Consensus is lacking on specific and policy-relevant measures of neighborhood attributes that may affect health outcomes. To address this limitation, we created small standardized geographic units measuring the transit, commercial, and park area access, intersection, and population density for the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Cluster analysis was used to identify six unique urban forms: ...

Urban green spaces provide ecosystem properties fundamental to the provision of ecosystem services, such as the sequestration of carbon and nutrients and serving as a reservoir for organic matter. Although, urban vegetation influences soil physico-chemical properties, it remains unknown whether ecosystem properties depend on plant species portfolios. We tested the influence of three common func...

In a survey on the biodiversity of Penicillium species in soils of the National Park of Urmia Lake (NW Iran), eight Penicillium isolates were isolated as members of the section Citrina. Based on a combination of cultural and morphological criteria, the isolates were identified as Penicillium anatolicum, P. sanguifluum,and P. sizovae. The identity of each species was further confirmed using sequ...

Biodiversity of soil fungi was explored in soils of the National Park of Urmia Lake. For this purpose, 46 soil samples were collected from 5–15 cm depth and isolation was made using soil dilution plate and Warcup soil plate methods. Fungal isolates were identified based on cultural and morphological criteria. The results obtained in this study revealed that there is a rich diversity among hypho...

The results of 10-year monitoring heavy metals accumulation in the emission zone technogenic pollution Pervouralsk, Sverdlovsk region, are presented. study was conducted on gradients pine plantations forest park and green zones city order to copper, lead, zinc ions soil profiles sod-weakly podzolic soils. It found that bulk accumulates litter migrates down profile a small amount. Soil contamina...

An understudied consequence of growing urbanization is the rapid and concurrent loss of native biological and cultural diversity. Here, we measured the concordance between avian species richness in public green areas of the city of Santiago, Chile, and the corresponding knowledge of local citizens of this avian diversity. To assess this correspondence, we sampled avian species richness in 10 re...