Life amongst the dead: understanding biodiversity in urban burial grounds

Cathcart-James, M. E. G. (2025) Life amongst the dead: understanding biodiversity in urban burial grounds. PhD thesis, University of Reading. doi: 10.48683/1926.00130904

Abstract/Summary

As urbanisation forges onward at pace so that the majority of the human population will be living in urban areas by 2050, the importance of urban green spaces for ecosystem functioning and our wellbeing continues to grow. Despite a significant body of research focused on urban parks, gardens and woodlands, there are almost no studies of urban burial grounds in the context of biodiversity provision and little understanding of ecosystem functioning within them. Twenty UK burial grounds were selected as study sites from the English counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. These sites represented a diversity of sizes, ages and management approaches, and were distributed in more or less urban environments. A series of studies were devised to explore urban burial ground biodiversity at these sites using a range of methodological approaches. The novel investigation of flying beetles found that larger sites were associated with greater urban population pressures, supporting lower abundances. No effect was found on flying beetle biodiversity of site age. The effects of management are presented for the first time, showing that although wildlife-friendly interventions yielded greater diversity, a horticultural landscaping approach supported higher abundances. The characterisation of urban necrosol heavy metal composition presented a varied picture, with significant differences between sites and measurements both above and below background levels. The majority of the soils were acidic, unlike typical urban soils, meaning urban necrosols may hold greater amounts of bioavailable toxic heavy metals. Sites with wildlife-friendly interventions, and those with greater surrounding coverage of trees and hedges, were associated with lower concentrations of heavy metals. Traditional pitfall trap surveys were used to study terrestrial arthropod communities, with sites under stringent management regimes found to support assemblages of greater variability and evenness than those with more sympathetic management. Large abundances of Isopoda were observed in sites under these regimes. This study constitutes the largest-scale study of urban burial ground biodiversity undertaken to date. Common assumptions about these green spaces, such as older, undisturbed urban burial grounds being biodiversity havens with healthy soils are challenged here, and a more complex picture of their nature is presented. Crucially, for the first time, evidence of the effects of management practices on urban burial ground biodiversity are explored with practical applications of the findings considered such as soil lead concentration monitoring and increasing woody vegetation cover. Avenues for further research are a significant part of this thesis, as it is positioned as a novel foundation to be built on in the future.

Item Type	Thesis (PhD)
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/130904
Identification Number/DOI	10.48683/1926.00130904
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
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