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Green Roofs Offer Energy Savings, Better Storm-Water ManagementOctober 31, 2007
An article in the November 2007 issue of BioScience describes the history of green roofs and summarizes their benefits and challenges. A green roof—a roof with a vegetated surface and substrate—is more expensive to construct than a typical roof, but it can reduce energy costs over a building’s lifetime and reduce storm-water runoff. Green roofs also provide havens for wildlife. Such structures are less common in the United States than in Japan and some European countries, notably Germany, and proponents urge their more widespread adoption. The authors of the article, Erica Oberndorfer and colleagues, argue for further research to better understand the functioning of green-roof ecosystems and to determine which plant species are most beneficial in roof plantings. The researchers note that the development of improved cost-benefit models for green roofs could spur the more widespread adoption of the technology. A photograph of the dramatic, almost-complete green roof on the new California Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco appears on the cover of the issue. The complete list of research articles in the November 2007 BioScience is as follows: Green Roofs as Urban Ecosystems: Ecological Structures, Functions, and Services Sperm Delivery in Flowering Plants: The Control of Pollen Tube Growth The Ecological Significance of the Herbaceous Layer in Temperate Forest Ecosystems Soil Sensor Technology: Life within a Pixel Global Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Natural History Museum Visitors’ Understanding of Evolution ContactJennifer Williams
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