摘要：Increasing housing density has negative effects on native biodiversity. This implies that weshould build at low density to conserve native species. However, for a given human population, low-densitydevelopment must cover a large area, resulting in sprawl. A pertinent question is then, at what housingdensity are the impacts of a given human population on native biodiversity minimized. We addressed thisquestion with carabid beetles in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada. First, we collected beetles at 22 sitesrepresenting a range of housing densities. We then used these data to estimate beetle abundance and speciesrichness in hypothetical development scenarios representing the housing density/sprawl area trade-off. Ourresults suggest that clustering development at a high housing density minimizes the impacts of a givenhuman population on carabid beetles. If these results are general across all forest taxa, then planning thatfavors densification rather than sprawl would minimize urbanization effects on forest biodiversity
