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People who regard nature as important and personally meaningful are often compelled to conserve it. This compulsion is increasingly vital in a world where global climate and biodiversity crises are worsening, with younger generations set to bear most of the resulting ecological burden. By understanding why children and adolescents value nature, we can gain insights into how they might act for its benefit. In this study, we asked over 1000 Australian students (aged 8-14) to explain why 'nature' was--or was not--important to them. Qualitative responses were gathered via a survey methodology using an online questionnaire, with thematic analysis used to identify key findings. Results show that respondents valued nature for its ability to keep humans alive and resourced, also appreciating nature as beautiful and relaxing. Respondents frequently commented on how nature made them feel: happiness, love, freedom, and calm featured prominently. A small number of students reported ambivalence about nature, or even feelings of fear. These results demonstrate substantial depth to students' understandings of nature and the ways they choose to engage with their surroundings. Encompassing a diversity of perspectives on nature allows us to better engage with youth on environmental matters.

Context: The process of urbanisation results in dramatic landscape changes with long-lasting and sometimes irreversible consequences for the biota as urban sensitive species are eliminated. The Australian brush-turkey (Alectura lathami) is a recent urban colonist despite atypical traits for an urban adapter. Contrary to observed range declines and initial reports of decreased reproductive success in cities, Australian brush-turkeys have increased their range in urban areas. Aims: Historical atlas and present citizen science data were used to examine the changing distribution of the Australian brush-turkey at continental and city scales, and the changing land use in urban areas occupied by the species. We assess which environmental and landscape features are driving observed distribution changes over time. Methods: We describe and map changes at the continental scale between 1839–2019. We then assessed colonisation of the cities of Brisbane and Sydney (located 900 km apart) over the period 1960–2019. At the city scale, we quantified the changing land use within Australian brush-turkey occupied areas over time using classification of satellite imagery. Key results: The Australian brush-turkey's geographical range has shifted over the last century, with the species receding from the western and southwestern parts of their range, while expanding in the northwest. Areas occupied in the cities of Brisbane and Sydney have expanded, with more recently occupied areas containing less vegetation and more developed land than previously occupied areas. Conclusions: Our results confirm that Australian brush-turkeys are successfully colonising urban areas, including major cities, and are likely to continue moving into urban areas, despite declines elsewhere in their natural range. The species is not limited to suburbs with a high proportion of greenspace, as Australian brush-turkeys are increasingly occurring in highly developed areas with limited vegetation. Implications: This study highlights that species which were locally extirpated from urban areas, and thought to be unlikely candidates for recolonisation, can successfully occupy human modified habitats. Successful expansion is likely to be associated with key behavioural traits, urban greening, and legal protection from human persecution. The Australian brush-turkey is a recent urban colonising species despite atypical traits for urban adaption, often causing human–wildlife conflict due to their digging behaviour. We outline historical changes in the species distribution at multiple scales and show their range has shifted over time, with an overall increase in major cities. Brush-turkeys are occupying increasingly developed areas, suggesting they are not limited to suburban areas with high greenspace cover and will continue to move into suburban areas. Photograph by Jenny Kelly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanisation is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, imposing the most rapid and ecologically damaging impacts of any human driven land-use change. Despite the trend of biodiversity decline, urban nature provides many health, wellbeing and workplace productivity benefits to city dwellers. Hence, there is an urgent need to return nature to cities not only to conserve biodiversity, but also to maintain human experiences of nature. To meet this challenge, there are currently significant global attempts to re-green cities to improve environmental condition, including restoring habitat for biodiversity. However, many barriers to widespread implementation still exist, including competition for limited space, a lack of technical capacity, and a disengaged community. New approaches to urban restoration are urgently needed that suit the small fragments of space available, and that can deliver multiple benefits not only to conserve urban biodiversity but also to reconnect people with nature. To overcome these challenges, an 'ecology with cities' perspective, combining horticultural, ecological and social approaches to urban habitat management and restoration, is needed. Significant opportunities exist for urban ecologists and zoologists to engage with practitioners and the community to co-develop and implement approaches to successfully achieve the aim of creating biodiverse urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As