Urban parks are a refuge for birds in park-poor areas

Abstract

Urban parks provide amenities that support both human and animal communities. However, parks are often unevenly distributed within cities. One metric used to assess the distribution of parks to the public is termed the Park Score. The Park Score is an approach to measure access, acreage, investment, and amenities, and is designed to understand a city’s needs for greenspace, with a major focus on public health. In addition to issues related to public health, a disparity in the distribution of urban parks may pose a barrier for wildlife, such as birds. Yet, this remains unclear. We designed a study to quantify the role of parks in providing a refuge for birds across a park-needs gradient in Greater Los Angeles (LA), a metropolis with one of the lowest park scores in the United States. We had two objectives to address our goal. First, we quantified patterns in habitat features and avian communities within and adjacent to parks. Second, we analyzed relationships among habitat features within and adjacent to parks on avian abundance. We sampled birds and habitat features at 48 parks across a park-needs gradient in L.A. from October to March of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. We found three lines of evidence supporting the refugia effect of parks. First, habitat features within parks were similar between low- and high-needs areas of LA, and this likely influenced avian abundance patterns, which were also alike. Second, avian communities were generally similar across the park-needs gradient, where parks in high-needs areas harbored birds affiliated with forest and shrub ecosystems. Third, bird abundance patterns were related to numerous habitat features within parks, regardless of where parks occurred in the city. The patterns we uncovered were opposite to what is found in residential areas (i.e., luxury effect), suggesting that parks provide important habitat for birds, whether in high- or low-needs sections of LA. Our results stress the role of parks as refugia in park-poor areas because they provide habitat in otherwise inhospitable urban conditions. Continued investment in park development in high-needs areas can thus potentially be a win-win when considering the benefits to people and birds.

Utilization of a zoo for mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) diversity analysis, arboviral surveillance, and blood feeding patterns

“…2023a). In Los Angeles, California, a city with a similar park accessibility score, urban parks serve as refugia for birds (Vasquez and Wood 2022, Trust for Public Land. 2023b).…”

Drivers of arthropod biodiversity in an urban ecosystem

“…The luxury effect, a well-known and studied phenomenon of many cities across the globe, suggests that wealthier areas will harbor greater biodiversity as residents of these areas have the means to support lush yards and other green amenities, plus landscaping, maintenance, and irrigation that in turn supports a high diversity of wildlife. Further, wealthy areas in arid cities, such as L.A., have far greater tree canopy cover and vegetation cover 42 , potentially creating habitats that may attract arthropods and act as a refuges in an otherwise inhospitable environment 43 . Thus, given that arthropods have particular habitat associations with various features of urban environments 23 , we expected to find positive patterns of arthropods occupancy in relation to wealth patterns.…”

The ecological role of native‐plant landscaping in residential yards to birds during the nonbreeding period

“…Urbanized areas contain many unusable features for numerous species of birds, including buildings, impervious surfaces, and roadways (e.g., van Doren et al, 2021). What is interesting, however, is that within cities there are habitats-whether at the scale of a tree (Wood & Esaian, 2020), a yard (Burghardt et al, 2009), or a park (Vasquez & Wood, 2022) that provide important resources to birds. We extend the value of native landscaping to birds in yards from the breeding period (e.g., Narango et al, 2017) to the nonbreeding period.…”

“…We predicted that birds would concentrate their feeding activity on native plants following results from the Washington DC area where breeding Carolina Chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) preferentially foraged for invertebrate prey on native plants (Narango et al, 2017). Further, we predicted that native-landscaped yards would be a refuge for birds, as characterized by increased nonfeeding behaviors (e.g., perching)-similar to how birds congregate in parks in sections of cities (Vasquez & Wood, 2022).…”