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Abstract
Abstract
Global urbanization is a major force that causes alteration and loss of natural habitats.
Urban ecosystems are strongly affected by humans and there is a gradient of decreasing
human influence from city centers to natural habitats. To study ecological changes
along this continuum, researchers introduced the urban-rural gradient approach. The
responses of centipedes to an urbanization gradient (urban-suburban-rural areas) were
studied using pitfall traps in and near the city of Heraklion, in the island of Crete,
Greece, from November 2010 to November 2011. Our results do not support the intermediate
disturbance hypothesis, in which suburban areas located in the transitional zone between
urban and rural habitats failed to indicate significant increase in terms of species
richness and diversity.