Breeding performance of blue tits (Cyanistes cæruleus ultramarinus) in relation to lead pollution and nest failure rates in rural, intermediate, and urban sites in Algeria

Brahmia, Zahra; Scheifler, Renaud; Crini, Nadia; Maas, Samuel; Giraudoux, Patrick; Benyacoub, Slim

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2012.11.028

Cited by 34 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…While several studies have compared avian breeding success between rural and urban areas (Solonen 2001, Isaksson and Andersson 2007, Björklund et al 2010, Bailly et al 2016) and some along urbanisation gradients (Peach et al 2008, Brahmia et al 2013), the majority lack information regarding spatial scale, thereby excluding the potential for additive urban effects or local-regional urbanisation interactions. Secondly, this study highlights the importance of a quantitative definition for urbanisation ); the fluid use of the term 'urban' among various studies incorporates a variety of inconsistent classifications across studies, making cross-study comparisons challenging (Moll et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanisation lowers great titParus majorbreeding success at multiple spatial scales

Satgé

Strubbe

Elst

et al. 2019

Journal of Avian Biology

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While numerous studies have reported negative effects of urbanisation on birds, few have examined the role of urban scale in influencing breeding success. Furthermore, many studies have relied on qualitative rather than quantitative assessments of urbanisation. This study sought to address these issues by testing the effects of urbanisation, measured at two spatial scales, on the breeding success of great tits Parus major. A nested study design, incorporating over 400 nestboxes, was used in study sites across northern Belgium with a priori quantified degrees of urbanisation at both local and regional scales. All measured breeding parameters were found to vary at one or both spatial scales of urbanisation; in more urbanised areas great tits displayed advanced laying dates but lower breeding success compared to rural areas, with smaller clutch sizes, lower nestling masses and fewer fledglings per egg. Importantly, urbanisation effects were not limited to big cities as birds breeding in gardens or parks in small towns also had comparatively low success. We found that both regional‐ and local‐scale urbanisation had consistent significant effects on laying date, clutch size and nestling mass, while the number of fledglings per egg was negatively influenced by local‐scale urbanisation only. Results of this study therefore highlight the importance of utilising multiple spatial scales in analysing urbanisation effects, as well as the potential negative impact of local urbanisation on breeding success. This calls for further investigation into mechanisms driving urbanisation effects and how these may vary at different scales.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanisation lowers great titParus majorbreeding success at multiple spatial scales

Satgé

Strubbe

Elst

et al. 2019

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…Rather than being affected by urbanization, CORT levels seem to be more dependent on species, sex, life-history stage, or even morphs studied. A good example to illustrate this lack of pattern comes from analyses of CORT levels in urban and rural house sparrows from three different cities: Phoenix (USA), Budapest (1998), Leston & Rodewald (2006), Marzluff & Neatherlin (2006), Rodewald & Shustack (2008a,b), Whittaker & Marzluff (2009) Laying date 10 (5) 7 (7) 3 (2) Eden (1985), Antonov & Atanasova (2003), Mennechez & Clergeau (2006), Hinsley et al (2008), Newhouse et al (2008), , Aldredge et al (2012), Stracey & Robinson (2012), Brahmia et al (2013), Strasser & Heath (2013), Solonen (2014), Solonen & Hilden (2014), Sumasgutner et al (2014), Lin et al (2015), Wawrzyniak et al (2015), Bailly et al (2016), Sprau et al (2016), Vaugoyeau et al (2016) attendance in eight different bird species, nest attendance was higher in four (Table S7), did not differ in three and was lower in one study with a small sample size (nine lesser kestrel, Falco naumanni nests, Liven-Schulman, Leshem, Alon, & Yom-Tov, 2004). This was sometimes associated with less quality food for offspring (e.g.…”

