Urban greenspaces are critical for maintaining biodiversity and people’s connection to nature. Schools are distributed throughout cities and have the potential to provide for and enhance native biodiversity, while facilitating positive relationships between children and nature. However, very little is known about greenspaces on school grounds, particularly their ecological condition. We evaluated the size and quality of greenspaces in 64 urban primary schools in Auckland, Aotearoa–New Zealand by undertaking a rapid greenspace assessment to identify the relative proportions of greenspace types on school grounds, vegetation and habitat quality. All schools had trees present on their grounds, however only 36 % had a native forest patch, and habitat quality was generally low due to the dominance of sports fields, artificial turf and a lack of shrub layer. A larger number of different greenspace types on school grounds was associated with more large trees (>6 m), and a higher habitat quality score. A third of schools also had one or more environmental weed species present. The socio-economic status of schools did not appear to be a key factor in predicting the quality of a school’s greenspace. There are many opportunities to improve school greenspaces to better contribute to urban biodiversity as multifunctional spaces. Increasing greenspace type diversity, adding more vegetation layers, and increasing the diversity of native plant species on school grounds, would increase habitat complexity and improve biodiversity and cultural connection outcomes. The value of school grounds as multifunctional spaces will depend on place-specific ecological and cultural contexts.

中文翻译：

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城市学校植被复杂性和绿地多样性


城市绿地对于维持生物多样性和人们与自然的联系至关重要。学校分布在城市各处，有可能提供和增强本地生物多样性，同时促进儿童与自然之间的积极关系。然而，人们对校园内的绿地，尤其是它们的生态状况知之甚少。我们通过进行快速绿地评估来确定绿地类型在校园、植被和栖息地质量上的相对比例，评估了新西兰奥特亚罗瓦州奥克兰 64 所城市小学的绿地规模和质量。所有学校的校园里都有树木，但只有 36% 的学校拥有原生森林，由于运动场、人造草皮和缺乏灌木层，栖息地质量普遍较低。校园内不同绿地类型的数量越多，大树越多 （x3E6 m），栖息地质量得分越高。三分之一的学校还存在一种或多种环境杂草物种。学校的社会经济地位似乎不是预测学校绿地质量的关键因素。作为多功能空间，有很多机会可以改善学校绿地，以更好地为城市生物多样性做出贡献。增加绿地类型的多样性，增加更多的植被层，并增加校园内本地植物物种的多样性，将增加栖息地的复杂性并改善生物多样性和文化联系结果。学校场地作为多功能空间的价值将取决于特定地点的生态和文化背景。