Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01324-6

Urban ecology and biological studies in Brazilian cities: a systematic

review
Richieri Antonio Sartori1 · Abraão Gomes1 · Amanda Narcizo2 · Stella Mata3,4 · Anna Thereza Cárcamo1 ·
Rayanne Moreira Andrade Matos3 · Ângelo Antônio Corrêa1 · Mariana Henriques Santana1 · Maura Andrade Vieira1 ·
Henrique Rajão1

Accepted: 22 December 2022 / Published online: 24 January 2023

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023

Abstract
The number of papers focusing on ecological interactions in urban environments has increased in recent years. This
review aimed to address the panorama of urban ecology and biological surveys in Brazil. A systematic search was car-
ried out using the Web of Science and Scopus platforms for papers on urban ecology to understand which institutions,
authors, themes, cities, biomes, states, and regions have addressed the theme in Brazil to date. A total of 932 articles were
found, in 196 scientific journals. Most papers were published between 2010 and 2019. This involved 350 municipalities
in the five Brazilian regions, with Curitiba, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro being the municipalities with the most papers.
São Paulo was the state that presented the most papers, with 23.7% of the total, and the Southeast region was the most
representative with 36.6%. The biome with the highest concentration of papers (61.2%) was the Atlantic Forest. A total
of 2537 authors were registered, affiliated with a total of 413 institutions from 19 countries. The institutions with the
most papers were the Federal University of Paraná and University of São Paulo. The most discussed topic was related
to botany (69%), and the most used keyword was “urban afforestation”. The number of papers published was greater in
municipalities with higher human development index, number of inhabitants and relative urbanized area. This review
revealed the scarcity of studies in low-income areas, and the need for greater incorporation of the social aspect, landscape
ecology and ecological interactions in urban ecology.

Keywords Biological studies · Urban forests · Ecological interactions · Literature review

Introduction

The gradual increase in human population culminates in

* Richieri Antonio Sartori
richierisartori@puc-rio.br
1
Department of Biology, Pontifical Catholic University
of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Marquês de São Vicente
St. 225, Building Luiz Cyrillo Fernandes, 5 Floor,
RJ 22451‑900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Institute
of Biology, University City/Ilha do Fundão, Carlos Chagas
Filho Avenue 373, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941‑971, Brazil
3
National School of Tropical Botany of the Botanical Garden
of Rio de Janeiro (ENBT/JBRJ), Directorate of Scientific
Research (DIPEQ), JBRJ, Pacheco Leão Street 915,
Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22460‑030, Brazil
4
National Institute of Atlantic Forest (INMA), José
Ruschi, Avenue n. 4 ‑ Downtown, Santa Teresa City,
Espirito Santo State 29650‑000, Brazil
greater urbanization, in turn, leads to biotic and abiotic trans-
formations on the planet (Pickett et al. 2001). Such trans-
formations, as intensive land use, use of natural resources,
formation of heat islands and vegetation fragmentation,
modify the urban landscape unevenly (Grise et al. 2016),
leading cities to a major political-sanitary crisis (Martinez-
Alier 2018). Considering that there are both ecological and
social aspects that compose the urban environment, in order
to reduce such inequalities, the study of urban ecology is
emerging (Cadenasso et al. 2006; Niemelä al. 2011).
As a multidisciplinary science, urban ecology seeks to
integrate ecological and social knowledge with other fields
of study (Grimm et al. 2000, 2008, 2013; Boone and Fragkias
2012; Childers et al. 2015), such as urban planning, natural
resource management, economics, among others (McPhearson

