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The human population is rapidly urbanizing. While this will undoubtedly present challenges for humans it will also place pressure on birds in these areas. To better manage these spaces in a manner that promotes avian biodiversity, we must first come to understand how human development affects the distribution and abundance of bird species and guilds within cities and if patterns observed previously in large cities can be extended to smaller ones. Breeding birds were surveyed along a gradient of increasing urbanization in Iowa City, Iowa, during the summers of 2014 and 2015. Study areas included a forested park, recreational park, low density residential area, medium density residential area, high density/mixed-use area, and urban core. Birds were censused a total of four times at each site using variable circular plot counts. Landscape characteristics were measured using a high resolution land cover dataset and tree canopy model. Regression models were developed to investigate relationships between the bird community and land cover characteristics. Bird species richness, diversity, and evenness all decreased with increasing urbanization, while biomass and the number of individuals peaked in the urban core. The community shifted from non-native, resident, granivorous, multi-brooding building nesters in highly developed areas to native, migrant, invertivorous, single-brooding, tree and tree cavity nesters at the least developed sites. Regression models indicated varied relationships among landscape characteristics and species richness and community prevalence of functional guilds. Native, migratory, invertivorous, tree cavity-nesting, and single-brooding species showed negative relationships to variables measuring the built environment, while non-native, resident, granivorous, building nesting, and multi-brooding species showed positive relationships to these measures. Overall, the response of avian functional guilds to varying levels of urban intensity in Iowa City were remarkably similar to the results of previous studies. This suggests that much of what has been learned previously concerning avian responses to human development can be extended to planning and implementing conservation strategies in smaller cities.
Now that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, the study of birds in urban ecosystems has emerged at the forefront of ornithological research. An international team of leading researchers in urban bird ecology and conservation from across Europe and North America presents the state of this diverse field, addressing classic questions while proposing new directions for further study. Areas of particular focus include the processes underlying patterns of species shifts along urban-rural gradients, the demography of urban birds and the role of citizen science, and human-avian interaction in urban areas. This important reference fills a crucial need for scientists, planners, and managers of urban spaces and all those interested in the study and conservation of birds in the world’s expanding metropolises.
Urbanization is next to global warming the largest threat to biodiversity. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly evident that many bird species get locally extinct as a result of urban development. However, many bird species benefit from urbanization, especially through the abundance of human-provided resources, and increase in abundance and densities. These birds are intriguing to study in relation to its resilience and adaption to urban environments, but also in relation to its susceptibility and the potential costs of urban life. This Research Topic consisting of 30 articles (one review, two meta-analyzes and 27 original data papers) provides insights into species and population responses to urbanization through diverse lenses, including biogeography, community ecology, behaviour, life history evolution, and physiology.
One of the most striking and persistent ways humans dominate Earth is by changing land-cover as we settle a region. Much of our ecological understanding about this process comes from studies of birds, yet the existing literature is scattered, mostly decades old, and rarely synthesized or standardized. The twenty-seven contributions authored by leaders in the fields of avian and urban ecology present a unique summary of current research on birds in settled environments ranging from wildlands to exurban, rural to urban. Ecologists, land managers, wildlife managers, evolutionary ecologists, urban planners, landscape architects, and conservation biologists will find our information useful because we address the conservation and evolutionary implications of urban life from an ecological and planning perspective. Graduate students in these fields also will find the volume to be a useful summary and synthesis of current research, extant literature, and prescriptions for future work. All interested in human-driven land-cover changes will benefit from a perusal of this book because we present high altitude photographs of each study area.
This edited volume adopts an evolutionary framework to explore how pre-existing differences in life history, behaviour, and physiology of birds may determine the course of their adaptation to urban habitats.
Urbanization is next to global warming the largest threat to biodiversity. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly evident that many bird species get locally extinct as a result of urban development. However, many bird species benefit from urbanization, especially through the abundance of human-provided resources, and increase in abundance and densities. These birds are intriguing to study in relation to its resilience and adaption to urban environments, but also in relation to its susceptibility and the potential costs of urban life. This Research Topic consisting of 30 articles (one review, two meta-analyzes and 27 original data papers) provides insights into species and population responses to urbanization through diverse lenses, including biogeography, community ecology, behaviour, life history evolution, and physiology.
