Living in the big city: Effects of urban land-use on bird community structure, diversity, and composition

Ortega‐Álvarez, Rubén; MacGregor-Fors, Ian

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2008.11.003

Cited by 267 publications

(172 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In order to assess which environmental variables were related to House Sparrow numbers in the three surveyed cities, we reviewed previous studies relating the presence and abundances of urbanexploiter species to environmental variables (e.g., Kark et al 2007, Evans et al 2009, Murgui and Macías 2010, Ortega-Álvarez and MacGregor-Fors 2009, 2011. We identified 12 specific variables that describe vegetation structure, urban infrastructure, and human activity, which we sampled within the 50-m radius area at which we surveyed the sparrows: (1) tree cover, (2) tree abundance, (3) maximum tree diameter at breast height (DBH), (4) maximum tree height, (5) shrub cover, (6) maximum herbaceous plant height, (7) number of lamp poles, (8) number of telephone and electric power poles, (9) number of telephone and electric power cables, (10) maximum building height, (11) number of passing pedestrians in five min, and (12) number of passing cars in five min.…”

Section: Environmental Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies performed in Mexican cities, i.e., Mexico City, Morelia, that examined the effects of built cover and building height showed that avian communities in areas invaded by the sparrows had lower species richness in comparison to those of noninvaded areas (Ortega-Álvarez and MacGregor-Fors 2009). This indicates that House Sparrow success in invading nonnative areas, mainly through its synergistic interactions with human activity, is closely related to changes in the diversity, composition, and structure of native bird communities .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This indicates that House Sparrow success in invading nonnative areas, mainly through its synergistic interactions with human activity, is closely related to changes in the diversity, composition, and structure of native bird communities . More generally, another study found that urban residential bird communities can experience lower species richness but greater abundances, with those in commercial areas favoring generalist and urban exploiter species (Ortega-Álvarez and MacGregor-Fors 2009). Yet, the House Sparrow is comparably less abundant in other Mexican cities, e.g., Xalapa (Escobar-Ibáñez and MacGregor-Fors 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Space invaders: House Sparrow densities along three urban-agricultural landscapes

MacGregor-Fors

Quesada²,

Lee

et al. 2017

ACE

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ABSTRACT. One of the most successful avian urban invaders is the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). Here, we examine House Sparrow numbers in the urban-agricultural landscape of three cities, one where the sparrow is native (Barcelona) and two where it is nonnative (Los Angeles, Mexico City), comparing between five different land classes based on land-use, location relative to urban center, and urbanization intensity. We estimated sparrow densities using distance-sampling corrected procedures and compared sparrow numbers between the three cities and between the land classes within each city. This two-year survey showed the highest density of sparrows occurring in Mexico City and the lowest in Los Angeles. In both cities where the sparrow is nonnative, we recorded the greatest abundances in highly urbanized areas. In Barcelona, where the sparrow is native, abundances did not differ among land classes. We also related sparrow numbers to specific environmental variables, describing vegetation structure, urban infrastructure, and human activity, using classification and regression trees. We found several variables related to differences in House Sparrow abundances among the three cities. For Los Angeles and Mexico City, the most important variables explaining House Sparrow numbers were urban infrastructure (i.e., maximum building height, high urbanization) and/or human activity (i.e., pedestrians), all of which related positively with sparrow abundance. For Barcelona, sparrow numbers showed both positive and negative relationships with vegetation (i.e., tree abundance, maximum tree height, maximum herbaceous plant height) and human-related variables (i.e., cars, pedestrians). Although the scope of this study is geographically limited to three cities, our results suggest that House Sparrow numbers between cities and land classes areas vary considerably, and are likely determined by a complex array of variables. Our study provides some insight to the growth and decline of House Sparrow populations in their nonnative and native ranges, respectively. Alerte aux envahisseurs: Densités de moineaux domestiques au long de trois paysages agrico-urbainsRÉSUMÉ. Un des envahisseurs aviaires ayant le plus de succès est le Moineau Domestique (Passer domesticus). Ici, nous examinons les densités dans les zones agrico-urbaines de trois villes, une où le moineau est natif (Barcelone) et deux où l'espèce est considérée envahissante (Los Angeles, Mexico), en comparant entre cinq classifications terrestres établit selon l'utilisation du territoire, localisation relative au centre urbain, et l'intensité d'urbanisation. Nous avons estimé les densités de moineaux en utilisant la méthode d'échantillonnage selon la distance corrigée et avons comparé le nombre de moineau entre les trois villes, ainsi qu'entre les classifications terrestres dans chaque ville. Cet échantillonnage de deux ans a démontré la plus grande densité à Mexico et la plus basse à Los Angeles. Chez les deux villes où le moineau est considéré comme envahissant, les densité...

