Do Highways Influence Density of Land Birds?

Kuitunen, Markku; Rossi, Eliandra Mirlei; Stenroos, Arto

doi:10.1007/s002679900105

Cited by 45 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Our investigation is in agreement with a range of studies demonstrating the decline in numbers and species in the vicinity of roads carrying heavy traffic (Reijnen and Foppen 1994;Reijnen et al 1995;Kuitunen et al 1998, Rheindt 2003Ingelfinger and Anderson 2004;Palomino and Carrascal 2007;Benitez-López et al 2010;Summers et al 2011). An important insight emerging from our study is that the species particularly sensitive to road traffic were those nesting near the ground and with low-frequency calls.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The effect of road traffic on a breeding community of woodland birds

et al. 2013

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The very rapid development of the road infrastructure in recent years has adversely affected the natural environment. The main effects of this have been the loss or deteriorating quality of habitats, the mortality of animals due to collisions with road vehicles, the withdrawal of birds as a result of disturbance and excessive noise in the neighbourhood of roads. In this study, we attempted to define the influence of a busy road on a breeding community of woodland birds. Individuals were counted using the point method at 54 observation points located at three various distances (60, 310, 560 m) from the road. At each point, we determined the habitat parameters and the intensity of noise. In total, 995 individuals of 39 species were recorded on the study plot. This study showed that the area was homogeneous with respect to habitat. The number of birds per point increased with distance from the road. Species diversity was lower near the road. The density of nine common species increased with distance from the road. Great Tit Parus major and Song Thrush Turdus philomelos preferred the neighbourhood of the road, whereas the numbers of the other species were the highest in the middle row of points. The number and species diversity of birds were correlated with the pattern of sound propagation across our study area. Our results showed that the species particularly sensitive to road traffic were those nesting near the ground and with low-frequency calls.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The effect of road traffic on a breeding community of woodland birds

et al. 2013

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“…They did not examine the effect of road density, however. Other studies have found road density (van der Zande et al 1980;Hennings and Edge 2003) or distance to road (Kuitunen et al 1998;Brotons and Herrando 2001;Palomino and Carrascal 2007) to be important to bird communities, but our study is one of the few that has looked at both density and distance of different kinds of roads. Interestingly, type of road did not seem to be an important factor in determining bird communities; metrics for all roads combined were consistently selected over metrics for primary roads alone.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Forest bird communities across a gradient of urban development

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2009

Urban Ecosyst

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This study examined native bird communities in forest patches across a gradient of urbanization. We used field data and multivariate statistical techniques to examine the effects of landscape context, roads, traffic noise, and vegetation characteristics on bird community composition in the North Carolina Piedmont (U.S.A.). Landscape-level variables, particularly those related to urbanization, were most important in structuring forest bird communities. Specifically, we found that road density and amount of urban land cover were the best predictors of species composition. We found that urban and rural bird communities were quite distinct from each other. Rural communities had more longdistance migrants and forest interior species but species richness did not differ between the communities. Our results suggest some specific guidelines to target bird species of interest both inside and outside of urban areas. For example, if increasing numbers of migratory species is of primary concern, then conservation areas should be located outside of urban boundaries or in areas with low road density. However, if maximizing species richness is the focus, location of the conservation area may not be as important if the conservation area is surrounded by at least 50 m of forest habitat in all directions.

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“…Higher temperatures, intensive lighting, chemical pollution and less vegetation coverage are properties common to all city environments (Slabbekoorn and Ripmeester, 2008), and these conditions are similar among all urban areas, leading to a homogeneous biodiversity (Clergeau et al, 2006;McKinney, 2006). In the case of birds, several studies have shown decreasing population densities in habitats close to anthropogenic infrastructures (van der Zande et al, 1980;Reijnen et al, 1995Reijnen et al, , 1996Kuitunen et al, 1998;Rheindt, 2003;Peris and Pescador, 2004). Along the gradient, species composition varies (Clergeau et al, 1998;Blair, 2001), the proportion between native and exotic species may change (van Heezik et al, 2008), and the same species may evolve into different subpopulations in different habitats (Badyaev et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%