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Vol.:(0123456789)
548
et al. 2016a, b) as presenting cities as complex, highly inter-
active social ecosystems (Alberti 2008). Through it, the eco-
logical patterns and processes that act in urban ecosystems
are identified (McDonnell 2011). In addition, urban ecology
studies the interactions between organisms, the built structures
that make up cities, and social attributes such as lifestyle, eco-
nomic, and political processes, which interact and influence
the physical environment (Cadenasso et al. 2006; Grimm et al.
2008; Collins et al. 2011; Forman 2014).
Urban ecology research has grown rapidly across the
world over the past two decades, in both research and prac-
tice. Pioneering research has been conducted in Europe
and Asia (Kowarik 2005; Sukkopp 2008; Wu et al. 2014;
Collins et al. 2011), and in Brazil, there has been a clear
trend of expansion (de Camargo Barbosa et al. 2021). In
this sense, studies carried out in Brazilian cities can con-
tribute to better planning of green areas by showing the
wide use of exotic tree species (Moro and Castro 2015),
their impact on native fauna (de Camargo Barbosa et al.
2021), the potential afforestation as ecological corridors
(Freitas et al. 2020), and the uneven distribution of green
areas across cities (Sartori et al. 2019; 2021).
Therefore, in view of the role of urban ecology for human
well-being, reduction of socio-environmental inequalities
(Porto and Martinez-Alier 2007) and conservation of biodi-
versity (Brun et al. 2007; Almeida et al. 2018) a diagnosis
of how Urban Ecology has been approached is fundamental.
To this end, carry out a survey of the most studied fields,
where the research is being carried out and the main results
obtained and, consequently, if there is a concentration of
Fig. 1  Representative flowchart
of the methodology used to
review urban ecology studies
in Brazil. (Adapted from Page
et al. (2021)
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Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558
studies in specific regions. With this, contribute to a bet-
ter distribution of public investments, seeking socio-envi-
ronmental equality and biodiversity gain. To this end, this
article proposes the first integrative review of urban ecology
and related papers in Brazil and seeks to answer the follow-
ing questions: i) What is the current panorama of urban ecol-
ogy in Brazil? ii) Which are the most studied themes in this
area? iii) Does the socio-economic aspect of regions directly
affect the number of publications in the area of urban ecol-
ogy? and iv) Which are the traits of municipalities linked to
the highest number of publications?
Material and methods
Literature search
We consider that the term “urban ecology” includes not only
articles developed purely in the scope of ecology, but also
everything that surrounds it, such as wildlife ecology, as
well as economic and social research linked to green areas
and landscape analysis. We performed a systematic search
for articles as suggested by Page et al. (2021) (i.e., PRISMA
statement) (Fig. 1). The searches were carried out in the
Web of Science, SciELO, and Google Scholar databases.
The bibliographic survey was carried out in March 2020 and
did not limit publications by year.
Search engines in English and Portuguese were
used: Terms in English included: “urban biodiversity”,
“urban ecology”, “urban planning”, “urban ecosystems”,
Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558 549

“ecosystems services”, “green infrastructure”, and “eco-
system management”. In Portuguese, terms included: “bio-
diversidade urbana”, “ecologia urbana”, “planejamento
urbano”, “ecosistema urbano”, “serviços ecossistêmicos”,
and "infraestrutura verde”. Most of the papers in this review
were published in Portuguese and in Brazilian journals.
From the initial survey of articles, we created a list of
the journals with the greatest coverage of the topic and the
most cited authors. Therefore, further searches were carried
out for papers in the journals with most articles, considering
articles accepted until 2019. Articles were also searched in
the Curriculum Vitae of the most cited authors, to ensure
that no article had been excluded.
After the removal of duplicate records, the remaining
records were analyzed, and the following inclusion criteria
were applied: (i) articles focused on urban ecology, (ii) stud-
ies were carried out in Brazil, and (iii) studies were located
in urban and peri-urban areas.
collected is described in detail in Table 1. To be accepted
in the present review, the only guideline was that the
paper had to be conducted within cities and in relation
to living beings.
Most data included in the biome category included
urban field sites such as urban green areas. Urban green
areas are defined as forest fragments, urban trees, and
squares. Biome classification used here was according to
Coutinho (2006), who define biome as a “set of life (veg-
etable and animal) constituted by the grouping of contigu-
ous and identifiable vegetation types on a regional scale,
with similar geoclimatic conditions and history shared
change, resulting in a biological diversity of its own.” With
this, six biomes were described for Brazil: Atlantic Forest,
Cerrado, Amazon, Caatinga, Pampas, and Pantanal.
Data analysis

Data collection
From the articles obtained in the bibliographic survey,
the following data were collected: A) Study Location;
B) Central theme and subthemes; C) Paper information.
Regional data (D) were obtained a posteriori from the
list of cities using IBGE data (IBGE 2021). The data
Data was compiled and analyzed using Microsoft Excel
software. The R program (R Core Team 2021) was used
through the base package for the construction of graphs
and the ggplot2 and ggspatial packages for the construc-
tion of the map. For the analysis between the social data
of the municipalities and the publications, a spearman cor-
relation was performed using the R base package.

