Urban ecosystem: Quick Facts

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Photos and Videos

Aerial view of Central Park in Manhattan, New York, showing the large green park surrounded by dense city buildings and skyscrapers.

A scatter plot graph shows that as population density increases, annual per capita petroleum use decreases. Cities in the United States have low density and high petroleum use, while cities in Europe and Asia, such as Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, have higher density and lower petroleum use. The graph is divided into colored regions representing the United States, Australia and Canada, Europe, and the Far East and Russia.

Aerial view of a suburban cul-de-sac in Quebec, Canada, showing houses with red and brown roofs arranged around a circular street with green lawns and backyard pools.

A tall apartment building in downtown Guangzhou, China, with green plants covering its balconies and rooftop, surrounded by other high-rise buildings.

View of downtown Houston, Texas, showing a city park with green trees in the foreground and modern high-rise buildings under a partly cloudy sky.

Understand how plants, animals, and other organisms adapt to the urban ecosystem with a slight change in their behavior and genes

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Topics

city urban sprawl city-region metropolitan area terrestrial ecosystem Tundra Polar ecosystem Desert Scrubland Mountain ecosystem Grassland Rangeland Wildfire Forest soil organism

Chutes d'Ekom - a waterfall on the Nkam river in the rainforest near Melong, in the western highlands of Cameroon in Africa.

Ecosystems