Urban exploiters have broader dietary niches than urban avoiders

Palacio, Facundo Xavier

doi:10.1111/ibi.12732

Cited by 72 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…that insectivores are at particular risk from urbanization; Chace and Walsh ) but they often fail to account for the complicated measures of niche specialization (Morelli et al ). Indeed, future work should continue to elucidate specific life history traits which predict a species’ risk to urban ecosystems (Kark et al , Fuller et al , Evans et al a, Guetté et al , Palacio ). Importantly, our analysis highlights a broad general ecological pattern: the degree of overall species’ specialization is negatively correlated with urban tolerance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avian trait specialization is negatively associated with urban tolerance

Callaghan

Benedetti

Wilshire

et al. 2020

Oikos

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Generalist species-with their wide niche breadths-are often associated with urban environments, while specialist species are likely to be most at-risk of increasing urbanization processes. But studies which quantify the relationship between trait specialization (i.e. niche breadth) and urban tolerance are generally methodologically limited, with repeatable robust methods to easily quantify this relationship among different regions and time scales often lacking. Our objective was to use novel methods to quantify the relationship between trait specialization and urban tolerance over a broad spatial scale. We used ~ 2 million citizen science observations and spatially intersected these with remotely-sensed VIIRS night-time light values and a novel continuous measure of a species' trait specialization for 256 European bird species. We found a negative relationship between avian urban tolerance and an overall specialization index. Nesting site niche breadth was especially negatively associated with higher urban tolerance scores. Our results highlight that species with a high degree of trait specialization likely have a lower capacity to persist in urban ecosystems, and hence, could be most at-risk in novel urban ecosystems. We suggest that trait specialization can be used as a proxy for the degree of risk posed by urban environments to a given species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avian trait specialization is negatively associated with urban tolerance

Callaghan

Benedetti

Wilshire

et al. 2020

Oikos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…For example, it has been shown that the strong fragmentation of urban green areas causes changes in the spatial behavior of urban coachwhip snakes Masticophis flagellum (Mitrovich et al 2009), bobcats (Tigas et al 2002) or coyotes (Atwood and Weeks 2003). Changes in the preferences of nesting places, new food sources, and the impact of a new group of urban predators have been widely studied for many species of vertebrates, including reptiles, birds and mammals as well (Contesse et al 2004;Møller 2012;Chavez-Zichinelli et al 2013;Thomas et al 2018; Aviles-Rodriguez and Kolbe 2019; Gallo et al 2019;Palacio 2020). For urban birds, the impact of light and noise pollution on the behavior has also been shown (Moiron et al 2015;Swaddle et al 2015;Weaver et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the social behavior of urban animals: more aggression or tolerance?

2020

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Behavioral traits play a major role in successful adaptation of wildlife to urban conditions. However, there are few studies showing how urban conditions affect the social behavior of urban animals during their direct encounters. It is generally believed that the higher density of urban populations translates into increased aggression between individuals. In this paper, using a camera-trap method, we compared the character of direct encounters in urban and non-urban populations of the striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius (Pallas, 1771), a species known as an urban adapter. We confirmed the thesis that urbanization affects the social behavior and urban and rural populations differ from each other. Urban animals are less likely to avoid close contact with each other and are more likely to show tolerant behavior. They also have a lower tendency towards monopolization of food resources. The behavior of urban animals varies depending on the time of day: in the daytime, animals are more vigilant and less tolerant than at night. Our results indicate that, in the case of the species studied, behavioral adaptation to urban life is based on increasing tolerance rather than aggression in social relations. However, the studied urban adapter retains the high plasticity of social behavior revealed even in the circadian cycle. The observation that tolerance rather than aggression may predominate in urban populations is a new finding, while most studies suggest an increase in aggression in urban animals. This opens an avenue for formulating new hypotheses regarding the social behavior of urban adapters.

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“…While we did record markedly larger TNW in urban than in natural habitats, differences in WIC were negligible and species only showed a non-significant tendency to have larger BIC between these two habitat types. Many studies using different approaches have reported similar patterns of niche expansion across habitat transformation gradients (Bonier et al, 2007;Devictor et al, 2008a;Callaghan et al, 2019;Pagani-Núñez et al, 2019;Palacio, 2019), yet no study had thoroughly addressed how this pattern is a result of changes in different niche characteristics at the individual level. Our study is original in showing this pattern of trophic specialization within species, while previous Results from a set of linear mixed-effects models using the Within-Individual (WIC) and Between-Individual (BIC) niche components, and Individual Specialization (IS = WIC/TNW) in 21 populations of birds and frogs as response variables.…”

Section: Differences In Niche Characteristics Across Habitat Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This loss is not neutral in that predominantly specialized species -those requiring particular habitat or food resources -are disproportionately lost, while environmental generalists -those with less selective habitat or dietary needs -become dominant (Flynn et al, 2009;Ducatez et al, 2018;Sol et al, 2020). A consequence of this process is that species in transformed habitats display broader niches than species in natural habitats (Bonier et al, 2007;Clavel et al, 2011;Coogan et al, 2018;Pagani-Núñez et al, 2019;Palacio, 2019). It is unclear however how this process of population niche expansion translates into the niches of the individual organisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Become a Generalist Species? Individual Niche Variation Across Habitat Transformation Gradients

et al. 2020

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Species in transformed habitats, frequently labeled as environmental generalists, tend to show broader niches than species in natural habitats. However, how population niche expansion translates into changes in the niches of individual organisms remains unclear, particularly in the context of habitat transformation. Niche expansion could be a product of individuals having broader niches, greater distances among individuals’ niches, or a combination of both processes. This would challenge the traditional conceptions on niche dynamics, which emphasize the role played by individual specialization (IS). Here, using stable isotopes, we computed total niche width (TNW), its within- and between-individual components (WIC and BIC), and IS (the ratio WIC/TNW), in 13 populations of 6 bird species and 8 populations of 3 frog species in natural and transformed habitats. We confirmed that species had broader niche width in transformed than in natural habitats, yet population niche expansion across habitats was mainly a product of increased distance between individuals. Within each habitat type, increases in TNW were linked to increases in WIC for all habitat types, while relationships between TNW and BIC were found in transformed but not in natural habitats. Hence, both increased individual niche width and increased distance among individuals were apparent within habitats, particularly in transformed ones, where increases in WIC dominated. Neither across or within habitats was niche expansion associated with increasing IS. Therefore, our results overturn traditional conceptions associated with the niche variation hypothesis and illustrate that niche expansion is not invariably associated with increased IS, because the distance between individual’s niches (BIC) can increase, as well as the breadth of those niches (WIC).

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Urban exploiters have broader dietary niches than urban avoiders

Cited by 72 publications

References 55 publications

Avian trait specialization is negatively associated with urban tolerance

Avian trait specialization is negatively associated with urban tolerance

Changes in the social behavior of urban animals: more aggression or tolerance?

How to Become a Generalist Species? Individual Niche Variation Across Habitat Transformation Gradients

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