CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Prof. Margaret C. Stanley
University of Auckland
SPEAKER BIO
Professor Margaret Stanley is an ecologist at the University of Auckland. Her applied research aims to understand and mitigate the impacts of people on biodiversity. The particular impacts Margaret focuses on are invasive species and urban development. She works with a variety of community partners and stakeholders to inform decision-making through her research.
TALK TITLE
Trees as habitat for native biodiversity
ABSTRACT
More than 80% of our native tree species are found nowhere else in the world. Not only are they globally unique, they are culturally significant and have unique evolutionary relationships with other native biodiversity. Increasing native tree species in urban environments also increases the abundance and diversity of other native biodiversity that are associated with native trees. Planting place-specific nature has benefits for native biodiversity, can reconnect urban Māori with cultural practices and language associated with local biodiversity and give residents a unique sense of place. An urban forest is more than individual trees; birds and other native wildlife need complex vegetation from ground layers to canopy, and connectivity that allows wildlife to move around the city between habitat patches and groups of large trees. We can achieve that connectivity by identifying corridors and gaps, and by making multifunctional spaces, with multiple beneficial outcomes for people and nature.