- Title
- Woody plant species richness, composition and structure in urban sacred sites, Grahamstown, South Africa
- Creator
- De Lacy, Peter J G, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/180079
- Identifier
- vital:43307
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-017-0669-y"
- Description
- Sacred sites are important not only for their traditional, spiritual or religious significance, but may also potentially be valuable for biodiversity conservation in human transformed landscapes. Yet, there has been little consideration of sacred sites in urban areas in this respect. Consequently, to better understand the ecosystem service and conservation value of urban sacred sites, inventories of their floral communities are needed. We examined the richness, composition and structure of the trees and shrubs in 35 urban churchyards and cemeteries in the City of Saints (Grahamstown). The combined area of urban sacred sites (38.7 ha) represented 2.2% of the city area and 13.6% of the public green space area. Species richness of woody plants was high, albeit dominated by non-native species. Levels of similarity among sites were low, indicating the effects of individual management regimens. There was no relationship between age of the site and measured attributes of the vegetation, nor were there any significant differences in vegetation among different religious denominations. However, the basal area and number of woody plants was significantly related to site size. These results indicate the significant heterogeneity of urban sacred sites as green spaces within the urban matrix. The significance of this heterogeneity in providing ecosystem services to users of sacred sites and the broader urban communities requires further investigation.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (11 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Springer Link
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Urban Ecosystems, De Lacy, P. and Shackleton, C.M., 2017. Woody plant species richness, composition and structure in urban sacred sites, Grahamstown, South Africa. Urban Ecosystems, 20(5), pp.1169-1179, Urban Ecosystems volume 20 number 5 p. 1169 2017 1083-8155
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the SpringerLink Terms of Use Statement ( https://link.springer.com/termsandconditions)
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
RU Department of Environmental Science
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
SDG 15. Life On Land
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Woody plant species richness, composition and structure in urban sacred sites, Grahamstown, South Africa.pdf | 611 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |