The Role of Landscape-Scale Factors in Shaping Urban Bird Communities

Litteral, Jennifer; Shochat, Eyal

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43314-1_8

Cited by 19 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Although there was a trend toward lower urban species richness, the difference was not statistically significant perhaps due to relatively small sample sizes, especially within some regions. A number of studies show that species richness can be maintained even in highly modified landscapes as specialized species are replaced by a similar number of more generalist and less sensitive species Litteral and Shochat, 2017). Indeed, the urban locations in our study contain diverse avian assemblages and their species richness at our focal city level scale could be maintained by persistence of rarer species within remnants of high quality habitats within the urban area.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Impacts of Urban Areas and Their Characteristics on Avian Functional Diversity

Hagen

Ibáñez‐Álamo

et al. 2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Urban development is rapidly expanding across the globe and is a major driver of environmental change. Despite considerable improvements in our understanding of how species richness responds to urbanization, there is still insufficient knowledge of how other measures of assemblage composition and structure respond to urban development. Functional diversity metrics provide a useful approach for quantifying ecological function. We compare avian functional diversity in 25 urban areas, located across the globe, with paired non-urban assemblages using a database of 27 functional traits that capture variation in resource use (amount and type of resources and how they are acquired) across the 529 species occurring across these assemblages. Using three standard functional diversity metrics (FD, MNTD, and convex hull) we quantify observed functional diversity and, using standardized effect sizes, how this diverges from that expected under random community assembly null models. We use regression trees to investigate whether human population density, amount of vegetation and city size (spatial extent of urban land), bio-region and use of semi-natural or agricultural assemblages as a baseline modulate the effect of urbanization on functional diversity. Our analyses suggest that observed functional diversity of urban avian assemblages is not consistently different from that of non-urban assemblages. After accounting for species richness avian functional diversity is higher in cities than areas of semi-natural habitat. This creates a paradox as species responses to urban development are determined by their ecological traits, which should generate assemblages clustered within a narrow range of trait space. Greater habitat diversity within cities compared to semi-natural areas dominated by a single habitat may enhance functional diversity in cities and explain this paradox. Regression trees further suggest that smaller urban areas, lower human population densities and increased vegetation all enhance the functional diversity of urban areas. A city's attributes can thus influence the functional diversity of its biological assemblages, and their associated ecological functions. This has important implications for the debate regarding how we should grow the world's cities whilst maintaining their ecological function.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Impacts of Urban Areas and Their Characteristics on Avian Functional Diversity

Hagen

Ibáñez‐Álamo

et al. 2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Our results indicate that interactive effects among habitat attributes measured at different spatial scales can play an important role in shaping ecosystem processes and services and should therefore be considered in spatially heterogeneous ecosystems such as cities (Denno et al., ; Goddard, Dougill, & Benton, ; Litteral & Shochat, ; Tscharntke et al., ). Similarly, ecosystem processes that rely on species interaction may not necessarily be negatively affected by moderate levels of urbanization, as it is frequently assumed (González‐Gómez et al., ; Kozlov et al., ; Philipott & Bichier, ; Ryall & Fahrig, ; Turrini et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…We used a publicly Woody vegetation cover was used to estimate habitat amount and was defined as the proportion of woody vegetation in the entire ALS point cloud in each area investigated. We adopted a multiscale experimental design, in which the garden-level variables were held constant, while the spatial extent at which the habitat amount was measured was increased stepwise (Wheatley & Johnson, 2009), as the proportion of cover in 50-, 100-, 250-, and 500-m radius circles around each garden (Litteral & Shochat, 2017; Table S1). We considered multiple spatial scales because organisms and associated ecosystem processes, such as predation, are affected by factors that act at multiple spatial scales (Levin, 1992;Ryall & Fahrig, 2006).…”

Section: Measures Of Habitat Amount and Heterogeneitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We considered multiple spatial scales because organisms and associated ecosystem processes, such as predation, are affected by factors that act at multiple spatial scales (Levin, 1992;Ryall & Fahrig, 2006). Based on previous research on urban birds and arthropods (i.e., small insectivorous birds and ground-dwelling arthropod predators) in Zurich and elsewhere we opted for a combination of several small (i.e., 50-250 m) and one large (≥500 m) spatial scale (Braaker et al, 2014;Fontana, Sattler, Bontadina, & Moretti, 2011;Hostetler & Holling, 2000;Litteral & Shochat, 2017;Turrini & Knop, 2015).…”