Table 1  Data collected for the systematic review on urban ecology in Brazil
Category Data collected

A) Study Location State

City
Brazilian biome (Amazon Forest; Atlantic Forest; Caatinga, Cerrado; Pampas; Pantanal)
B) Themes (Subthemes) Botany (Survey; morphometry; fungi; agroforestry; phytosanitary; epiphytes; others)
Ecology (Ecosystem services, restoration; ecological interactions; conservation)
Environment (Weather; soil, acoustics, water)
Landscape (Sig landscape ecology; green corridors)
Social (Society; economy; management; landscaping; public policies;
environmental education; history; planning; infrastructure; legislation;
sustainability; technology)
Teorics (Review; theoretical ecology)
Fauna Invertebrates; birds; mammals; bird survey; mammal survey; amphibian;
pollination; reptiles; bees; anurans; fauna survey; others)
C) Paper information Authors
Author's Affiliation
Year of publication
Journal
Keywords
D) Regional data Human Development Index (HDI)
Population
Afforestation of public roads (%)
Area of the City (­ km2)
Urbanized Area of the City (%)

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Results
A total of 1209 scientific articles were collected from the
search engines. In the first selection, articles that did not
fit were removed, and a selection was made by the authors,
leaving 932 articles belonging to 181 scientific journals
(Fig. 1; Complementary Table S1).
The journals with the most published articles were
Revista Brasileira de Arborização Urbana with 311 arti-
cles (33.4%), followed by Biotemas with (5.7%), Revista
Árvore (4.3), Revista Brasileira de Geografia Física
(3.6%), Ciência Florestal (3%), Biota Neotropica (2.6%)
and Urban Ecosystems (2.6%). Of the scientific journals,
15 presented more than 10 scientific articles, representing
68.2% of the total.
Most of the articles (75.2%) were published between
2010 and 2019. Between 2000 and 2009, 23.6% were pub-
lished, and finally, from 1990 to 1999, 1.1% were published
(Fig. 2A). Only one article was found in digital format
between 1980 and 1989. Between the years 2017 and 2019,
the highest number of articles was published, representing
9.44% and 9.12% of the total, respectively. These years
were followed by 2018, 2010, and 2016 (Fig. 2B).
The reviewed papers were carried out in 350 municipali-
ties, representing 6.3% of Brazilian municipalities (Instituto
Brasileiro De Geografia E Estatística 2021) (Complementary
Table S2). Most of the publications (88%) were carried out in
only one location. Papers in more than one location accounted
for 5.2%, ranging from two to 50 municipalities. Theoretical
papers (not related, therefore, to any specific location) cor-
responded to 6.8% of the total.
The municipalities with the highest number of stud-
ies were Curitiba-PR with 7.2% of the total, followed by
São Paulo-SP and Rio de Janeiro-RJ, both with 5.1% each,
Fig. 2  Percentage of articles in
urban ecology published each
year.
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Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558
followed by Belo Horizonte-MG (3%), Uberlândia-MG
(2.7%), Maringá-PR (2.5%), Campinas-SP (2.3%), Recife-PE
(2.2%), and Manaus-AM (2.1%). These nine municipalities
represented 32% of the total. All other municipalities had less
than 2% representation each.
Five states concentrated 64% of the papers reviewed: São
Paulo accounted for 23.7% of the papers, followed by Paraná
(15.4%), Minas Gerais (10.6%), Rio Grande do Sul (7.7%),
and Rio de Janeiro (6.6%). The state with the largest number
of municipalities cited on the present review were São Paulo
(86 municipalities, corresponding to 24.6% of the total), fol-
lowed by Rio Grande do Sul (39 and 11.1%), Paraná (36 and
10.3%), Minas Gerais (28.8%), and Pará (19.5%). These five
states comprise 60% of the total number of municipalities
on the reviewed papers (Complementary Table S2, Fig. 3).
The regions with the highest number of municipalities
with published papers were the Southeast, with 36.6% of
the total, followed by the South (26.3%), Northeast (16.6%),
Central-West (11.4%) and North (9.1%). Proportional to the
total number of municipalities in the region, the Central-
West had 8.6% of the municipalities represented, followed
by the Southeast and South with 7.7% each, the North
with 7.1% and the Northeast with 3.2%. As for the Brazil-
ian regions, the Southeast represents 42.3% of the papers,
followed by the South (25.8%), Northeast (14.5%), North
(8.9%) and Central-West (8.5%) (Table 2). Considering
that Brazil is a country of extreme inequality, and most of
its population, GDB and academic institutions are in the
Southeast, a higher concentration of papers in this region
was expected. Regions with less economic productivity are
also the least researched when it comes to urban ecology.
Among the biomes, 61.2% of the reviewed papers were
carried out in municipalities located in the Atlantic Forest,
20.8% were carried out in the Cerrado, 8.3% in the Amazon,
Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558 551

