Urban biodiversity, ecosystems and the city. Insights from 50 years of the Berlin School of urban ecology

In the face of accelerating urbanization, urban ecology is an important multidisciplinary science for developing future cities, with roots in many fields of research. In light of the continuing challenges of urban growth, it is promising to illuminate research strands in urban ecology to identify topics that have facilitated our understanding of urban systems and supported solutions for sustainable cities. This review traces the development of the Berlin School of Urban Ecology over the past 50 years, synthesizes its major approaches and outcomes, shows how they have supported the planning of Berlin as a green, biodiverse city and places their contributions to urban ecology within an international perspective. The key contributions of the Berlin School have been (i) a spatially differentiated, unbiased view of the city as a complex of ecosystems or biotope types resulting from human-nature interactions and harboring a surprisingly high biological richness, including unprecedented combinations of native and non-native species; (ii) a novel human-centered approach to reconcile urban land use and biodiversity conservation for the benefit of urban residents, covering natural remnants, designed green spaces and novel urban ecosystems; and (iii) interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to support the implementation of concepts and projects, including the integration of wastelands in urban green infrastructure. Over the past 50 years, the work of the Berlin School has been a harbinger of many later developments elsewhere, ultimately supporting what the historian Jens Lachmund described as “greening Berlin: the co-production of science, politics, and urban nature.”