Urban Ecology needs urban ecologists
Urban ecology was first quantified in a beautiful book published in 1989 by O.L Gilbert. In it he described the fauna and flora of our urban habitats particularly railway line sides, urban woodland, cemeteries, lakes, rivers, waterworks and water pipes. He discusses the links between people and wildlife, successional processes and urban planning, in a most detailed and interesting way. River wall, old boats provide niches for birds, fish, macrophytes etc He praised Fitter’s outline account of the flora and fauna of waterworks (1945) and regales with tales of the removal of 90 tons of zebra mussels from 400m of water main at Hampton, Middlesex. With further tales of Asellus, Gammerus, and the parthenogenic (meaning sans ow’s ya father ) Potamopygus jenkinsi, living in water pipes, the mind boggles at the fauna that could be found colonising natural, sweet water left for many years without any chemical interference. But we shall remain boggleless , as the invertebrate sur...