacefully coexist. Now they're bird sanctuaries of a more artistic kind, thanks to 21 freshly painted murals unveiled this week across gardens in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The project, a collaboration between the National Audubon Society, , GreenThumb and Gitler &_____ Gallery , splashes 24 climate-threatened bird species (plus more than 30 native plants) across walls, sheds and fences citywide.

A team of ecologists went out into their own neighbourhood to map the distribution of urban plants in one of the first studies of its kind. Equipped with tape measures and clipboards, they documented trees and shrubs, sometimes getting on all fours to crawl through bushes under the curious watch of local people. We had a lot of fun. Little kids loved our measuring wheel, says Prof Ann Kinzig, from Arizona State University.

This past summer, you could find Juan at the Mercedes Club pool, perched on a lifeguard stand and scanning the water with steady focus. A little shy and incredibly tenacious, he had landed one of the hardest summer jobs for New York City teens. The summer before, he worked further uptown with Futures Ignite 's Urban Ecology Lab, testing air and water quality at Sherman Creek through our partnership with the New York Restoration Project.

New York City is home to some three million rats, and learning how these rodent residents navigate and communicate is vital to understanding their impact on humans. A new preprint shows attempts to compare observations of brown rats in the city to the behaviors described in scientific literature more broadly. Studying rats in three locationscity parks, sidewalks, and the subwaythe team found that NYC rats are incredibly adaptable, changing their vocalizations based on different ambient backdrops.

The Bronx River was once heavily altered by industrial activity and has been the subject of significant restoration efforts to improve its ecological health and connectivity. One major project is the construction of a fish passage at the East 182nd Street Dam, which aims to improve aquatic species migration and enhance the ecological functioning of the river. By facilitating the movement of fish that had previously been blocked by the dam, this project would promote a healthier aquatic ecosystem.

In 1982, conceptual artist Agnes Denes transformed a barren landfill near Wall Street into a two-acre wheat field for her project *Wheatfield - A Confrontation*. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, the work involved months of labor, including soil preparation, hand-digging furrows, and planting seeds. Denes and her team maintained the field through irrigation, weeding, and fertilizing, ultimately harvesting over 1,000 pounds of wheat.

Many palm trees in Los Angeles are aging and facing disease, drought, and the scars of past fires, as the city reconsiders its urban forest for climate resilience.

Experts have noted that overflowing bins and food waste contribute significantly to the growing sizes of rats in urban areas, leading to larger and more difficult-to-manage populations.

The restoration of the salt marsh at Fort Sparrow Marsh, involving the removal of 9,000 tons of dirt and the planting of native flora, aims to improve the health of Jamaica Bay, one of New York City's critical natural areas.

The river in question, the Pader, is the subject and setting of this year's edition, curated by Marijke Lukowicz and Sophia Trollmann: the shortest in Germany.

For years, these sections of Courtland Creek were overgrown with vegetation, trash-strewn, unsightly, and clogged with debris. Then, a group of neighbors decided to reclaim them.

Without humans to maintain it anymore, Central Park will transition from a well-kept urban green space into a wild, unruly environment in just 30 days.