This volume is a retrospective publication of contributions originally
to two national conferences / seminars held in Sheffield, on the theme
of 'Urban Environments - History, Biodiversity and Culture'. To the
updated papers from those events we have added invited current
contributions on the themes of urban nature and urban ecology. Ideas and
issues in urban ecology become more significant as globalisation,
urbanisation and cultural severance shape our world and our future
ecologies. This is paralleled by increasing interest in the underpinning
science and research paradigms in relation to urban environmental
spaces.In the early 2000s, ecologists new to the urban context suddenly
became excited about the juxta-position of pollution and biodiversity in
degraded and contaminated sites, something well-known to urban
ecologists and naturalists since the 1980s or earlier. Similarly, the
contributions of urban gardens to nature conservation were greeted with
surprise and excitement.