Section: Measures Of Habitat Amount and Heterogeneitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predation risk shaped by habitat and landscape complexity in urban environments

Frey

Vega

Zellweger

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Habitat loss and modification are hallmarks of anthropogenic ecosystems, but the consequences for ecosystem functioning and service provisioning often remain unclear. Understanding these links in cities is complicated by strong but fine‐scale differences in habitat structure among green space patches, and a high variance in habitat amount across urban landscapes. We used airborne laser scanning data to disentangle the effects of 3D woody habitat heterogeneity of urban home gardens, and woody habitat amount at four landscape spatial scales (50, 100, 250, and 500 m), on the predation risk of artificial sentinel prey by birds and arthropods. In both predator groups, and at all the investigated spatial scales, cross‐scale interactive effects between garden habitat heterogeneity and habitat amount in the urban landscape were the main drivers of predation. Risk of predation by birds was highest in heterogeneous garden habitats, but only in densely built urban landscapes where habitat amount was low to intermediate (10%–20%) at large spatial scales (250–500 m). It dropped independently of garden habitat heterogeneity when habitat amount became too low (<10%) at small (50–100 m) spatial scales. In contrast, risk of predation by arthropods mostly peaked in homogeneous garden habitats when habitat amount was intermediate (20%) at large spatial scales. Our findings show that the ability of urban green space patches, such as gardens, to sustain ecosystem functions in cities mainly depends on cross‐scale interactive effects with larger scale habitat amount. In birds, predation activity can increase when high patch‐scale habitat heterogeneity contrasts with reduced larger scale habitat amount, suggesting concentration effects. Yet, thresholds exist under which ecosystem functioning drops independently of habitat structure. Synthesis and applications. The potential of small‐scale interventions to enhance habitat heterogeneity (e.g., by planting native trees with understorey shrubs) for restoring ecosystem functions, such as bird predation, in urban areas is dependent on wider landscape habitat structure. Urban planning should therefore adopt a multiscale approach to sustain and restore ecosystem functions and services; a simple but still not broadly recognized finding. Airborne laser scanning is a useful tool to infer habitat structure across a hierarchy of scales in spatially heterogeneous anthropogenic ecosystems.

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“…Our results found that specialist species are least urban-tolerant, suggesting that focusing on managing habitat for those species with life history traits that make them less likely to be found in urban environments could help maintain biodiversity. As one example, focus could be on protecting intact native vegetation (Sushinsky et al 2013) connected by corridors (Litteral and Shochat 2017), heavily utilized by granivores, advantaging granivorous species detrimentally affected by landscape fragmentation and disturbance (Devictor et al 2008). Further, increasing insect abundance and diversity in urban environments is potentially important (Baldock et al 2015), given collapsing insect populations around the world (Hallmann et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalists are the most urban‐tolerant of birds: a phylogenetically controlled analysis of ecological and life history traits using a novel continuous measure of bird responses to urbanization

Callaghan

Major

Wilshire

et al. 2019

Oikos

155

152

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Identifying which ecological and life history traits influence a species’ tolerance to urbanization is critical to understanding the trajectory of biodiversity in an increasingly urbanizing world. There is evidence for a wide array of contrasting patterns for single trait associations with urbanization. In a continental‐scale analysis, incorporating 477 species and >5 000 000 bird observations, we developed a novel and scalable methodology that evaluated the ecological and life history traits which most influence a species’ adaptability to persist in urban environments. Specifically, we assigned species‐specific scores based on continuous measures of response to urbanization, using VIIRS night‐time light values (i.e. radiance) as a proxy for urbanization. We identified generalized, phylogenetically controlled patterns: bird species which are generalists (i.e. large niche breadth), with large clutch size, and large residual brain size are among the most urban‐tolerant bird species. Conversely, specialized feeding strategies (i.e. insectivores and granivores) were negatively associated with urbanization. Enhancement and persistence of avian biodiversity in urban environments probably relies on protecting, maintaining and restoring diverse habitats serving a range of life history strategies.

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The Role of Landscape-Scale Factors in Shaping Urban Bird Communities

Cited by 19 publications

References 83 publications

Impacts of Urban Areas and Their Characteristics on Avian Functional Diversity

Impacts of Urban Areas and Their Characteristics on Avian Functional Diversity

Predation risk shaped by habitat and landscape complexity in urban environments

Generalists are the most urban‐tolerant of birds: a phylogenetically controlled analysis of ecological and life history traits using a novel continuous measure of bird responses to urbanization

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