Biodiversity and Urban Connectivity feat. Dr. Thami Croeser and Dr. Holly Kirk

Defender Radio and The Switch

Enhancing biodiversity in urban areas is a critical step in improving our ecosystems, resilience against the climate crisis, and ensuring nature exposure for residents. But how do you increase biodiversity on pavement?

According to two researchers, it can start with stepping stones.

Drs. Thami Croeser and Holly Kirk tackled this issue and showed the brilliance of available solutions in their paper Nature-based solutions for urban biodiversity: spatial targeting of retrofits can multiply ecological connectivity benefits.

In short, the researchers showed that converting underutilized parking spaces in urban Australia can improve ecological connectivity – the ability for various species to move across the landscape from one patch of greenspace to another. To share the need for such connectivity changes, how they developed and ran their study, the incredible benefits to both people and ecosystems, and what lessons we can learn, Drs. Thami Croeser and Holly Kirk join Defender Radio.

SHOW NOTES:

Episode art provided by Dr. Thami Croeser

Read the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204624001683

Dr. Thami Croeser on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thami-croeser-822ab9a/

Dr. Holly Kirk's website: https://natureonthebrain.wordpress.com/

The Conversation Article: https://theconversation.com/stepping-stones-for-wildlife-how-linking-up-isolated-habitats-can-help-nature-thrive-in-our-cities-234923

Sound of Mole Crickets via Mostly Nature / YouTube

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Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Twitter (www.twitter.com/furbearers) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).