Ecosystem properties in urban areas vary with habitat type and settlement age

Abstract Despite the unique threats to wildlife in urban areas, many raptors have established successfully reproducing urban populations. To identify variations in raptor breeding ecology within an urban area, we compared metrics of Red-tailed Hawk reproductive attempts to landscape characteristics in Reno and Sparks, NV, USA during the 2015 and 2016 breeding seasons. We used the Apparent Nesting Success and logistic exposure methods to measure nesting success of the Red-tailed Hawks. We used generalized linear models to relate nesting success and fledge rate to habitat type, productivity to hatch date (Julian day) and hatch date to urban density. Nesting success was 86% and 83% for the respective years. Nesting success increased in grassland-agricultural and shrub habitats and decreased in riparian habitat within the urban landscape. Productivity was 2.23 and 2.03 per nest for the breeding seasons. Fledge rates were 72% and 77%, respectively, and decreased in riparian areas. Nestlings hatched earlier with increased urban density and earliest in suburban areas, following a negative quadratic curve. Nesting success and productivity for this population were high relative to others in North America. Productivity increased in habitats where ground prey was more accessible. We suggest that suburban areas, if not frequently disturbed, provide sufficient resources to sustain Red-tailed Hawks over extended periods. As urban expansion continues in arid environments globally, we stress that researchers monitor reproductive output across the urban predator guild to elucidate patterns in population dynamics and adaptation.

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Nutritional Value of Habitat for Moose on Urban and Military Lands

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management ◽

10.3996/062014-jfwm-045 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 158-175 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Joseph H. Welch ◽

Perry S. Barboza ◽

Sean D. Farley ◽

Donald E. Spalinger

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Industrial Development ◽

Ornamental Plants ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Model Potential ◽

Habitat Modification ◽

Available Nitrogen ◽

Winter Diet ◽

Nutrition And Diet ◽

Moose Population

Abstract Moose Alces alces are large and conspicuous animals valued for wildlife watching and hunting opportunities. However, near urban areas they can cause collisions with vehicles and damage to garden and ornamental plants. We studied a population of adult female moose that lives in and around both urban and industrial development on an active Army and Air Force base adjacent to Anchorage, Alaska, to evaluate nutrition and diet, map habitat quality, and model how habitat development affects the number of moose the landscape can support. Population density was moderate and hunter harvest was high in our study area, so we hypothesized that moose in our study area would be in similar condition to other healthy populations in Alaska. We also hypothesized that, in our study area, shrublands would support more moose than any other habitat type and that areas disturbed for urban development would be crucial to maintaining the local moose population. Rump fat depths, blood chemistries, and pregnancy rates in November and March for moose in our study area were consistent with populations in good to moderate condition. Microhistology of composite fecal samples indicated that willows Salix spp. dominated the summer diet, whereas the winter diet was divided among willows, birch Betula spp., and cottonwood Populus balsamifera. Low concentrations of available nitrogen in winter stems limited the number of moose that could be supported in our study area. Shrublands were the most valuable habitat type for moose, theoretically supporting 11–81 times more moose per hectare than any other habitat type. Shrublands were more concentrated within the developed portion of our study area than the surrounding undeveloped portions of the military base; and the access to shrublands in clearings, greenbelts, and parks sustains the productivity of this moose population despite the many disturbances of an urbanized landscape. Our habitat values can be used to model potential impacts of habitat modification on the number of moose the landscape can support.

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Population Structure of Harvested Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and Coyotes (Canis latrans) on Prince Edward Island, Canada

The Canadian Field-Naturalist ◽

10.22621/cfn.v126i4.1374 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 126 (4) ◽

pp. 288 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wendela Wapenaar ◽

Fiep De Bie ◽

David Johnston ◽

Ryan M. O'Handley ◽

Herman W. Barkema

Keyword(s):

Population Dynamics ◽

Wildlife Management ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Vulpes Vulpes ◽

