Green spaces help to mitigate both the challenges inherent to urban environments and the disproportionate problems these environments face due to climate change. Cemeteries, containing features such as flowerbeds, trees, and large swaths of other vegetation, have the potential to host biodiversity and contribute ecosystem services similar to other green spaces. Thus, considering the full range of green spaces—particularly those beyond parks—is critical in examining and maintaining the ecological robustness of our cities. This research aims to investigate the ecological contributions of small cemeteries in New York City as compared to that of small urban parks; in doing so, we seek to establish whether cemeteries should be considered ecologically significant urban green spaces. We examined the impact of environmental factors on avian biodiversity, along with differences in biodiversity and environmental features between the two aforementioned site types. In order to do this, we conducted avian point counts and measured impervious surface cover, noise levels, and air quality in 10 cemeteries and 16 parks across Manhattan and Brooklyn during the Spring and Fall avian migration seasons of 2021. We found that small urban cemeteries supported similar levels of avian biodiversity as small urban parks. Impervious surface cover was greater in parks than in cemeteries, but there was no significant site-type difference in air quality or noise. The only environmental condition that impacted avian biodiversity was site size, which was positively correlated with species richness. These results suggest that cemeteries, even of a small size, merit inclusion in research on urban green spaces as they support biodiversity and provide ecosystem services similarly to parks. Furthermore, the historical, religious, and cultural implications of cemetery spaces open up fascinating avenues for future interdisciplinary work and exploration of human-nature narratives.
