Floodplain Forests and Urban Parks – A Brief Comparison of Bird Diversity

Abstract

Urbanization in cultural landscapes generally tends to select for omnivorous, granivorous, and cavity/hole nesting bird species in green urban areas. Studies on bird diversity in the cities are important to better understanding to the ecology of urban and sub-urban landscapes. The aim of this study was research on bird diversity in urban parks in Olomouc city in order to brief comparison with bird diversity in hardwood floodplain forest habitats based on our older above-mentioned study. Bird diversity in urban parks was very similar to the bird diversity in some localities of floodplain forests from the Czech Republic. Comparison between urban parks and hardwood floodplain forests in the vicinity of the city revealed a high similarity of alpha-diversity and diversity indexes. These results indicated that large urban parks have nearly the same importance for bird diversity such as managed hardwood floodplain forests. Results highlighted an importance of urban green areas for biodiversity maintaining in European cultural landscapes.

Evaluation of Regulating and Provisioning Services Provided by a Park Designed to Be Resilient to Climate Change in Bangkok, Thailand

“…The monetary estimation of regulating and provisioning services provided by this park was much lower than its cost of construction (approximate USD 0.1 vs. USD 45 million). However, other types of regulating and provisioning services were not included in this study, nor were culturing and supporting services [56], which could increase the monetary value offered by the park. As most ecosystem services are intangible assets, which are difficult to evaluate in terms of monetary value, the method of such monetary estimations are highly dependent on the people and their willingness to pay to maintain the ecosystem.…”