Prince Edward Island ◽

Canis Latrans ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Red Foxes ◽

Wild Canids ◽

Agricultural Areas

An understanding of the population dynamics and habitat of wild Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and Coyotes (Canis latrans) is a prerequisite to wildlife management. This information is also important in assessing the risk these wild canids pose to the public and domestic animals. On Prince Edward Island, information on age, sex, reproductive activity, and habitat use of 271 Red Foxes and 201 Coyotes was collected in the hunting and trapping season of 2004–2005. The estimated age of Red Foxes and Coyotes ranged from 0.5 to 13.5 years. A large proportion of harvested Red Foxes and Coyotes (58% and 48%, respectively) consisted of juveniles. The sex ratio was not significantly different from 1:1 for either species. Average litter size was 5.0 and 5.2 for Red Foxes and Coyotes, respectively. Number of placental scars ranged from 0 to 7 in Red Foxes and from 0 to 11 in Coyotes. Agricultural areas were the main habitat type (52%) of harvested Red Foxes. For harvested Coyotes, forest was the main habitat (44%), followed closely by agricultural areas (43%). Urban areas were a significant part (13%) of the habitat of Red Foxes. These data can be used to monitor population dynamics over time, provide information for wildlife management, and provide information on potential risk areas for disease transmission by wild canids.

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Pedunculate Oak Leaf Miners’ Community: Urban vs. Rural Habitat

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11121300 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 1300

Author(s):

Jovan Dobrosavljević ◽

Čedomir Marković ◽

Marija Marjanović ◽

Slobodan Milanović

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Pedunculate Oak ◽

Insect Community ◽

Habitat Types ◽

Leaf Miners ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

Leaf Mining ◽

Abundance And Diversity

With the process of urbanization, cities are expanding, while forests are declining. Many conditions in the urban habitats are modified compared to those in the rural ones, so the organisms present reactions to these changes. To determine to what extent the habitat type influences insects, we tested the differences in the pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) leaf-mining insect community between urban and rural habitats in Serbia. Lower species richness, abundance, and diversity were determined on trees in the urban environment. Due to the differences in the habitat types, many of the species disappeared, while most of the remaining species declined. The seasonal dynamics of species richness, abundance, and diversity differed between the habitat types. Both rural and urban populations started with low values in May. Subsequently, rural populations gained higher species richness, abundance, and diversity. As about 60% of the leaf miners’ species present in the rural habitats survive on the trees in urban areas, those trees are of great importance as a species reservoir. This is why we need to preserve and strive to improve the condition of urban areas where the pedunculate oak is present.

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The breeding distribution and numbers of the Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) in Kharkiv City, Ukraine

V N Karazin National University Series “Biology” ◽

10.26565/2075-5457-2020-35-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Residential Area ◽

Population Trend ◽

Habitat Types ◽

Forest Zone ◽

Starting Point ◽

Breeding Distribution ◽

The Mean ◽

Made In

The counts of breeding Jackdaws were made in Kharkiv City, Ukraine in April – early June of 2016–2017. We estimated the breeding density among different habitat types. For such a purpose the city area was divided into 0.25 km² squares (n = 1354) and we estimated the numbers of pairs within the boundaries of 40 squares (QGIS program was used to choose randomly these squares). The surveys were made in April–May (19 squares) and early June (4 squares) in 2016 and April–May (10 squares) and early June (7 squares) in 2017. The surveys were made within main habitat types such as area of residential blocks of flats, residential area (1–2-storey buildings), industrial area, forest zone, park zone and undeveloped urban areas. The data on the area occupied by every major habitat type (in km²) were calculated by QGIS program. The 90 % of the territory of Kharkiv City was analysed, except water reservoirs and traffic way areas. The data of the surveys were extrapolated across areas of the same habitat types. Also we have searched for Jackdaw colonies within the boundaries of Kharkiv City to take these data into account. According to the collected data the Jackdaw prefers to nest in crevices of old 3–5-level buildings at built-up districts or in round cross-sections of posts at blocks-of-flats areas. Thus the mean density here was 22 pairs/km². The mean density of Jackdaw in industrial areas was 15 pairs/km², in undeveloped urban areas – 1.2 pairs/km², and in residential area (1–2-storey buildings) – 0.7 pairs/km². The total number of breeding Jackdaws in Kharkiv City was estimated at 2325 to 2630 pairs. The mean density of Jackdaws was 7.5 pairs/km². Taking into account the moderate decline in the population of the Jackdaws in some European countries (although in general the population trend remains stable within the continent), and the lack of the surveys of the breeding distribution and numbers of Jackdaws in large cities of the Eastern Ukraine, it’s reasonable to use our data as an optimal starting point for the monitoring of the regional population trend of the species. The data of 2016 year survey were used in European Breeding Bird Atlas 2 (EBBA2) programme (square 37UCR2).

