The Green Roof With The Greatest Plant Diversity

Constructed ecosystems such as green roofs often contain monocultures or low diversity plant communities but adding more plant species to these systems can increase ecosystem service provisioning.

The green roof with the greatest plant diversity.

What is a green roof. A diverse stable and resilient roof. The extent to which green roofs stimulate plant diversity can depend on roof characteristics such as roof age substrate depth and shading. When choosing plants for a green roof they need to be able to withstand wind and frost be drought resistant tolerate living in poor soil and be maintenance free.

With all this in mind here are ten of the best green roof plants to choose from. Green roofs rooftops that have been purposefully vegetated oberndorfer et al 2007 either with low growing sedum plants wildflowers grasses or shrubs and trees are an emerging green technology that is becoming increasingly popular in urban environments due to the many benefits they provide one such benefit is their potential to restore biodiversity in urban landscapes. The ultimate goal of the trial is to develop a diverse and extensive list of. New green roofs should be watered until the plants are established and it is important to weed green roofs several times a year to keep the plants healthy.

Mixture advantage when species rich treatments outperform the best monocultures is desirable in constructed ecosystems due to the cost of. Planted and or seeded with a wide range of wildflowers sedums can be added too by applying these principles many interesting native invertebrate species will take up residence on green roofs. The most common type of extensive shallow substrate green roof features species mixtures of succulents mainly from the genus sedum. Without plant diversity the roof is unable to buffer for environmental changes.

Ruderal plants for fast colonialization and deep rooted plants for higher drought resilience. Wildflower green roofs are especially good for pollinators such as. A green roof is a layer of vegetation planted over a waterproofing system that is installed on top of a flat or slightly sloped roof. A good green roof designed for biodiversity should include.

Higher multifunctionality may require much greater species richness isbell et al. The most species rich green roofs usually feature lower plant diversity than natural ecosystems. Also diversity makes the roof more resilient to pests. Fol lowing an initial five year evaluation phase new trials of uncommon and or untested plants will continually cycle into the green roof gardens.

A varied substrate depth. While the greater substrate depth of intensive roofs can provide improved plant growth and support a greater diversity of plants these roofs have more structural requirements and greater up front construction costs as well as higher maintenance costs as compared to extensive green roofs. Green roofs can promote biodiversity in urban areas.