A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Urban landscape organization is associated with species-specific traits in European birds
Authors: Ibáñez-Álamo Juan Diego, Izquierdo Lucía, Mourocq Emeline, Benedetti Yanina, Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki Marja-Liisa, Jokimäki Jukka, Morelli Federico, Rubio Enrique, Pérez-Contreras Tomás, Sprau Philipp, Suhonen Jukka, Tryjanowski Piotr, Díaz Mario
Publisher: Elsevier
Publication year: 2024
Journal: Science of the Total Environment
Journal name in source: Science of The Total Environment
Article number: 167937
Volume: 908
ISSN: 0048-9697
eISSN: 1879-1026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167937
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167937
Abstract
Urbanization is one of the main current drivers of the global biodiversity loss. Cities are usually developed in a gradient between land-sharing (low density housing with small and fragmented green areas) and land-sparing areas (high density housing with large and non-fragmented green patches) depending on the spatial organization of urban attributes. Previous studies have indicated differences in biodiversity between these two urban development types, but mechanisms underlying these differences are inadequately understood. In this context, the landscape features of each urban development type may select for organisms with specific traits. To analyze it, we quantified birds in 9 European cities during the breeding and wintering season, collected species-specific traits and performed Bayesian comparative analyses. We found that birds living in land-sparing areas had a higher reproductive investment and a higher nesting specialization than birds living in land-sharing areas during the breeding season. Typical birds from land-sparing urban areas during winter are fast-lived species. Our results indicate that urban development type could have an important role selecting animal traits and provides useful information on how to build more biodiversity-friendly cities.
Urbanization is one of the main current drivers of the global biodiversity loss. Cities are usually developed in a gradient between land-sharing (low density housing with small and fragmented green areas) and land-sparing areas (high density housing with large and non-fragmented green patches) depending on the spatial organization of urban attributes. Previous studies have indicated differences in biodiversity between these two urban development types, but mechanisms underlying these differences are inadequately understood. In this context, the landscape features of each urban development type may select for organisms with specific traits. To analyze it, we quantified birds in 9 European cities during the breeding and wintering season, collected species-specific traits and performed Bayesian comparative analyses. We found that birds living in land-sparing areas had a higher reproductive investment and a higher nesting specialization than birds living in land-sharing areas during the breeding season. Typical birds from land-sparing urban areas during winter are fast-lived species. Our results indicate that urban development type could have an important role selecting animal traits and provides useful information on how to build more biodiversity-friendly cities.
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