Section: Stress Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

Sepp

McGraw

Kaasik

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

121

145

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The concept of a pace-of-life syndrome describes inter- and intraspecific variation in several life-history traits along a slow-to-fast pace-of-life continuum, with long lifespans, low reproductive and metabolic rates, and elevated somatic defences at the slow end of the continuum and the opposite traits at the fast end. Pace-of-life can vary in relation to local environmental conditions (e.g. latitude, altitude), and here we propose that this variation may also occur along an anthropogenically modified environmental gradient. Based on a body of literature supporting the idea that city birds have longer lifespans, we predict that urban birds have a slower pace-of-life compared to rural birds and thus invest more in self maintenance and less in annual reproduction. Our statistical meta-analysis of two key traits related to pace-of-life, survival and breeding investment (clutch size), indicated that urban birds generally have higher survival, but smaller clutch sizes. The latter finding (smaller clutches in urban habitats) seemed to be mainly a characteristic of smaller passerines. We also reviewed urbanization studies on other traits that can be associated with pace-of-life and are related to either reproductive investment or self-maintenance. Though sample sizes were generally too small to conduct formal meta-analyses, published literature suggests that urban birds tend to produce lower-quality sexual signals and invest more in offspring care. The latter finding is in agreement with the adult survival hypothesis, proposing that higher adult survival prospects favour investment in fewer offspring per year. According to our hypothesis, differences in age structure should arise between urban and rural populations, providing a novel alternative explanation for physiological differences and earlier breeding. We encourage more research investigating how telomere dynamics, immune defences, antioxidants and oxidative damage in different tissues vary along the urbanization gradient, and suggest that applying pace-of-life framework to studies of variation in physiological traits along the urbanization gradient might be the next direction to improve our understanding of urbanization as an evolutionary process.

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“…This is the first time that a negative relationship has been shown between clutch size and intensity of urbanization in the two longdistance migratory flycatcher species (Both et al , 2006Laaksonen et al 2006;Mizuta 2006;Pulido 2007;Sisask et al 2010;Massa et al 2011;Smallegange et al 2011). More studies are needed to understand the underlying mechanism of intensity of urbanization on clutch size, and it is even possible that a reduction in clutch size was due to a combination of local conditions (Pearson and Lack 1992;Both et al 2006) determined by ambient temperature (Burrows et al 2011;Stocker et al 2013), artificial night light (Small and Elvidge 2011;Dominoni et al 2014;Fonken and Nelson 2014), food availability (Stenning 1995;Robb et al 2008a,b;Saggese et al 2011), avian population density (Krebs 1970;Stenning et al 1988), nest predation by cats (Zanette et al 2011), or vandalism (Brahmia et al 2013).…”

Section: <001mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies of the effects of urbanization on avian life history variables have often relied on a single or a couple of populations (Hõrak et al 2002;Isaksson and Andersson 2007;Chamberlain et al 2009;Brahmia et al 2013), which does not allow for generalizations or inferences regarding spatial heterogeneity. The aim of this study was to relate breeding ecology to the intensity of local urbanization, a proxy of density and influence of humans on ecosystem, by analyzing laying dates and clutch sizes in four species of hole-nesting passerine birds, in relation to the degree of urbanization across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interspecific variation in the relationship between clutch size, laying date and intensity of urbanization in four species of hole‐nesting birds

Vaugoyeau

Adriaensen

Artemyev

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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The increase in size of human populations in urban and agricultural areas has resulted in considerable habitat conversion globally. Such anthropogenic areas have specific environmental characteristics, which influence the physiology, life history, and population dynamics of plants and animals. For example, the date of bud burst is advanced in urban compared to nearby natural areas. In some birds, breeding success is determined by synchrony between timing of breeding and peak food abundance. Pertinently, caterpillars are an important food source for the nestlings of many bird species, and their abundance is influenced by environmental factors such as temperature and date of bud burst. Higher temperatures and advanced date of bud burst in urban areas could advance peak caterpillar abundance and thus affect breeding phenology of birds. In order to test whether laying date advance and clutch sizes decrease with the intensity of urbanization, we analyzed the timing of breeding and clutch size in relation to intensity of urbanization as a measure of human impact in 199 nest box plots across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East (i.e., the Western Palearctic) for four species of hole‐nesters: blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), great tits (Parus major), collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis), and pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca). Meanwhile, we estimated the intensity of urbanization as the density of buildings surrounding study plots measured on orthophotographs. For the four study species, the intensity of urbanization was not correlated with laying date. Clutch size in blue and great tits does not seem affected by the intensity of urbanization, while in collared and pied flycatchers it decreased with increasing intensity of urbanization. This is the first large‐scale study showing a species‐specific major correlation between intensity of urbanization and the ecology of breeding. The underlying mechanisms for the relationships between life history and urbanization remain to be determined. We propose that effects of food abundance or quality, temperature, noise, pollution, or disturbance by humans may on their own or in combination affect laying date and/or clutch size.

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Breeding performance of blue tits (Cyanistes cæruleus ultramarinus) in relation to lead pollution and nest failure rates in rural, intermediate, and urban sites in Algeria

Cited by 34 publications

References 21 publications

Urbanisation lowers great titParus majorbreeding success at multiple spatial scales

Urbanisation lowers great titParus majorbreeding success at multiple spatial scales

A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

Interspecific variation in the relationship between clutch size, laying date and intensity of urbanization in four species of hole‐nesting birds

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