Disentangling the drivers of urban bird diversity in the non-breeding season: a general synthesis
Author(s)
Moreno-Contreras, Israel
Jokimaki, Jukka
Kaisanlahti-Jokimaki, Marja-Liisa
Leveau, Lucas M
Suhonen, Jukka
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
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.
Date Issued
2024-07-01
Date Acceptance
2024-07-02
Citation
Global Change Biology, 2024, 30 (7)
ISSN
1354-1013
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Global Change Biology
Volume
30
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39034889
Subjects
ASSEMBLAGES
Biodiversity & Conservation
Biodiversity Conservation
biodiversity loss
bird assemblages
city age
COMMUNITIES
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
EVOLUTIONARY
FOOD RESOURCES
FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY
LAND-USE
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
migration
minimum temperature
PATTERNS
PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY
Science & Technology
SPECIES RICHNESS
urbanisation
URBANIZATION GRADIENTS
winter ecology
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
e17421
Date Publish Online
2024-07-22