Avian species richness in cities: A review of the Spanish-language literature from the Southern Cone of South America

Abstract

South America sustains an important part of the world's terrestrial biodiversity and presents a high urbanization level. Global syntheses have revealed a paucity of urban ecological research in this region; however, local research might be overlooked due to language barriers. To contribute to disseminate local knowledge, we synthesized the Spanish-language literature on bird species richness in the Southern Cone of South America -an area of high diversity, endemism, and more than half of the world's terrestrial biomes. In this systematic review, we identi ed patterns and trends in the literature, and the variables that in uence bird species richness. Most research was performed in large cities, focused on green areas (large urban parks), short-termed (1 year or less) and involved one season only (reproductive). The most studied biomes were Temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands, and Mediterranean and Temperate forests, and no study was found in mountains or deserts. Bird species richness in cities from the Southern Cone was positively in uenced by vegetation cover and plant and habitat diversity; whereas variables associated with urban cover and disturbance exhibited negative effects. Important gaps of knowledge include research in small and medium size cities, in overlooked biomes (desserts, xeric shrublands, montane grasslands and shrublands), long-term research, comprising different seasons, including green space other than urban parks, and interdisciplinary studies that consider environmental, social, and economic components of urban ecosystems. By lling these key knowledge gaps, researchers from South America can contribute to the development of science-based actions to preserve nature in an urbanizing world.Urban ecology can provide data, principles, concepts, and tools to create livable and sustainable cities (Chace & Walsh 2006). Therefore, it is necessary continue strengthen our knowledge of the factors in uencing biodiversity to promote management, new public policies and development strategies for sustainable and biodiverse cities. DeclarationsEthics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable.

Abundance of Non-Native Birds in the City: Spatial Variation and Relationship with Socioeconomics in a South American City

“…The counts were conducted in autumn and winter since, in Mediterranean climates, autumn is a transitional season with moderate temperatures and increasing rainfall, while winter is colder, wetter period, with more frequent and intense rainfall [31]. These environmental modifications can generate changes in the composition of bird species due to migration [32] and food availability [33]; however, few prior urban studies focused on these seasons [34]. In each season, all sites were visited by two observers on different days, who recorded all birds seen or heard within 5 min in a radius of 50 m [23,35].…”

Urban Ecosystem Services in South America: A Systematic Review

“…We used Google Scholar (https://www.scholar.google.com, accessed on 18 February 2021) to search documents, with help of Publish or Perish software [18]. Google Scholar was preferred over other search engines, such as Web of Science or Scopus, because it comprises documents from different languages and includes a large number of documents in the Spanish language [19]. In addition, it contains articles in indexed journals as well as the grey literature [20].…”

Artificial Green Corridors in an Andean City as Effective Support of Avian Diversity

“…Birds in cities have received considerable attention (e.g., 1344 documents in the Scopus database found with a combination of the following keywords: "(urban OR city) AND bird diversity", obtained on 7 December 2022). Urbanization selects for omnivores, granivores, and aerial and ground-foraging insectivores, and it favors cavity-nesting species and residents over migratory species [3,4]. It decreases species richness and increases the population size of invasive species, and the divergence between undisturbed and urbanized…”