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Section: Environmental Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Space invaders: House Sparrow densities along three urban-agricultural landscapes

MacGregor-Fors

Quesada²,

Lee

et al. 2017

ACE

Self Cite

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“…In contrast to studies that analyze direct relations between land use change and species richness and losses (Liu et al, 2014b;Ortega-Álvarez et al, 2009;Pekin et al, 2012), this research has indirectly analyzed the influence of land use change on biodiversity conserva-tion through the construction of an ECADI. This reflects the threat to biodiversity conservation posed by land use activities.…”

Section: Limitations Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With an explosive increase in the extent and intensity of human activities, species habitats are being threatened by human activities such as urbanization, industrialization, farmland reclamation, climate change, and invasive species (Falcucci et al, 2007;Ficetola et al, 2010;Magura et al, 2004;Oliver et al, 2014;Ortega-Álvarez et al, 2009;Pekin et al, 2012;Pereira et al, 2010;Wei et al, 2014). As ecosystems sustain ever increasing pressure, endangered species and resources are in a state of continuous loss.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disturbance impacts of land use change on biodiversity conservation priority areas across China: 1990–2010

et al. 2015

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Land use change is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. In the last 20 years, China's land use pattern has undergone profound changes. This study constructs an Ecosystem Comprehensive Anthropogenic Disturbance Index (ECADI) to assess disturbance impacts of land use change between 1990 and 2010 on biodiversity conservation priority areas at national and regional scales. Four levels of biodiversity conservation areas were categorized: generally important areas, moderately important areas, important areas, and very important areas. The results indicated a higher ECADI value in 2010 in Central and Eastern China than in Western China, and the values of the moderately important, important and very important regions were lower than the average value of the whole country at all levels. Notably, in recent 20 years, the change extent of ECADI values in Central and Eastern China were much greater compared with that in Western China, and ECADI values in the moderately important, important and very important biodiversity conservation areas all showed increasing trends, with the increasing extent lower than that of whole China at all levels. Due to human activities such as urbanization in Eastern China and cropland reclamation in Northeast China and Xinjiang, ECADI values showed a medium increase trend (the change rate was about 1%-5% in 10 years), which indicated the need for more conservation efforts in those regions. However, ECADI values in the Loess Plateau presented a low decline trend (the change rate was about -1% to -0.1% in 10 years) after 2000 because of the obvious effectiveness of Green for Grain Project. Furthermore, the variation was negligible in the Tibetan Plateau.

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Drought exacerbates negative consequences of high‐intensity cattle grazing in a semiarid grassland

Souther

Loeser

Crews

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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Grasslands managed for grazing are the largest land‐use category globally, with a significant proportion of these grasslands occurring in semiarid and arid regions. In such dryland systems, the effect of grazing on native plant diversity has been equivocal, some studies suggesting that grazing reduces native plant diversity, others that grazing increases or has little impact on diversity. One impediment toward generalizing grazing effects on diversity in this region is that high levels of interannual variation in precipitation may obfuscate vegetative response patterns. By analyzing a long‐term data set collected over a 20‐yr period in a semiarid grassland, we explicitly evaluated the role of climate in regulating the effect of cattle grazing on plant communities, finding that climate interacted with grazing intensity to shape grassland communities. Community composition of plots that were intensively grazed varied considerably in response to climatic variation and native species richness was low relative to ungrazed and moderately grazed plots. Following a severe drought in 2002, exotic species richness rapidly increased in the high‐intensity grazing plots. While this pattern was mirrored in the other treatments, exotic species richness increased to a greater extent and was slower to return to pre‐drought levels in the high‐intensity grazing plots. Overall, moderate grazing, even compared to grazing cessation, stabilized grassland communities through time, increased resilience to drought, and maintained the highest levels of native plant diversity and lowest levels of exotic diversity. These findings suggest that grazing, at moderate levels, may support grassland resilience to climate change in semiarid regions. However, grazing that exceeds tolerances, particularly in combination with extreme climatic events, like drought, can alter plant composition over relatively long timescales and possibly increase invasibility by nonnative species.

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Living in the big city: Effects of urban land-use on bird community structure, diversity, and composition

Cited by 267 publications

References 38 publications

Space invaders: House Sparrow densities along three urban-agricultural landscapes

Space invaders: House Sparrow densities along three urban-agricultural landscapes

Disturbance impacts of land use change on biodiversity conservation priority areas across China: 1990–2010

Drought exacerbates negative consequences of high‐intensity cattle grazing in a semiarid grassland

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