Loss of Cultural and Functional Diversity Associated With Birds Across the Urbanization Gradient in a Tropical City

Abstract

Birds provide many ecosystem services to people, including provisioning, regulating and cultural services. People attribute multiple cultural values to ecosystems and biodiversity and the diversity of these cultural values can be considered as cultural diversity. While human-nature interactions occur more frequently in cities and urbanization negatively affects different facets of avian biodiversity, little is known about its consequence for cultural diversity. Here, we assess how the urbanization gradient in Campo Grande, a Brazilian city in the Cerrado biodiversity hotspot, affects functional and cultural diversity associated with birds and if functional and cultural diversity are congruent. We also investigate the relation between urbanization gradient with functional traits and cultural values, weighted by species abundance. We used a dataset based on bird surveyed in 61 landscapes along a gradient of impervious surface cover. To estimate functional and cultural diversity, we used indices that estimate richness and divergence of functional traits and cultural values. We found that urbanization affected functional and cultural richness negatively, while there was no effect on functional and cultural divergence. Functional and cultural richness and functional and cultural divergence were weakly, but significantly correlated. Bird species that nest on trees decreased and those that nest in artificial structures and on the ground increased along the impervious surface gradient. Body size, diet, habitat, mating system, flock behavior, and all cultural values (number of times the species was mentioned by football teams, music or poetry, city flags and anthems, and folklore tales) were not significantly affected by impervious surface. The negative relationship between impervious surface and bird cultural richness may indicate that people living in more urbanized areas experience nature less compared to people in less urbanized areas, which can affect their psychological well-being. In these highly urbanized areas, contact with culturally valued birds and cultural services provided by birds may also diminish. The negative relationship between functional richness and urbanization also indicate that highly urbanized areas may be losing important ecosystems services provided by birds.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Urbanization: Response of a Bird Community in the Neotropical Andes

“…While bird community response has been consistent across different regions, these effects are expected to be species dependent, with certain species being favored by new habitats and resources, and others being harmed by habitat-level alterations (Chace and Walsh, 2006;Walker and Shochat, 2010;Valente-Neto et al, 2021). Our results showed trophic guild-dependent responses.…”

“…The effects of urbanization have been evaluated using different taxonomic groups, such as plants (Kowarik, 2008), insects (McIntyre, 2000Blair, 2001;Gaona et al, 2021), aquatic macroinvertebrates (Zúñiga-Sarango et al, 2020), mammals (McIntyre, 2000, amphibians and reptiles (Hutto and Barrett, 2021), and birds (Pennington and Blair, 2011;McClure et al, 2015;Maure et al, 2018;Souza et al, 2019;Morelli et al, 2021;Valente-Neto et al, 2021). Birds tend to be especially affected by urbanization due to their high degree of specialization (Beaumont et al, 2011;Hermes et al, 2018).…”

“…Birds tend to be especially affected by urbanization due to their high degree of specialization (Beaumont et al, 2011;Hermes et al, 2018). As a general rule, the effects of urbanization on bird communities are negative (Pennington and Blair, 2011;McClure et al, 2015;Ibáñez-Álamo et al, 2017;Maure et al, 2018;Morelli et al, 2021), evidencing decreases in species richness and abundance (Chiari et al, 2010;MacGregor-Fors et al, 2010), as well as decreases in phylogenetic and functional diversity (Carvajal-Castro et al, 2019;Morelli et al, 2021;Valente-Neto et al, 2021). Nevertheless, there is evidence for some positive effects of urbanization on specific bird species (Chiari et al, 2010;MacGregor-Fors et al, 2010;Møller and Díaz, 2018a).…”

A functional trait approach reveals the effects of landscape context on ecosystem services provided by urban birds

“…However, invertebrate pest outbreaks often occur in urban areas and isolated green spaces within a high impervious surface context may be more vulnerable to such outbreaks (Long and Frank 2020). Furthermore, despite particularly high demand for cultural ecosystem services in areas with more impervious surface cover (Goodness et al 2016, Valente-Neto et al 2021), they are likely most scarce there due to the absence of colorful species. By increasing natural cover in the landscape context surrounding urban parks, managers may be able to attract more visually appealing species and improve cultural service supply.…”

Comunidades de aves en barrios residenciales y en bosques implantados en médanos costeros de la localidad de Cariló, Argentina

“…En general, la relación entre diversidad funcional y urbanización es negativa (Li et al 2010;Pauw and Low 2012;Valente-Neto et al 2021;Leveau 2021a;Sánchez-Sotomayor et al 2022), aunque algunos estudios encontraron una relación positiva (Oliveira-Hagen et al 2017) y otros no hallaron una relación significativa (Palacio et al 2018;Leveau and Leveau 2020;. Respecto a la composición funcional, varios estudios encontraron que la urbanización favorece la presencia de especies de dieta y hábitat generalistas que anidan en edificios y son residentes (Pinho et al 2016;Palacio et al 2018;Leveau 2013aLeveau , 2022.…”