Table 2  Table showing the data with the total number of cities by one paper presented four biomes. Most of those focused on
region, percentage of cities with study by region, percentage of cities two biomes included the Atlantic Forest (Fig. 4a, b).
studied by the total number of cities in the region and total articles
published by region.
We found 2537 authors from 932 reviewed papers
(Complementary Table S3). The number of authors in
Regions Total Cities Cities Total Of each of the reviewed papers varies from one to 32, and
Number Of Studied In Studied in Papers
Cities Total (%) Total Cities (%) the values decreased as the number of authors increased.
(%) The most common number of authors per paper was three
(24.5% of articles), followed by two (21.5%), and four
Southeast 1668 36.6 7.7 42.3
authors (18.3%). Papers with 10 authors or more repre-
South 1191 26.3 7.7 25.8
sented 3.6% of the total (Fig. 5a, b).
Northeast 1793 16.6 3.2 14.5
The authors are affiliated with 413 institutions, located
Central west 466 11.4 8.6 8.5
in 19 countries. Brazil's largest research partners were
North 450 9.1 7.1 8.9
the United States, Germany, England, and Spain. Brazil-
Total 5568 100 - 100
ian institutions were responsible for 95% of registered
institutions. The institutions with the highest number
of published articles were the UFPR, University of São
5.3% in the Caatinga, 4.3% in the Pampas, and only 0.2% Paulo (USP), Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU)
in the Pantanal. Papers carried out in only one biome added and ESALQ. Institutions with only one record accounted
up to 82.4% of the total, while papers carried out in more for 62.3% of the total, while institutions with two papers
than one biome, meaning those also carried out in more than accounted for 12.8%. Only 7.7% of institutions had more
one municipality, added up to 17.6%. Of these, 17% were than 10 records (Complementary Table S4). Among the
developed in two biomes, 0.34% in three biomes, and only universities that stood out, only one is not public, this

Fig. 3  Number of published articles and number of municipalities represented in terms of urban ecology per Brazilian state, and state popula-
tions

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Fig. 4  Most representative
biomes in terms of the percent-
age of published articles on
urban ecology and the percent-
age of area that the biome
occupies in the country
being the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
(PUC-Rio).
As for the topics covered in the articles, those with
the highest incidence were Botany (68.6%) and Zoology
(34.9%), followed by Social (33%), Ecology (13%), Land-
scape (12.4%), Theoretical (10.8%), and Environment
(7.3%). Botany, the subject that has the largest number of
papers published, was divided into six sub-themes, with
floristic surveys being the main sub-theme with 32% of the
total. As for social issues, the most discussed sub-themes
were related to society (21.5%), the economy (5.5%) and
public management (2.2%). As for zoology, the reviewed
papers were classified into 15 sub-themes, and papers on
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Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558
invertebrates (10.6%), birds (6.9%), and mammals (6.7%)
were the most abundant (Table 3; Fig. 6).
We found 1915 keywords used in the reviewed articles.
Words used only once accounted for 76% of the total. The
words that appeared more often were: “Urban afforestation,”
“Urban planning,” “Green areas,” “Urban ecology,” “Urban
ecology,” “Afforestation,” “Urban trees,” “Exotic species,”
“Inventory,” and “Urban forestry”. Table 4 shows the 20
most-used keywords.
Regarding the attributes of municipalities acquired
through the IBGE data platform, when only municipalities
with five or more reviewed papers were observed, the vari-
ables that showed a significant correlation with the number
Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558 553

