Identifying the ecological causes of long-term declines of wetland-dependent birds in an urbanizing landscape

Ward, Michael P.; Semel, Brad; Herkert, James R.

doi:10.1007/s10531-010-9893-y

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This was shown for bird communities in wetlands in the urbanized regions of Chicago (USA; Ward et al. ) and Melbourne (Australia; Murray et al. ).…”

Section: Impact Of Urbanization On the Biodiversity Of Urban Ponds Anmentioning

confidence: 76%

Review: Toward management of urban ponds for freshwater biodiversity

2019

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Many cities around the world are expanding and this trend in urbanization is expected to sharply increase over coming decades. At the same time, the integration of green and blue spaces is widely promoted in urban development, potentially offering numerous benefits for biodiversity. This is particularly relevant for urban waterbodies, a type of ecosystem present in most cities. However, site managers often lack the knowledge base to promote biodiversity in these waterbodies, which are generally created to provide other ecosystem services. To address this, our review presents guidelines for promoting biodiversity in urban ponds. We found a total of 516 publications indexed in ISI Web of Sciences related to this topic, of which 279 were retained for the purposes of our review. The biodiversity of urban ponds, measured by species richness, appears to be generally lower than in rural ponds; however, urban ponds often support threatened species. Furthermore, if well managed, urban ponds have the potential to support a much greater biodiversity than they currently do. Indeed, this review shows that a range of urban factors can impair or promote pond biodiversity, including many that can easily be controlled by site managers. Local factors include design (surface area, pond depth, banks and margins, shade, shoreline irregularity), water quality (conductivity, nutrients, heavy metals), and hydroperiod and biotic characteristics (stands of vegetation, fish, invasive species). Important regional factors include several indicators of urbanization (roads, buildings, density of population, impervious surfaces, car traffic), and the presence of other wetlands or green spaces in the surrounding landscape. We considered each of these factors and their potential impact on freshwater biodiversity. Taking into account the management measures listed in the publications reviewed, we have proposed a framework for the management of urban ponds, with guidelines to promote biodiversity and other ecosystem services, and to avoid ecosystem disservices or the creation of ecological traps. At the city scale, the biodiversity of a pondscape benefits from a high diversity of pond types, differing in their environmental characteristics and management.

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“…This was shown for bird communities in wetlands in the urbanized regions of Chicago (USA; Ward et al. ) and Melbourne (Australia; Murray et al. ).…”

Section: Impact Of Urbanization On the Biodiversity Of Urban Ponds Anmentioning

confidence: 76%

Review: Toward management of urban ponds for freshwater biodiversity

2019

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“…These effects were attributed to changes in hydrology and vegetation structure of the wetland (Ward et al 2010). 5.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative effects of landscape‐scale wetland amount and landscape matrix quality on wetland vertebrates: a meta‐analysis

Quesnelle

Lindsay

Fahrig

2015

Ecological Applications

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Conservation management of wetland-dependent species generally focuses on preserving or increasing wetland habitat. However, the quality of the landscape matrix (the intervening non-wetland portion of the landscape) has been shown to be more important than wetland availability for some wetland-dependent species. We used meta-analysis to compare the effects of wetland amount (measured as the area of wetland habitat in a landscape) and matrix quality (measured as the area of forest cover in the same landscape) on the population abundance of wetland-dependent vertebrates. We combined data across 63 studies conducted in forested ecoregions worldwide and extracted 330 population responses for 155 species, at the spatial scale that best predicted the effects of wetland. amount and forest amount for each response. In addition, to ensure that our results were not biased by the scale selected, we assessed whether the relative effects of wetland and forest amount were scale dependent. We found that the amount of wetland in a landscape had a larger effect than the amount of forest on the abundance of mammals and birds whereas, surprisingly, for amphibians the amount of forest in a landscape was more important than the amount of wetland. For reptiles, both wetland amount and forest amount showed only weak,effects on abundance. These results were not scale dependent, i.e., they were consistent across spatial scales. Our results suggest that the population distribution of wetland-dependent amphibians is more strongly related to landscape matrix quality than to wetland availability in a landscape, likely due to their requirement for access to terrestrial resources. We conclude that conservation policies for wetland biodiversity that focus only on wetland habitat will be ineffective in conserving many of these species. In addition, population viability analyses based only on wetland amount may overestimate the capacity of a landscape to support populations of wetland-dependent species.

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“…Urban areas in this region may provide a favorable combination of isolated wetlands and open grasslands, such as parks, common open space, and soccer fields, where sandhill cranes can successfully nest and raise young. Although the wetlands that persist in urban areas might be generally degraded in terms of vegetation and structural diversity (Ward et al ), sandhill cranes will readily use densely vegetated wetlands for nesting. At relatively high densities sandhill cranes will nest in nearly any wetland (Barzen et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reproductive success of sandhill cranes in midwestern landscapes

2019

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A number of wildlife species have recovered from the brink of extinction to flourish and, in some cases, even become a commonly recognized urban species (e.g., Canada goose [Branta canadensis]). Broadly extirpated from much of their historical range in North America, the sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) demonstrated this potential for population recovery. The trajectory of the eastern population of greater sandhill cranes is remarkable—perhaps as many as 90,000 cranes now occur throughout the same Great Lakes states that reported only dozens of birds less than a century ago. However, understanding future population growth of the species remains uncertain because breeding birds are increasingly exposed to the pressures of urban sprawl and a changing agricultural landscape. From 2009 to 2014 we investigated the survival of sandhill crane nests and young up to 11 weeks of age (the point at which they are capable of flight) in the core of the eastern population's range in central Wisconsin and at its peripheral extent in a rapidly developing urban region of northeastern Illinois, USA. We located crane nests via systematic surveys on foot and from helicopters, we then radio‐tagged the young and monitored them until they died or were capable to sustained flight. Overall, young were more likely to hatch from nests in Illinois (60%) than in central Wisconsin (46%), regardless of differences in land cover surrounding the nest site. In contrast, the survivorship of young was positively correlated with urban land cover in both regions but higher in central Wisconsin (54%) than in northeast Illinois (27%). Overall, the probability of producing young was greater in landscapes with more urban development, regardless of region. We suggest that differences in predator composition, predator behavior, and crane density between rural and urban areas is the primary reason for the difference in crane productivity. Higher recruitment of sandhill cranes using urban landscapes may allow cranes to echo the population trajectory of urban Canada geese. We anticipate that sandhill cranes will continue to use urban landscapes, and likely expand their geographic range as breeding pairs benefit from the increased survivorship of young in those landscapes. © The Wildlife Society, 2019

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Identifying the ecological causes of long-term declines of wetland-dependent birds in an urbanizing landscape

Cited by 31 publications

References 18 publications

Review: Toward management of urban ponds for freshwater biodiversity

Review: Toward management of urban ponds for freshwater biodiversity

Relative effects of landscape‐scale wetland amount and landscape matrix quality on wetland vertebrates: a meta‐analysis

The reproductive success of sandhill cranes in midwestern landscapes

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