Researchers say strategic combinations of planting and maintenance will be needed to secure urban sustainability but more needs to be done to develop understanding of urban trees and their ecosystems - which may differ from rural forests.
[] "The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever," said Sir Robert Watson, IPBES chair, adding that "transformative change" is needed to save the planet.
Climate researcher Valérie Masson-Delmotte had a key role in the stark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned that nations might have only a dozen years before Earth's temperature reaches a point that would transform ecosystems and destroy many coral reefs.
Coral reefs are fragile, yet vital, parts of the world's ecosystems, and they support the highest marine biodiversity in the world.
The vanishing of a top-level carnivore or herbivore can have a cascading effect down the food chain, disrupting entire ecosystems.
"Bears switched from eating salmon to elderberries, disrupting an ecological link that typically fertilizes terrestrial ecosystems and generates high mortality rates for salmon," the study said.
'Amber pieces preserve tiny snapshots of ancient ecosystems, but they record microscopic details, three-dimensional arrangements, and tissues that are difficult to study in other settings,' Dr McKellar said.
They were looking at wastewater treatment and its impact on freshwater ecosystems, and they found that even trace amounts of estrogen in the environment can wipe out entire species.
Venter has moved from sequencing the DNA of humans and other species to assaying genes in entire ecosystems most recently the waters of the Sargasso Sea.
His was the usual mishmash of "platforms", "drivers", "ecosystems", "aligns", "DNAs" and "going forwards" — as well as some more ambitious combinations such as "extend our experience footprint".
For the time being, expect more internet-connected bins and street lighting, while businesses work out just what else these ecosystems can do.
To the Editor: : Footsteps do affect fragile ecosystems.
Professor Ken Norris, director of science at Zoological Society of London (ZSL), said: 'The scale of biodiversity loss and damage to the very ecosystems that are essential to our existence is alarming.
Tourism accounts for a large piece of coastline economies and medicines are being found in reef ecosystems everyday.
Possible consequences include flooding and damage to both cities and ecosystems.
It also carried a warning about the loss of wildlife and ecosystems which people depend on for food, fuel, clean water and other resources - with populations of species declining by 30 per cent worldwide between 1970 and 2007.
Venter has moved from sequencing the DNA of humans and other species to assaying genes in entire ecosystems most recently the waters of the Sargasso Sea.