The City as a Subject for Ecological Research

The city, in today’s meaning for Central Europe, may be considered in the context of the development of modern technology and new energy sources. However, historically, cities may be considered in a narrower context, associated with the erratic increase in the world population. During the 1960s, the percentage of the population living in urban areas (i.e., areas with more than 20,000 inhabitants) was estimated to be 30% world wide (with the highest rates in North America 46%, Northwest Europe 54%, and Australia and New Zealand 65%). Thus, it is understandable that the most recent ecology has been focussed on the most densely populated regions (Aschenbrenner et al., 1970, 1972, 1974a,b: Dansereau 1970; Muller 1972, Fitter 1946, Kieran 1959, Miyawaki et al., 1971, Peters 1954, Rublowsky 1967). The often repeated statement that each city is generally hostile to life, seems to be disproved in several ways. It was surprising to find that the first investigations of urban locations, showed that, with existing complications, purely anthropogenic biotopes can offer suitable habitats with characteristic species combinations. The species combinations of such habitats vary between industrial facilities, railways, ports, rubbish dumps, and so on, and may be different from those known from other habitats. The flora of economically important species have been carefully researched in only three German cities: in Stuttgart (e.g. Kreh 1951), Leipzig (e.g. Gutte 1971), and in Berlin. The fauna has been researched in Hamburg, Kiel, Dortmund and Berlin (Erz 1964, Mulsow 1968, Weidner 1952, Wendland 1971). Ecology is now stronger and more systematic than in previous years; human influences in the conurbations have been studied, and research programs have been developed. In recent years, ecological research projects have been initiated in Berlin (Kunick 1973, Runge 1973, Sukopp 1966, Zacharias 1972), and the preliminary results will be reported here.