Urban development fuels invasion of non-native plants in city forests.
Urban forests are important as natural areas in cities, but they are at risk from non-native plants invading. A study looked at how urban factors affect this invasion using data from citizen scientists. They found that factors like where people live, recent construction, and nearby roads are more important than the size of the forest in determining how many non-native plants are present. This shows that urban activities play a big role in bringing in non-native species to urban forests.