Beyond Urban Forests: The Multiple Functions and the Overlooked Role of Semi-Natural Ecosystems in Mediterranean Cities

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this interesting opinion paper. I appreciated very much the criticisms posed by the authors and their perspective. I have only a few comments and suggestions, resulting in a minor revisions.

The Introduction poses the strong issue of oversimplification of “the nuanced interactions between various forms of vegetation”, and the conclusion points to the important role of wild-synanthropic species. Therefore, I suggest adding these important points to the title. For example: “Beyond the oversimplification of urban forests. The multiple functions and the undervalued role of semi-natural ecosystems in Mediterranean cities”

Line 145 = I suggest changing the word ‘centuries’ with millennia; there are many archaeobotanical studies using pollen landscape reconstructions and demonstrating the role of millennial cultures in shaping Mediterranean vegetation (see Florenzano, A. The History of Pastoral Activities in S Italy Inferred from Palynology: A Long-Term Perspective to Support Biodiversity Awareness. Sustainability 2019, 11, 404. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020404).
On this point, can also be of interest: Florenzano A. et al., 2022. Environmental and land-use changes in a Mediterranean landscape: palynology and geoarchaeology at ancient Metapontum (Pantanello, Southern Italy). Quaternary International. https://doi.org/. QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL, ISSN: 1040-6182, doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2022.01.004

Line 156 = ‘adaptative management that can enhance the resilience of these species…’: I suggest to reconsider this sentence that seems rather contradictory; the plant can adapt or can be resilient; management can facilitate adaptative strategies of species and, as I see, cannot enhance a property (resilience) of the plant species.

Lines 177 and following = in addition to the correct information mentioned for European contexts, some specific research carried out in Mediterranean contexts, showing land transformations under human impact and multifunctional use of lands can be:

- Mercuri A.M. et al. (2011). Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid- Holocene environmental and climatic changes. THE HOLOCENE, vol. 21 (1), p. 189-206, ISSN: 0959-6836, doi: 10.1177/0959683610377532

- Mercuri A.M. et al. (2019). From influence to impact: The multifunctional land use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP). THE HOLOCENE, vol. 29, p. 830-846, ISSN: 0959-6836, doi: 10.1177/0959683619826631

I read with great interest but missed an important conclusion, namely that if we observe that the situation is that there is claiming ‘to achieve an 'urban forest' by planting fast-growing trees on poorly structured soils', we need many new knowledgeable experts and specialised consultants on 'sustainable urbanisation'.

Sub-chapter 3.1 should be written a more synthetic and incisive way.

Line 229 = If one is not familiar with Italian things, it is not so clear how Milan has no space for trees (line 218) but planted so many trees out of PNRR project (line 232). Moreover, it is not clear if the seeds were planted after careful selection of species and certification of provenance.

Line 244 = the word ‘gentrification’ needs a definition.

 

 

 

Author Response

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this interesting opinion paper. I appreciated very much the criticisms posed by the authors and their perspective. I have only a few comments and suggestions, resulting in a minor revisions.

Thanks for your careful reading of the manuscript and for the positive evaluation!

The Introduction poses the strong issue of oversimplification of “the nuanced interactions between various forms of vegetation”, and the conclusion points to the important role of wild-synanthropic species. Therefore, I suggest adding these important points to the title. For example: “Beyond the oversimplification of urban forests. The multiple functions and the undervalued role of semi-natural ecosystems in Mediterranean cities”

We changed the title according to your suggestion, but we kept it a bit shorter: “Beyond urban forests. The multiple functions and the under-valued role of semi-natural ecosystems in Mediterranean cities”

Line 145 = I suggest changing the word ‘centuries’ with millennia; there are many archaeobotanical studies using pollen landscape reconstructions and demonstrating the role of millennial cultures in shaping Mediterranean vegetation (see Florenzano, A. The History of Pastoral Activities in S Italy Inferred from Palynology: A Long-Term Perspective to Support Biodiversity Awareness. Sustainability 2019, 11, 404. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020404).
On this point, can also be of interest: Florenzano A. et al., 2022. Environmental and land-use changes in a Mediterranean landscape: palynology and geoarchaeology at ancient Metapontum (Pantanello, Southern Italy). Quaternary International. https://doi.org/. QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL, ISSN: 1040-6182, doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2022.01.004

We changed the word ‘centuries’ with ‘millennia’ and included the suggested references.

Line 156 = ‘adaptative management that can enhance the resilience of these species…’: I suggest to reconsider this sentence that seems rather contradictory; the plant can adapt or can be resilient; management can facilitate adaptative strategies of species and, as I see, cannot enhance a property (resilience) of the plant species.

We changed the word ‘enhance with ‘sustain’

Lines 177 and following = in addition to the correct information mentioned for European contexts, some specific research carried out in Mediterranean contexts, showing land transformations under human impact and multifunctional use of lands can be:

- Mercuri A.M. et al. (2011). Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid- Holocene environmental and climatic changes. THE HOLOCENE, vol. 21 (1), p. 189-206, ISSN: 0959-6836, doi: 10.1177/0959683610377532

- Mercuri A.M. et al. (2019). From influence to impact: The multifunctional land use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP). THE HOLOCENE, vol. 29, p. 830-846, ISSN: 0959-6836, doi: 10.1177/0959683619826631

We included the suggested references, thank you!

I read with great interest but missed an important conclusion, namely that if we observe that the situation is that there is claiming ‘to achieve an 'urban forest' by planting fast-growing trees on poorly structured soils', we need many new knowledgeable experts and specialised consultants on 'sustainable urbanisation'.