Table 3  Publication themes of urban ecology articles Discussion

Themes Subthemes N %
Ecology is a branch of science that was initially dedicated to
Botany Flora Survey 298 31.97 rural areas with little human influence (Grimm et al. 2008).
639 Morphometry 17 1.82
68.56% However, with the increase in urban populations and the
Fungi 10 1.07 increasing alteration of natural landscapes, new studies have
Agroforestry 4 0.43 also begun to be conducted in urban environments (Ramalho
Phytosanity 3 0.32 and Robbs 2012). Urban ecology was established in Bra-
Epiphytes 2 0.21 zil during the 1970s (Noyes and Progulske 1974; Sukopp
Others 305 32.72 1998; Grimm et al. 2008), with an emphasis on purely bio-
Ecology Ecosystem Services 47 5.04 logical research, ignoring the social aspect (Wu et al. 2014).
121 Restoration 40 4.29
12.98% In recent years, there has been interest in researching the
Ecological Interactions 29 3.11 relationship between ecological, socioeconomic, and cul-
Conservation 5 0.54 tural attributes of urban centers (Ramalho and Hobbs 2012;
Environment Climate 48 5.15 Shackleton et al. 2021).
68 Ground 18 1.93
7.30% This increase may be related to the growing concern of
Acoustics 1 0.11 societies about the environment, which is a global trend
Water 1 0.11 in countries such as China (Yao et al. 2019), the United
Landscape Sig Landscape Ecology 114 12.23 States (Ossola et al. 2021), Germany (Korányi et al. 2021),
116; 12.44% Green Corridors 2 0.21 and in South America (Graells et al. 2022). The number
Social Society 200 21.46 of articles and the increase in publications over the years,
308 Economy 51 5.47
33.05% especially in the last few decades, found in the present
Management 20 2.15 review for Brazil, highlight the high interest in urban ecol-
Landscaping 7 0.75 ogy in the country and corroborate the results found in
Public Policy 7 0.75 global reviews. This trend can also be observed in global
Environmental Education 5 0.54 scale as showed by Colins et al. (2011), that conducted a
Historical 4 0.43 systematic review of research addressing wildlife in urban
Planning 4 0.43 areas globally from 2011 to 2020. The authors' proposal
Infrastructure 3 0.32 was to continue the review by Magle et al. (2012) from
Legislation 3 0.32 1917 to 2010. As a result, Colins et al. (2011) observed
Sustainability 3 0.32 a trend towards an increase in works on wildlife in urban
Technology 1 0.11 areas, and also highlighted that a new look was given to
Theoretic Revision 54 5.79 socio-environmental aspects.
101; 10.84% Theoretical Ecology 47 5.04 Most of the articles found in this review focus on urban
Fauna Invertebrates 99 10.62 Botany. The attention given to urban afforestation can be
325 Birds 64 6.87
34.87% explained by the “luxury effect” (Hope et al. 2003), that is,
Mammals 62 6.65
the tendency of neighborhoods and cities with high socio-
Raising Birds 34 3.65
economic standards to be “greener” and to present a more
Mammals Survey 13 1.39
biodiverse flora. Another important aspect is the immedi-
Amphibians 9 0.97
ate and measurable benefits of afforestation (Sartori et. al
Pollination 7 0.75
2021), which could promote greater interest in this area of​​
Reptiles 7 0.75
study. It is also relatively easier to study plants as a proxy for
Bees 6 0.64
urban ecology benefits in biodiversity, socioeconomic well-
Frogs 2 0.21
being and ecosystem services provision, when compared to
Fauna Survey 2 0.21
other study focuses. Davis et al. (2011), for example, dem-
Others 21 2.25
onstrated the possibility of reducing carbon emissions by
80% with afforestation of streets and backyards in the city
of Leicester, England. Jones (2021) reported an increasing
of publications were HDI, number of inhabitants, and per- improvement in the quality of life of New York residents
centage of urbanized area (Table 5). The total area of the with each tree planted. In addition, health improvements
municipality and percentage of afforestation of public roads in the population due to the increase in air quality (Jones
did not correlate with the number of published articles. and McDermott 2018) and climate mitigation (Martini et al.

