Cunninghame & Stanley 2023.xlsx

Urban greenspaces are critical for maintaining biodiversity and people’s connection to nature. Schools are distributed throughout cities and have the potential to provide for and enhance native biodiversity, whilst facilitating positive relationships between children and nature. However, very little is known about greenspaces on school grounds, particularly their ecological condition. We evaluated the size and quality of greenspaces in 64 urban primary schools in Auckland, Aotearoa–New Zealand by undertaking a rapid greenspace assessment to identify the relative proportions of greenspace types on school grounds, vegetation and habitat quality. All schools had trees present on their grounds, however only 36% had a native forest patch, and habitat quality was generally low due to the dominance of sports fields, artificial turf and a lack of shrub layer. The number of different greenspace types on school grounds was associated with an increased number of large trees (>6m), and habitat quality score. A third of schools also had one or more environmental weed species present. The socio-economic status of schools did not appear to be a key factor in predicting the quality of a school’s greenspace. There are many opportunities to improve school greenspaces to better contribute to urban biodiversity as multifunctional spaces. Increasing greenspace type diversity, adding more vegetation layers, and increasing the diversity of native plant species on school grounds, would increase habitat complexity and improve biodiversity and cultural connection outcomes. The value of school grounds as multifunctional spaces will depend on place-specific ecological and cultural contexts.

城市绿地（urban greenspaces）对于维持生物多样性以及增进人类与自然的联结至关重要。学校遍布城市各处，既具备保育并提升本土生物多样性的潜力，也能助力儿童与自然建立积极联结。然而目前针对校园绿地的研究仍较为匮乏，尤其是其生态状况层面。本研究针对新西兰奥特亚罗瓦（Aotearoa）奥克兰市的64所城市小学开展校园绿地快速评估，通过该评估明确校园内各类绿地类型的占比、植被状况与栖息地质量，进而评估校园绿地的规模与品质。所有受访学校的校园内均有树木分布，但仅有36%的学校拥有本土林块；受运动场、人工草坪占比过高以及灌木层缺失的影响，栖息地质量普遍偏低。校园内绿地类型的丰富度与大型乔木（高度＞6米）的数量及栖息地质量评分呈显著正相关。三分之一的受访校园还存在一种或多种环境杂草（environmental weed）。学校的社会经济地位似乎并非预测校园绿地品质的关键影响因素。校园绿地作为兼具多重功能的空间，存在诸多优化潜力，可更好地助力城市生物多样性保护。通过丰富校园绿地类型多样性、增设植被层级以及提升本土植物物种多样性，可增强栖息地的复杂性，进而改善生物多样性保护成效与文化联结效果。校园作为多功能空间的价值，将取决于特定地点的生态与文化背景。