A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Disentangling the drivers of urban bird diversity in the non-breeding season : A general synthesis
Authors: Moreno-Contreras, Israel; Jokimäki, Jukka; Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki, Marja-Liisa; Leveau, Lucas M.; Suhonen, Jukka; Tobias, Joseph A.; Tryjanowski, Piotr
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Publication year: 2024
Journal: Global Change Biology
Journal name in source: Global change biology
Journal acronym: Glob Chang Biol
Article number: e17421
Volume: 30
Issue: 7
ISSN: 1354-1013
eISSN: 1365-2486
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17421
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/457294677
Current knowledge about the impacts of urbanisation on bird assemblages is based on evidence from studies partly or wholly undertaken in the breeding season. In comparison, the non-breeding season remains little studied, despite the fact that winter conditions at higher latitudes are changing more rapidly than other seasons. During the non-breeding season, cities may attract or retain bird species because they offer milder conditions or better feeding opportunities than surrounding habitats. However, the range of climatic, ecological and anthropogenic mechanisms shaping different facets of urban bird diversity in the non-breeding season are poorly understood. We explored these mechanisms using structural equation modelling to assess how urbanisation affects the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of avian assemblages sampled worldwide in the non-breeding season. We found that minimum temperature, elevation, urban area and city age played a critical role in determining taxonomic diversity while a range of factors-including productivity, precipitation, elevation, distance to coasts and rivers, socio-economic (as a proxy of human facilitation) and road density-each contributed to patterns of phylogenetic and functional diversity. The structure and function of urban bird assemblages appear to be predominantly shaped by temperature, productivity and city age, with effects of these factors differing across seasons. Our results underline the importance of considering multiple hypotheses, including seasonal effects, when evaluating the impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity.
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Funding information in the publication:
This work fulfils one of the requirements for IM-C to obtain a Doctoral degree in the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, UNAM (Mexico), for which he received a Doctoral scholarship from CONAHCyT (number 749969). We are grateful to several authors who kindly shared community-level data: P. Iankov (Sofia, Bulgaria), H. B. Katuwal (Kathmandu, Nepal), O. Tzortzakaki (Patras, Greece) and R. Pineda-López (Bernal, Mexico). We thank L. M. Kiere for reviewing and editing English usage in this article.