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Fig. 5  List of publications per researcher (a), number of authors in articles (b)
2017) result from investment in biodiverse and abundant
urban afforestation. The studies analyzed a combination of
socioeconomic aspects, human well-being, and biodiversity.
More such efforts are needed to achieve transdisciplinary
research in urban ecology.
Brazilian journals focusing on botany have the highest
number of records, as indicated by the Revista da Sociedade
Brasileira de Arborização Urbana (REVSBAU), with one-
third of the articles published. In addition, there are a signifi-
cant number of records published in botanical journals such
as Rodriguésia, Cerne, Árvore, and Revista da Sociedade
Fig. 6  Topics most discussed
in publications (%) in the data
collection area
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Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558
Brasileira de Botânica, in addition to REVSBAU. Once
again, this is due to the fact that papers focused on plant
biology have a greater tradition, especially those focused
on urban afforestation. Studies involving fauna and human
health in the context of urban ecology are more recent and
sporadic; therefore, journals that publish these themes were
less frequent in the present review. Furthermore, we can see
that 92% of journals published less than ten times on urban
ecology.
Despite growth, areas such as landscape ecology, environ-
ment, and ecology are rarely addressed in urban ecology, and
Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558 555

Table 4  Most used keywords in urban ecology scientific articles afforestation as ecological corridors is essential to make
Keywords N % cities a shelter for biodiversity (Soares and Lentini 2019).
Landscape ecology allows an integrated look at spatial het-
Urban Afforestation 116 3.21 erogeneity on the ecological scale: ecosystem, community,
Urban Planning 52 1.44 and population (Metzger 2001).
Green Areas 48 1.33 The context of the word “ecology” is broad and needs
Urban Ecology 40 1.11 to be understood within the scope of species and the rela-
Urban Ecology 31 0.86 tionships between them. Thus, we consider that surveys,
Afforestation 27 0.75 economic, and social studies are equally important for the
Urban Trees 23 0.64 understanding of this subject. The papers incorporated in
Exotic Species 23 0.64 the theme of “environment” (“climate,” “soil,” “acoustics,”
Inventory 23 0.64 and “water”) and “ecology” (“ecosystem services,” “restora-
Urban Forestry 23 0.64 tion,” “ecological interactions,” and “conservation”) proved
Urban Forest 22 0.61 to be little-addressed in the urban ecology theme. As being
Biodiversity 20 0.55 transdisciplinary is one of the objectives of urban ecology
Atlantic Forest 20 0.55 (Young and Wolf 2006), it is essential to further study these
Environmental Quality 20 0.55 themes, which directly affect the human population. The
Phytosociology 19 0.53 urgency of this inclusion is highlighted when we observe
Urban Parks 19 0.53 the key role played by afforestation of urban roads in noise
Trees 18 0.50 attenuation (Oliveira et al. 2018), the role of green areas in
Thick 18 0.50 greater thermal comfort (Tejas et al. 2011), water regulation
Urbanization 18 0.50 in cities, and carbon sequestration (Almeida et al. 2018).
Urbanization 18 0.50 The main universities are in the cities of Curitiba and São
Planning 17 0.47 Paulo, both with a significant population and a high HDI
Landscaping 16 0.44 (IBGE 2021). This relationship between socioeconomic factors
Atlantic Forest 15 0.42 and publications shows a pattern: municipalities with a higher
Conservation 15 0.42 HDI present more research in urban ecology. At the same time,
Urban Planning 15 0.42 this shows that the scarcity of studies, access to green areas,
Amazon 14 0.39 and ecosystem services mainly affect marginalized populations
Urban Environment 14 0.39 (Porto and Martinez-Alier 2007). These populations are often
Conservation 14 0.39 exposed to greater risks of flooding (Pontes et al. 2017) and
Road Afforestation 13 0.36 live in precarious housing in “sacrifice zones” (Bullard 1994;
Diversity 13 0.36 Santos 2019). In addition, low-income populations, which are
already in environmentally unstable areas, will be the most
this is emphasized by the use of the keyword “urban ecol- affected by climate change, according to the Intergovernmental
ogy” in recent years. The importance of landscape ecology, Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate report (2021).
for example, is expressed by the potential of the afforesta- This review shows the spatial heterogeneity in urban
tion of streets and avenues to connect urban forest fragments ecology research in Brazil. It is clear that the municipali-
(Brun et al. 2007). Understanding the relationship between ties with highest HDI and urban population density are the
the isolation of urban green areas, the behavioral character- most researched, while the others are overlooked. This is
istics of the fauna in these fragments, and the role of street likely linked to the concentration of research institutes and
universities in these municipalities. However, this result evi-
Table 5  Municipalities variables and the correlation with the number dences the environmental injustice still predominant in the
of articles published in Urban Ecology
country (Costa 2018). Rich states and municipalities pre-
Variables rho p sent numerous urban green areas and tree-lined streets, while
poor communities are denied these spaces (Schwarz et al.
Human Development Index (HDI) 0.36 0.02*
2015; Gould and Lewis 2016; Rigolon et al. 2018). Simi-
Number of Inhabitants 0.49 0.002*
larly, urban ecology research in Brazil focuses on already
Total Area -0.05 0.75ns
developed and biodiverse sites, disregarding marginalized
Urbanized Area 0.38 0.02*
communities, Schell et al (2020) defined this process like
Afforestation of public roads 0.28 0.09ns
a “environmental racism”. Even though research in urban
ns
no significant difference ecology is becoming increasingly popular, future research
*
significant difference must focus on these underprivileged areas.