keystone structures in urban ecosystems, trees are critical to addressing many of the current livability, health, and environmental challenges facing cities. Every day, trees are removed from urban landscapes as part of routine management. These tree removals are an opportunity for implementing manipulative experiments to directly measure the social and ecological functions of trees. Here we review the kinds of tree removals that commonly occur in cities, assess the relevant opportunities that arise for research–practice partnerships, and discuss the challenges posed when implementing experiments of this nature. We argue that experimental studies on the routine removal of urban trees will improve and expand the mechanistic understanding of how trees support biodiversity and human well‐being in cities beyond current knowledge, which is largely based on correlative studies. Finally, we highlight the opportunity for experiments to be co‐designed by scientists and urban land managers, and how "learning while doing" can generate tangible research impacts and improve urban forest decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small mammals may traverse the urban fringe and use both natural and anthropogenic resources. In Australia, human commensal black rats (Rattus rattus) and native long-nosed bandicoots (Perameles nasuta) are important tick hosts, which can be found persisting at the urban fringe, leading to human-wildlife conflict. Aims. We aimed to (1) determine the relative activity of small mammals in yards and associations with yard attributes, (2) compare activity of black rats and long-nosed bandicoots in bushland with activity in yards and (3) determine the proportion of black rats and long-nosed bandicoots that crossed the urban fringe. We predicted that native bandicoots would be more active in bushland habitats and that black rats would be more active in yards. Methods. We used camera trapping in 56 residential yards, 18 of which were paired with adjacent bushland to measure small mammal activity in the two habitats. We recorded yard attributes and examined these associations using generalised linear models. We used isodar analysis to investigate black rat preferences of bushland habitat compared with yards, and we used Rhodamine B baiting to investigate movement at the urban fringe. Key results. We found that black rats were the most active small mammal in residential yards and were detected in more yards than other small mammals, followed by bandicoots. Black rat activity was greater in yards adjacent to bushland, but no other yard attributes were associated with black rat and bandicoot activity. Overall, activity tended to be higher in bushland than in yards at paired locations. Conclusions. Our findings suggest residential yards likely provide high-quality resources for long-nosed bandicoots. Low rates of movement at the urban fringe (6%), and a preference for bushland at low densities suggests that black rats may be synanthropic rather than commensal, occupying an urban niche but not depending on anthropogenic resources as expected. Implications. Residential properties located adjacent to bushland may be exposed to increased black rat activity in yards. Future work should consider how introduced rats may be controlled in bushland to assist urban rat control efforts and avoid non-target impacts. Residential yards are likely to be important habitat for the persistence of longnosed bandicoots in urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimentally manipulating urban tree abundance and structure can help explore the complex and reciprocal interactions among people, biodiversity and the services urban forests provide to humans and wildlife.In this study we take advantage of scheduled urban tree removals to experimentally quantify the benefits that urban trees provide to humans and wildlife. Specifically, we aim to understand how trees affect: (1) bird and mammal abundance and diversity, as well as an ecological process (predation); and (2) people's perception responses, such as the importance that people assign to the trees, wildlife and the site.We designed two independent Before‐after‐control‐impact (BACI) experiments based on two sites where tree removals were occurring (impact sites): an urban park and a residential street, both located in the Greater Melbourne Area, Australia. We selected three control sites for each impact site, or four per experiment. Ecological data were collected through field surveys, and social data on people's perceptions through intercept questionnaires among park and street users. Data were analysed using a GLMMs to determine the combined effect of time (before and after) and treatment (impact and controls).At the urban park, the abundance of nectarivorous birds and possums both declined by 62% following tree removal, while invertebrate predation increased by 82.1%. The level of importance people assigned to the urban park and to the trees at the site decreased after tree removal, and people's attitudes towards tree planting became more positive, meaning more people wanted to plant more trees at the site.None of these changes were observed in the street experiment where fewer and smaller trees were removed, suggesting that effects may be highly specific to context, where factors such as tree volume, diversity and arrangement influence the magnitude of social–ecological effects observed.By demonstrating the social–ecological effect of removing urban trees, we provide evidence that urban trees provide critical habitat to urban wildlife and are perceived as an important aspect of the human experience of urban nature. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]