ABSTRACT
We performed a systematic literature review to summarize what is known by science about the conservation of biodiversity in urban agroecosystems throughout the world. Our initial search among three literature databases captured 9,066 articles, which we screened and reduced to a final set of 431. Our criteria for retaining studies was that they incorporated each of three clearly defined components: urban, agriculture, and biodiversity. We reviewed the final article set using four methods: we 1) extracted basic article information from the citation databases, 2) used topic model analyses to cluster words extracted from article abstracts into topical clusters, 3) manually categorized articles with a set of eight multiple-answer variables, and 4) summarized and extracted main themes from the articles within general biodiversity type groupings (amphibians, birds, fish, invertebrates, mammals, plants, reptiles, and soil microbes). The most common types of biodiversity studied were plants (67% of articles), invertebrates (39%), and birds (23%), while residential (71%) and community (26%) gardens were the most common types of agriculture in which studies were performed. Ornamental and food plants were the most common agricultural production types (60% and 49%, respectively), but the production type was not identified in 22% of studies. Seventy-one percent of articles did not explicitly apply the research to a conservation question, but the knowledge gained could certainly be applied to taxa-specific conservation efforts. Thirty percent of studies explicitly measured conservation or management effects on biodiversity in an urban agricultural setting. Across taxa, we also highlighted research on two topics important to biodiversity conservation in urban agriculture: 1) landscape characteristics (space, scale, and connectivity), and 2) the role of humans. Finally, our chapter concludes with a summary of information gaps and suggestions for future work.