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Poor municipalities are also more vulnerable to envi-
ronmental degradation, pollution, deforestation, and
natural disasters, including landslides and flooding (de
Loyola Hummell et al. 2016; Rasch 2017; Debortoli et al.
2017;). Research on urban ecology is essential to assess
the present state of degradation in these areas, and propose
better city planning (Pickett et al. 2014; Childers et al.
2015; McPhearson et al. 2016a, b). Only through detailed
research can we uncover the ongoing issues in urban areas
and create solutions for a better quality of life, for the
people and for the biodiversity that coexist in the cities.
In addition to municipalities, the results showed a great
disparity between states and regions in terms of the num-
ber of articles published. The South and Southeast regions
were responsible for 63% of published papers, despite hav-
ing an area of less than 20% of the national territory. These
are also the most developed states with a longer tradition
of urban research universities.
The Atlantic Forest, despite occupying only 15% of the
national territory, is where 70% of the population and 60%
of Brazilian municipalities are concentrated (IBGE 2021).
This region houses the main universities and researchers,
thus being the most studied region in the country in terms
of urban ecology. At the same time, in the Cerrado and in
the Amazon, the number of reviewed papers is related to the
population that occupies these areas, and not to the territo-
rial area. For example, the Amazon occupies about 50% of
the national territory, and is responsible for only 8% of the
papers, proportional to the population of the biome.
The studies reflect the reality in Brazil. Municipalities
with more universities and researchers have more research in
the area, even more whith the consolidated line and a group
of researchers in urban ecology. We were also able to present
the need for research in biomes such as the Caatinga, the
Amazon and the Pantanal. We believe that with the results
presented we can show bottlenecks for future research.
Final considerations
With this review, we present a panorama of publications
focused on urban ecology in Brazil. Our study revealed the
growing interest and importance of ecology in Brazil, as
demonstrated by the increase in publications on the topic
over the last few decades. However, these papers are still
concentrated in the major areas of biological sciences (i.e.,
botany and zoology), with an emphasis on research on urban
afforestation and surveys of urban fauna, especially birds
and insects. Thus, we emphasize the knowledge gap in stud-
ies that intrinsically relate ecology and society, approach the
ecology of landscape in the urban environment, or focus on
ecology as research into the interaction between fauna and
13
Urban Ecosystems (2023) 26:547–558
flora in the urban environment, as well as essential knowl-
edge for the conservation of these species.
We found that the universities that publish the most on
this subject are in Curitiba and São Paulo, which represent
the relationship between cities with a dense population,
higher HDI, and a greater representation of publications
related to urban ecology. Our results highlight the scarcity
of studies on the subject in regions other than the southern
and southeastern regions of the country. It is expected that
the number of papers will increase over time, with a greater
concentration of frequent authors currently starting their
studies in this line of research.
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplemen-
tary material available at https://d​ oi.o​ rg/1​ 0.1​ 007/s​ 11252-0​ 22-0​ 1324-6.
Acknowledgements We thank the biology students who helped us with
data collection, as well as Marcelo Hermosilla, Gabriel Borja, and
the biologist Renata Bella Vieira for their help and enthusiasm in the
progress of this article.
Authors' contributions The idea for this article came from Richieri A.
Sartori. All other authors were responsible for data collection, classifi-
cation, and analysis. All the authors participated in writing this article.
Funding We did not have funding to write this article.
Data availability All data is attached
Code availability Not applicable
Declarations
Ethical approval Not applicable
Concert to participate Not applicable
Concert for publication Not applicable
Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest for any
part of this article.
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