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Bringing the city to the country: relationships between streetscape vegetation type and bird assemblages in a major regional centre

Journal of Urban Ecology ◽

10.1093/jue/juz018 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Brendan S Champness ◽

Grant C Palmer ◽

James A Fitzsimons

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Vegetation Type ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Bird Species ◽

Urban Landscapes ◽

Residential Areas ◽

Habitat Types ◽

Bird Assemblages ◽

Regional Centre ◽

Remnant Vegetation

Abstract Urbanisation is a leading cause of biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation internationally, and the conservation of representative native assemblages is a challenge confronting environmental managers in expanding urban landscapes. This study investigates the bird assemblages occurring in a rapidly growing regional centre, Ballarat, southeastern Australia. It aims to examine the relationships between urbanisation and bird communities in a regional city by investigating the differences in bird assemblage composition related to the type of vegetation (native or exotic) in urban streetscapes. Bird surveys were completed across four broad habitat types: remnant vegetation, exotic streetscapes, native streetscapes and newly developed streetscapes. Each habitat type had three 1 ha replicate sites. Results show that remnant vegetation fringing residential areas and native streetscapes supported around 60% more native bird species than exotic and newly developed streetscapes. Avian species composition was significantly different between broad habitat types, with remnant vegetation and native streetscapes maintaining representative native bird assemblages, but exotic streetscapes and newly developed streetscapes were dominated by introduced birds. Our results show that, for representative native bird assemblages to be maintained in urban areas, the maintenance of remnant and native vegetation is essential.

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Habitat and Seasonality Affect Mosquito Community Composition in the West Region of Cameroon

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects11050312 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 312 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marie Paul Audrey Mayi ◽

Roland Bamou ◽

Borel Djiappi-Tchamen ◽

Albin Fontaine ◽

Claire L. Jeffries ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Urban Area ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Mosquito Species ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Habitat Types ◽

The West ◽

Field Surveys ◽

West Region ◽

Dry Seasons

To identify potential sylvatic, urban and bridge-vectors that can be involved in current or future virus spillover from wild to more urbanised areas, entomological field surveys were conducted in rural, peri-urban and urban areas spanning the rainy and dry seasons in western Cameroon. A total of 2650 mosquitoes belonging to 37 species and eight genera were collected. Mosquito species richness was significantly influenced by the specific combination of the habitat type and the season. The highest species richness was found in the peri-urban area (S = 30, Chao1 = 121 ± 50.63, ACE = 51.97 ± 3.88) during the dry season (S = 28, Chao1 = 64 ± 25.7, ACE = 38.33 ± 3.1). Aedes (Ae.) africanus and Culex (Cx.) moucheti were only found in the rural and peri-urban areas, while Cx. pipiens s.l. and Ae. aegypti were only found in the urban area. Cx. (Culiciomyia) spp., Cx. duttoni and Ae. albopictus were caught in the three habitat types. Importantly, approximately 52% of the mosquito species collected in this study have been implicated in the transmission of diverse arboviruses. This entomological survey provides a catalogue of the different mosquito species that may be involved in the transmission of arboviruses. Further investigations are needed to study the vectorial capacity of each mosquito species in arbovirus transmission.

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Nest height of Black-billed Magpies: is it determined by human disturbance or habitat type?

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z89-032 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 228-232 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Manjit S. Dhindsa ◽

Petr E. Komers ◽

David A. Boag

Keyword(s):

Human Disturbance ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Tree Height ◽