This book provides syntheses of ecological theories and overarching patterns of urban bird ecology that have only recently become available. The numerous habitats represented in this book ranges from rows of trees in wooded alleys, to wastelands and remnants of natural habitats encapsulated in the urban matrix. Authored by leading scientists in this emergent field, the chapters explore how the characteristics of the habitat in urban environments influence bird communities and populations at multiple levels of ecological organization and at different spatial and temporal scales, and how this information should be incorporated in urban planning to achieve an effective conservation of bird fauna in urban environments. Birds are among the most conspicuous and fascinating residents of urban neighborhoods and provide urban citizens with everyday wildlife contact all over the world. However, present urbanization trends are rapidly depleting their habitats, and thus knowledge of urban bird ecology is urgently needed if birds are to thrive in cities. The book is unique in its inclusion of examples from all continents (except Antarctica) in an effort to arrive at a more holistic perspective. Among other issues, the individual chapters address the censusing of birds in urban green spaces; the relationship between bird communities and the structure of urban green spaces; the role of exotic plant species as food sources for urban bird fauna; the influence of artificial light and pollutants on bird fauna; trends in long-term urban bird research, and transdisciplinary studies on bird sounds and their effects on humans. Several chapters investigate how our current knowledge of the ecology of urban bird fauna should be applied in order to achieve better management of urban habitats so as to achieve conservation of species or even increase species diversity. The book also provides a forward-looking summary on potential research directions. As such, it provides a valuable resource for urban ecologists, urban ecology students, landscape architects, city planners, decision makers and anyone with an interest in urban ornithology and bird conservation. Moreover, it provides a comprehensive overview for researchers in the fields of ecology and conservation of urban bird fauna.
The study of the ecological landscape is vital to understanding processes of disturbance, particularly in patchy urban and urbanizing areas. The study of urban ecosystems is becoming increasingly important as urban and suburban development stretch into previously rural areas. In studying urban areas, birds have frequently been used as biological indicators of habitat quality. Urban development has often been shown to decrease habitat quality for birds, but old fields (abandoned agricultural fields) frequently function as refuges for a variety of grassland birds. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of traffic density and urban development on old field birds in the Twin Cities Metro Area in east central Minnesota. Old field bird communities along a gradient of urban development in east central Minnesota were studied during post-breeding in 2005 and peak breeding season in 2006. Bird census data were collected both summers and analyzed using direct and indirect gradient analysis. In order to better understand the patterns of bird usage of old fields, a variety of environmental variables were measured, which describe the characteristics of the fields and surrounding landscape. GIS analysis and field data collection were used to gather these environmental variables. They included hourly traffic density, vegetation cover at each site, and landscape metrics such as percent surrounding agricultural lands at various spatial scales for each study site. The results showed that traffic density plays a dominant role in the effects of the gradient of urban development on old field birds. These bird communities respond differently to the gradient of urban development during peak breeding season and post-breeding season, with larger, more diverse communities in low-traffic fields during the breeding season and larger communities in high-traffic fields post-breeding season. Agricultural fields may support grassland bird species as secondary habitat, but their presence within the landscape may contribute to decreasing use of old fields by ecotone bird species. These findings indicate that future urban development, decreasing agricultural lands and increasing traffic density, will significantly decrease breeding bird abundance and species richness in old field bird populations unless management actions are taken. Native grassland and ecotone species will be particularly impacted by these landscape changes. However, landscape metrics point to a relatively small zone of landscape influence of approximately 100 meters. If old fields are buffered from traffic and development during the breeding season, old field birds may be able to maintain viable populations within an urban landscape.
While the intent of establishing protected areas was originally to preserve natural areas for human enjoyment, most have now taken on the role of both providing recreational opportunities and protecting natural communities. While many protected areas prohibit development within their boundaries, they attract development around their periphery. Such development increases conservation pressure on the associated protected area by changing land use patterns outside the protected area, and inside the protected area with potentially increased recreational use. Understanding whether these anthropogenic changes in and near protected areas have demographic, community, or distributional consequences for native species is vital to our ability to maintain species diversity and ensure population persistence. Within the context of this broader question, I examined whether the rural development around protected areas and recreational trails and trail use within protected areas have altered bird communities in the Baraboo Hills of Wisconsin. First, I investigated whether forest bird communities have changed in the Baraboo Hills between the late 1970s and the early 2000s due to changes in forest cover or housing density. I found that there was no change in forest cover or housing density between survey periods. Bird communities have become more similar between surveys, not due to changes in forest cover or housing density, but appears to have been primarily associated with successional changes of the forest. Second, I investigated the effects of trails and trail use in protected areas on forest bird communities. I found that while bird species richness was not associated with recreational trails or trail use, the densities of most species were negatively associated with both trail use and trail width. Trails and trail use can also affect nest success, possibly by altering nest attendance behavior. I found that the nest success of Acadian Flycatchers (Empidonax virescens) was negatively associated with trail use. This suggests that both the presence of humans, and the presence of the trail itself, negatively affect forest bird communities. I recommend that the construction of new trails in forested protected areas should be limited, and that trail width should be minimized for newly constructed trails.