Nestedness and underlying processes of bird assemblages in Nanjing urban parks

Tan, Xinwei; Yang, Xueru; Chen, Chuanwu; Wang, and Yanping

doi:10.1093/cz/zoaa069

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(111 reference statements)

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“…We chose a total of 37 city parks in the highly urbanized areas of Nanjing ( Fig. 1) (Tan et al 2020). Prior to the formal surveys, potential parks were determined by using the satellite map and field inspection.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of urban park characteristics on bird diversity in Nanjing, China

et al. 2020

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Background Habitat loss, fragmentation and decrease of habitat quality caused by urbanization have led to a dramatic decline in biodiversity worldwide. For highly urbanized areas, parks have become “islands” or habitat fragments for wildlife. As an important indicator group of urban ecosystem health, the response of birds to urbanization has attracted the global attention of ecologists. Understanding the key factors affecting bird diversity in urbanized environment is crucial to the protection of biodiversity in urban ecosystems. Methods We used the line-transect method to survey birds in 37 urban parks in Nanjing, China. We also measured a number of park characteristics (area, isolation, shape index, environmental noise, distance to city center, and habitat diversity) that are commonly assumed to influence bird diversity. We then used the information-theoretic multi-model inference approach to determine which park characteristics had significant impacts on bird species richness. Results We found that park area, habitat diversity and the distance to city center were the best positive predictors of bird species richness in Nanjing urban parks. By contrast, park isolation, park shape and environmental noise had little or no influence on bird diversity. Conclusions Our study highlights the importance of park area, habitat diversity and the distance to city center in determining bird diversity in Nanjing city parks. Therefore, from a conservation viewpoint, we recommend that large parks with complex and diverse habitats far away from the city center should be retained or constructed to increase bird diversity in urban design and planning.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of urban park characteristics on bird diversity in Nanjing, China

et al. 2020

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“…( 2017 ) and Tan et al. ( 2020 ). We also found that ecological traits directly related to species migration ability did not significantly contribute to the observed nested patterns, indicating that isolation degree may not be a clear indicator of the migration ability of a species; alternatively, ecology functions could be obscure (Wang et al., 2013 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…For each fragment, we selected several habitat variables that are commonly considered to influence species nestedness: area, isolation, habitat diversity, and human disturbance (Chen et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2013 ). Measures of isolation included distance to the nearest larger fragment (Isolation 1) and distance to the fragment, which held the highest species richness (species pool, Isolation 2; Wang et al., 2013 ; Tan et al., 2020 ). We used principal component analysis (PCA) to describe the corrections among the above habitat variables under the rank orders of fragments after developing the species‐by‐site matrix using NeD.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We collected data on six life‐history ecological traits associated with bird colonization and extinction rate: body size, clutch size, geographic range size, dispersal ratio, occupied habitat (habitat specificity), and minimum area requirement (Table 2 ; Tan et al., 2020 ). The information regarding the first four traits was acquired from data published by Wang et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nestedness theory suggests wetland fragments with large areas and macrophyte diversity benefit waterbirds

Wang

Yang

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Many artificial wetland constructions are currently underway worldwide to compensate for the degradation of natural wetland systems. Researchers face the responsibility of proposing wetland management and species protection strategies to ensure that constructed wetlands positively impact waterbird diversity. Nestedness is a commonly occurring pattern for biotas in fragmented habitats with important implications for conservation; however, only a few studies have focused on seasonal waterbird communities in current artificial wetlands. In this study, we used the nestedness theory for analyzing the annual and seasonal community structures of waterbirds in artificial wetlands at Lake Dianchi (China) to suggest artificial wetland management and waterbird conservation strategies. We carried out three waterbird surveys per month for one year to observe the annual, spring, summer, autumn, and winter waterbird assemblages in 27 lakeside artificial wetland fragments. We used the NeD program to quantify nestedness patterns of waterbirds at the annual and seasonal levels. We also determined Spearman partial correlations to examine the associations of nestedness rank and habitat variables to explore the factors underlying nestedness patterns. We found that annual and all four seasonal waterbird compositions were nested, and selective extinction and habitat nestedness were the main factors governing nestedness. Further, selective colonization was the key driver of nestedness in autumn and winter waterbirds. We suggest that the area of wetland fragments should be as large as possible and that habitat heterogeneity should be maximized to fulfill the conservation needs of different seasonal waterbirds. Furthermore, we suggest that future studies should focus on the least area criterion and that vegetation management of artificial wetland construction should be based on the notion of sustainable development for humans and wildlife.

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“…To explore the importance of green space towards the state of ecological communities, the concept of nestedness proposed by Darlington (1957) has been used to describing the distribution pattern of animals (Bascompte et al 2003; Tan et al 2021; Pinheiro et al 2021). Based on the concept of island biogeography, the richness of species is distributed in association with the migration and extinction probability determined by the size and the isolation level of the correspondent habitat conditions (MacArthur and Wilson 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting Nestedness in City Parks for Urban Biodiversity Conservation

Chen

Cheng

2022

Preprint

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Urbanization has been a global phenomenon producing great environmental and ecological challenges including species composition shifts in urban areas. To evaluate the interaction networks of the inhabitant metacommunities in urban parks, we applied the nestedness analysis using ecological survey data of birds, reptiles, frogs, and butterflies among 16 parks in the Taipei city of Taiwan, and identified critical environmental factors for biodiversity conservation. Results found significant nestedness of the metacommunities among these parks, which indicated strong interaction networks and the importance of urban parks for sustaining these metacommunities. In addition, results showed that area of parks and area of trees were critical elements for the nested structure. However, abundant bird generalists were found to be highly related to the area of buildings within parks, distance to forests, rivers, and the neighboring parks. Moreover, the exotic species were found to affect the interaction networks of native species; yet reptiles and frogs were appeared to be more easily threatened by land development and habitat fragmentation due to their lower mobility. In this regard, we suggest that conservation action should focus on preserving green space with large areas and constructing the green corridors, creating crucial elements, and increasing the vertical complexity in the parks for various mobility level species. We also recommend to controlling the introduction of the exotic species and retaining healthy interactions and connections of metacommunities for effective biodiversity conservation in urban areas.

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Nestedness and underlying processes of bird assemblages in Nanjing urban parks

Cited by 14 publications

References 48 publications

The influence of urban park characteristics on bird diversity in Nanjing, China

The influence of urban park characteristics on bird diversity in Nanjing, China

Nestedness theory suggests wetland fragments with large areas and macrophyte diversity benefit waterbirds

Detecting Nestedness in City Parks for Urban Biodiversity Conservation

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