Deciduous Trees ◽

Pica Pica ◽

Nest Sites ◽

Optimum Height ◽

Nest Height ◽

The Impact

The impact of human disturbance on the choice of trees in which to nest and the heights at which to place the nests by Black-billed Magpies (Pica pica) was studied by comparing nest placement in three areas: A, urban with frequent human disturbance at the nest; B, urban with occasional disturbance; and C, suburban with minimal disturbance. Magpies nested in conifers more frequently than expected, based on availability, in all three areas. Neither absolute nor relative nest height (nest height/tree height) changed over the 2 years of this study, despite frequent human disturbance. The relative nest height did not differ from that 12 years before the current study was initiated. Moreover, nest height (absolute and relative) did not change when 10 pairs renested at new sites in 1987 in area A (after their original nests failed because of a spring snowstorm) even though the original nest sites had been periodically climbed to examine nest contents. Magpies used taller trees in area B than in area A but maintained the same relative nest height, which suggests that they either nested at an optimum height in the trees for ecological reasons or placed their nests as high as they could in the urban environment. Birds in suburban area C nested in shorter trees and at relatively lower levels than those in the urban areas, probably in response to the habitat type. The relative height of magpie nests was significantly greater in urban than in suburban habitat for conifers but not for deciduous trees, this variable being relatively constant within each habitat. Thus, habitat type seemed to have the greatest influence on nest height of magpies, but human disturbance did cause magpies to change trees for renesting in the same season.

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CSI Pollen: Diversity of Honey Bee Collected Pollen Studied by Citizen Scientists

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects12110987 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 987

Author(s):

Robert Brodschneider ◽

Elfriede Kalcher-Sommersguter ◽

Sabrina Kuchling ◽

Vincent Dietemann ◽

Alison Gray ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Honey Bee ◽

Mixed Models ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Sampling Period ◽

Corine Land Cover ◽

Bee Health ◽

Honey Bee Health ◽

Surrounding Landscape ◽

Bee Colonies

A diverse supply of pollen is an important factor for honey bee health, but information about the pollen diversity available to colonies at the landscape scale is largely missing. In this COLOSS study, beekeeper citizen scientists sampled and analyzed the diversity of pollen collected by honey bee colonies. As a simple measure of diversity, beekeepers determined the number of colors found in pollen samples that were collected in a coordinated and standardized way. Altogether, 750 beekeepers from 28 different regions from 24 countries participated in the two-year study and collected and analyzed almost 18,000 pollen samples. Pollen samples contained approximately six different colors in total throughout the sampling period, of which four colors were abundant. We ran generalized linear mixed models to test for possible effects of diverse factors such as collection, i.e., whether a minimum amount of pollen was collected or not, and habitat type on the number of colors found in pollen samples. To identify habitat effects on pollen diversity, beekeepers’ descriptions of the surrounding landscape and CORINE land cover classes were investigated in two different models, which both showed that both the total number and the rare number of colors in pollen samples were positively affected by ‘urban’ habitats or ‘artificial surfaces’, respectively. This citizen science study underlines the importance of the habitat for pollen diversity for bees and suggests higher diversity in urban areas.

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Differential effects of emerging broad-spectrum streetlight technologies on landscape-scale bat activity

10.1101/525568 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Rowland Williams ◽

Charlotte Walters ◽

Rory Gibb ◽

Ella Browning ◽

David Tipping ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Broad Spectrum ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Scale Effects ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Landscape Scale ◽

Ecological Impacts ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Bat Activity ◽

Road Type

SummaryUrbanization has greatly reduced the extent of high quality habitat available to wildlife with detrimental consequences documented across a range of taxa. Roads and artificial lighting regimes are dominant features of the modern environment, and there is currently a rapid worldwide transition towards energy-efficient, broad-spectrum white-light streetlight technologies such as metal halide (MH) and more recently, light-emitting diode (LED), despite little being known about their broad ecological impacts. Here, in a five-year citizen science study across the island of Jersey, we combine detailed lighting and habitat data with ultrasonic bat survey data collected from 2011 to 2015 (before and after a LED lighting technology transition), to analyse the landscape-scale effects of different broad-spectrum streetlight technologies on activity of a widespread, generalist bat species. In contrast to many experimental studies, we show that the local density of both traditional yellow high-pressure sodium (HPS) and more modern LED streetlights have significant negative effects on activity of the common pipistrelle (Pipistrelluspipistrellus) compared to unlit areas, while accounting for spatial bias, bat population trends over time, surrounding habitat type and road-type. In contrast, we find no discernable impact of the density of ultra-violet emitting MH lighting on bat activity. This is the first large-scale evidence that emerging artificial lighting technologies have differential impacts on activity, even for a bat species generally characterised as light-tolerant and commonly found in urban areas. Importantly, our landscape-level approach also demonstrates that the degree of urbanization and road type have even larger negative impacts on bat activity, independent of artificial lighting regime. Our findings emphasise the need for improving landscape-scale understanding of the ecological impacts of new lighting technologies prior to widespread uptake, and have important implications for future streetlight installation programmes and urban planning more generally.

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