Results of an exciting new study, focusing on the flora of the Paris area have been published. The aim of the study was to better understand the “filters” that allow some species to establish successfully in our cities (while other plant species may fail to establish). These filters can be environmental (cities pose challenges such as high temperatures, dry and impervious soils…) or biological (species that are already there offer stark competition).

The Ile-de-France region, surrounding the city of Paris comprises around 50% of agricultural land, 24% of forests, 16% of built land (including housing, industrial areas, quarries, worksites and transport).

In this paper, researchers used records collected by citizen scientists, part of the Vigie Flore program, with 620 plots (10 m²) surveyed between 2009 and 2017.

They chose to study a unique measure called “species originality“. The idea is that a species is “original” if…