We added the following sentence: To do so, vegetation ecologists and specialised consultants on 'sustainable urbanisation' should be invited to participate in decision-making processes that are currently skewed by agricultural and forestry scientists.

Sub-chapter 3.1 should be written a more synthetic and incisive way.

We did.

Line 229 = If one is not familiar with Italian things, it is not so clear how Milan has no space for trees (line 218) but planted so many trees out of PNRR project (line 232). Moreover, it is not clear if the seeds were planted after careful selection of species and certification of provenance.

We added some references to the subchapter 3.1. to better circumstance this apparently contradictory issue.

Line 244 = the word ‘gentrification’ needs a definition.

We better defined the concept.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript discusses the diversified urban green spaces in Mediterranean cities and questions the common misconception of simple afforestation. It emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate plant species and communities in different geographical environments. This issue is particularly relevant in the context of climate change and accelerated urbanization. This comprehensive perspective is valuable for formulating urban greening policies. However, I believe the current structure of the paper is somewhat loose, and the connections between some paragraphs are not tight enough. The following are my suggestions for reorganizing the structure:

1. swap lines 31-33 with lines 34-36 and merging them into one paragraph. Here, first highlights the background, namely the large-scale population migration to cities and the growing importance of urban forests. Then introduce the second segment, which discusses the functions of urban forests.

2. Lines 52-57 are not very crucial and could be placed later. The primary goal here is to point out the current misconceptions about urban forests. I recommend swapping lines 66-71 with lines 58-65 for logical coherence. That is, first introduce the problem, then describe the current situation, and the conceptions of urban forests.

3. chapter 2 mentions many ecological principles, which I highly appreciate. However, I think the content is too brief. This section can be expanded into a comprehensive review of the current state of research on water consumption by forests, fire risk, and invasive species, for example:(doi: 10.1111/gcb.17392), https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3092...

4. Chapter 3.1: Please add references for policy data mentioned in this section, such as the 427,000 trees in line 232, and the 84 million euros allocated to 11 of the 14 metropolitan districts in line 221.

5. Chapter 3.2: Can you include specific studies on diversified urban green spaces to support the core viewpoints of the paper?

6. The conclusion seems overly verbose and repeats some content from the introduction. Only the content from lines 293 to 299 can be considered the actual conclusion. Can you add some more specific policy recommendations to enhance the practical and guiding significance of the paper?

7. The paper currently has only one figure, which is relatively monotonous. Consider adding more figures and tables to visually present data and cases, such as the ecological benefits of different greening measures in Mediterranean cities and the water resource requirements of different vegetation types.

8. Carefully check for formatting issues in the text, such as the inconsistency between NBS in line 112 and NbS defined in the text. Additionally, the full name of IUCN is not mentioned (appearing in lines 111, 113, etc.).

Comments on the Quality of English Language

the language of the manuscript is generally fluent.

Author Response

The manuscript discusses the diversified urban green spaces in Mediterranean cities and questions the common misconception of simple afforestation. It emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate plant species and communities in different geographical environments. This issue is particularly relevant in the context of climate change and accelerated urbanization. This comprehensive perspective is valuable for formulating urban greening policies. However, I believe the current structure of the paper is somewhat loose, and the connections between some paragraphs are not tight enough. The following are my suggestions for reorganizing the structure:

1. swap lines 31-33 with lines 34-36 and merging them into one paragraph. Here, first highlights the background, namely the large-scale population migration to cities and the growing importance of urban forests. Then introduce the second segment, which discusses the functions of urban forests.

We did. Thanks for the suggestion!

2. Lines 52-57 are not very crucial and could be placed later. The primary goal here is to point out the current misconceptions about urban forests. I recommend swapping lines 66-71 with lines 58-65 for logical coherence. That is, first introduce the problem, then describe the current situation, and the conceptions of urban forests.

We applied your suggestion, i.e. swapping lines 66-71 with lines 58-65. We changed (and shortened) lines 52-57 to have a policy-related premise to the text that follows.

3. chapter 2 mentions many ecological principles, which I highly appreciate. However, I think the content is too brief. This section can be expanded into a comprehensive review of the current state of research on water consumption by forests, fire risk, and invasive species, for example:(doi: 10.1111/gcb.17392), https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3092...

We included a small review on the suggested topics, in which both suggested references have been cited.

4. Chapter 3.1: Please add references for policy data mentioned in this section, such as the 427,000 trees in line 232, and the 84 million euros allocated to 11 of the 14 metropolitan districts in line 221.

We did.

5. Chapter 3.2: Can you include specific studies on diversified urban green spaces to support the core viewpoints of the paper?

We cited all available literature we are aware of. Unfortunately, as we wrote, little attention is paid to the spontaneous mechanisms of ecological succession in urban areas, and no experiments exist on the potential use of natural vegetation dynamics for NbS to improve urban resilience.

6. The conclusion seems overly verbose and repeats some content from the introduction. Only the content from lines 293 to 299 can be considered the actual conclusion. Can you add some more specific policy recommendations to enhance the practical and guiding significance of the paper?

We shortened the “verbose” part of the introduction and added some more specific policy recommendations to ensure that urban green infrastructure projects support native biodiversity and ecosystem services

7. The paper currently has only one figure, which is relatively monotonous. Consider adding more figures and tables to visually present data and cases, such as the ecological benefits of different greening measures in Mediterranean cities and the water resource requirements of different vegetation types.

We added one more figure on urban NbS, their ecosystem services and structural types of potential habitat templates from Mediterranean-type ecosystems

8. Carefully check for formatting issues in the text, such as the inconsistency between NBS in line 112 and NbS defined in the text. Additionally, the full name of IUCN is not mentioned (appearing in lines 111, 113, etc.).

We did.