Spatial and temporal variation of potential resource availability provided by street trees in southeastern Brazil

Citizen science data on urban forageable plants: a case study in Brazil

This paper presents two key data sets derived from the Pomar Urbano project. The first data set is a comprehensive catalog of edible fruit-bearing plant species, native or introduced to Brazil. The second data set, sourced from the iNaturalist platform, tracks the distribution and monitoring of these plants within urban landscapes across Brazil. The study includes data from the capitals of all 27 federative units of Brazil, focusing on the ten cities that contributed the most observations as of August 2023. The research emphasizes the significance of citizen science in urban biodiversity monitoring and its potential to contribute to various fields, including food and nutrition, creative industry, study of plant phenology, and machine learning applications. We expect the data sets presented in this paper to serve as resources for further studies in urban foraging, food security, cultural ecosystem services, and environmental sustainability.

Tree Species Biodiversity in Small Ukrainian Towns

Biodiversity is one of the important indicators of ecosystem sustainability, which is less studied in relation to urban areas, particularly Ukraine, and even more so in small towns. Taking the example of three small Ukrainian towns, the biodiversity of tree species is compared in the article. The studied small towns are located in two geographic zones, mixed forests (Polissya) and forest-steppe, and administratively, in Chernihiv and Kyiv regions. An inventory of trees in the residential area of Ukrainka, in the central streets of Novhorod-Siverskyi, as well as in the central part and all streets of Vyshhorod was conducted. Thus, the species richness of trees both between the studied towns and between its central part and the whole territory of the town was compared. The species structure of tree plantings in terms of richness, diversity, dominance, alignment, and similarity was assessed. The obtained results were subjected to cluster and correlation analysis. It was found that the greatest diversity is characteristic for the dendroflora of the whole territory of Vyshhorod, which is the fastest growing town, located closest to the capital. The dendrofloras of small towns were quite similar to each other. The values of similarity indices varied in a wide range: Jacquard’s index from 0.26 to 0.56 and Sørensen index from 0.41 to 0.66. The lowest degree of similarity was found with the dendroflora of the most distant Novgorod-Siverskyi town. Mainly the urban plantings require enrichment of the tree species composition, taking into account their resistance to anthropogenic impacts and climate change.