Joint effects of climate change and urbanization accelerate plant biodiversity loss across urban green spaces

Climate change is projected to push 40–80% of plant species beyond their thermal niches by mid-century across all urban green space types in three Swiss cities.

• Why it matters: Urban green spaces support urban biodiversity, but the combined effects of climate change and urbanization on plant communities are not well quantified across different habitat types.
• What they did: The study combined vegetation surveys from 180 sites (60 per city) across five UGS types with species-specific thermal niches and high-resolution historical-to-future urban microclimate projections plus land-use change scenarios.
• The result: Climate-driven species loss is widespread, and urbanization amplifies it by disproportionately reducing high-value habitats, yielding a consistent trajectory of biodiversity decline across urban landscapes by mid-century.

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