Fast Fact Library

A Canadian study found that bird and tree species diversity were significantly positively related to good self-reported mental health. In the 36 Canadian cities studied, living in a postal code with bird diversity...

Buxton, Rachel T., Emma J. Hudgins, Eric Lavigne, Paul J. Villeneuve, Stephanie A. Prince, Amber L. Pearson, Tanya Halsall, Courtney Robichaud, and Joseph R. Bennett. “Mental health is positively associated with biodiversity in Canadian cities.” Communications Earth & Environment 5 (2024): 310. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01482-9

A modelling study of 15,917 global urban areas predicted that greening urban areas could prevent an estimated 700,000 premature deaths annually, with the most impact (54 deaths prevented per 100,000 people)...

Garber, Michael D., Tarik Benmarhnia, Weiqi Zhou, Pierpaolo Mudu, and David Rojas-Rueda. “Greening urban areas in line with population density and ecological zone can reduce premature mortality.” Communications Earth & Environment 5 (2024): 650. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01803-y

A review of 165 studies overwhelmingly found that native plants performed better than non-native plants in urban environments for higher animal presence, abundance, and diversity.

Tartaglia, Elena S. and Myla F.J. Aronson. “Plant native: comparing biodiversity benefits, ecosystem services provisioning, and plant performance of native and non-native plants in urban horticulture.” Urban Ecosystems 27 (2024): 2587–2611. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01610-5

Restored and created tidal marshes had recovered or exceeded the ecosystem services provided by intact marshes after just five years, according to a global literature review of 152 studies. The most significant...

Rowland, Phebe I., Melissa Wartman, Jasmine Bursic, and Paul Carnell. “Restored and created tidal marshes recover ecosystem services over time.”
Environmental and Sustainability Indicators 24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2024.100539

In a review of 87 studies published from 2000 to 2021, 71% demonstrated that nature-based solutions were a consistently cost-effective approach to mitigating hazards. Among these studies, 65% found that nature-based...

Vicarelli, Marta, Karen Sudmeier-Rieux, Ali Alsadadi, Aryen Shrestha, Simon Schütze, Michael M. Kang, Madeline Leue, David Wasielewski, and Jaroslav Mysiak. “On the cost-effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions for reducing disaster risk.” Science of The Total Environment 947 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174524

A systematic literature review found that the most efficient landscape typologies in cooling urban air temperatures are botanic gardens (6.3 to 9°F of cooling on average), wetlands (5.8 to 8.8°F), green walls (7.4...

Kumar, Prashant, Sisay E. Debele, Soheila Khalili, Christos H. Halios, Jeetendra Sahani, Nasrin Aghamohammadi, Maria de Fatima Andrade, Maria Athanassiadou, Kamaldeep Bhui, Nerea Calvillo, Shi-Jie Cao, Frederic Coulon, Jill L. Edmondson, David Fletcher, Edmilson Dias de Freitas, Hai Guo, Matthew C. Hort, Madhusudan Katti, Thomas Rodding Kjeldsen, Steffen Lehmann, Giuliano Maselli Locosselli, Shelagh K. Malham, Lidia Morawska, Rajan Parajuli, Christopher D.F. Rogers, Runming Yao, Fang Wang, Jannis Wenk, and Laurence Jones. “Urban Heat Mitigation by Green and Blue Infrastructure: Drivers, Effectiveness, and Future Needs.” The Innovation 5, No. 2 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100588

Even small, densely urban sites have potential to support insect biodiversity. A 2,100-sf roadside green space in Melbourne experienced a sevenfold increase in the number of insect species in the three years...

Mata, Luis, Amy K. Hahs, Estibaliz Palma, Anna Backstrom, Nikolas Johnston, Tyler King, Ashley R. Olson, Christina Renowden, Tessa R. Smith, Blythe Vogel, and Samantha Ward. “Large Positive Ecological Changes of Small Urban Greening Actions.” Ecological Solutions and Evidence 4, no. 3 (August 2023). https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12259

Meadows offer higher levels of soil microbial biodiversity as compared to lawns, according to a study of bacteria and fungi in small-scale meadows that showed higher levels of mycorrhizal fungi and soil chemistry...

Tessler, Michael, Felix J. David, Seth W. Cunningham, and Emily M. Herstoff. Rewilding in Miniature: Suburban Meadows Can Improve Soil Microbial Biodiversity and Soil Health. Microbial Ecology 85, 1077–1086 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-023-02171-4