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It is expected that in 2005 about half of the human population will be urban dwellers, and the proportion is increasing. Thus, urban areas - including green areas - are becoming increasingly important for humankind. In order to manage urban areas for the benefit of people and biodiversity more information is needed about ecological patterns and processes in cities. This book is the result of many years of investigations of the environment and biota of the city of Sofia. It is intended to fulfill an obvious gap in the knowledge of the biota of Sofia. In spite of the various research projects carried out during the last decades, there is no volume published so far aiming to summarize the accumulated data until now.

The book consists of three parts - Environment, Plants and Animals. The papers in the first part aim to describe the environment of Sofia - climate, water and air - in order to provide a basis for present-day and future research on the biota and to outline some recommendations for improving the human comfort in the city. The botanical part consists of nine papers, ranging from inventories (bryophytes, vascular plants) to studies on the soil moisture regime and lead transformation in city parks. In the third part, eleven papers summarize data on several animal groups - nematodes, myriapods, terrestrial gastropods, opilionids, spiders, carabid beetles, ants, aphids, scuttle-flies and birds.