Urban effects on native avifauna: a review

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Abstract

The effect of urbanization can be immense, yet our understanding is rudimentary. Here, we compile the most recent information on urban impacts on avian populations and communities. Compared to other vertebrates, birds are easily monitored by skilled observers and provide a mechanism to explore urban effects and responses to different urban designs. Taxonomically, bird communities in distinctly different habitats are most different in the least disturbed sites and the most similar in the most urbanized sites. Urbanization tends to select for omnivorous, granivorous, and cavity nesting species. Increased urbanization typically leads to an increase in avian biomass but a reduction in richness. Unlike most passerines, raptors may have home ranges that extend beyond the urban boundary and therefore do not need to meet all their ecological requirements within urban areas. Urban habitats are often of superior quality to raptors because there they are often free from persecution and have an adequate food supply. The processes that underlie the patterns of population and community level responses need more attention, but several areas of have been identified as being important. Birds respond to vegetation composition and structure, and urban areas that retain native vegetative characteristics retain more native species than those that do not. Avian fecundity in urban areas is a reflection of species-specific adaptability to urban resources, and to levels of nest predation and nest parasitism. Additionally, non-consumptive human activities that increase with urbanization are recognized as having negative impacts on avian populations and communities. Avian survivorship in urban areas is influenced by risk of collision with man-made objects, changes in the predator assemblage, food supply, and disease. Missing are thorough investigations in the regions of highest human population growth, e.g. Southeast Asia. Additionally, there is a paucity of information from regions of high avian diversity, e.g. tropical forests. Clearly, local knowledge and study is required before implementation of management policies to reduce urban impacts on bird communities. Hopefully, such policies will include long-term monitoring. Demographic parameters of fecundity and survivorship need to be examined in conjunction with measures of community diversity and density across the urban gradient to better understand the quality of different urban habitats, and the variation of quality among spatial patterns of urbanization within the native habitat matrix.

Introduction

Urbanization can be defined as concentrated human presence in residential and industrial settings and their associated affects (Cringan and Horak, 1989, Marzluff, 1997), and for the purposes of ecological studies urban centers have been quantified as containing more than 2500 people (Dumouchel, 1975). The urban extent of most metropolitan areas is expanding into adjacent rural landscapes (Alig and Healy, 1987, World Resources Institute, 1994, UN, 1997). With the projected global increase of urbanization, land cover conversions for urban use will only increase altering ecosystem patterns and processes (Grimm et al., 2000).

The factors determining which species can coexist with human settlement include: (1) the presence and patch size of remnant (native) vegetation (Emlen, 1974, Gavareski, 1976, Rosenberg et al., 1987, Mills et al., 1989, Catterall et al., 1991); (2) competition with exotic species that have a longer history of human cohabitation (Major et al., 1996); (3) non-native predators (Churcher and Lawton, 1987, Paton, 1990); (4) the structure and floristic attributes of planted vegetation (Tweit and Tweit, 1986, Green et al., 1989); (5) supplementary feeding by humans (Recher, 1972, Brittingham, 1990, Major et al., 1996); and (6) residual pesticides (Major et al., 1996).

The number of studies that describe avian responses to urbanization is immense and growing (Marzluff et al., 2001a, Marzluff et al., 2001b). For the urban planner, we attempt to summarize into one paper the patterns of avian population and community response to the urban environment by major habitat types. Where possible we illustrate major points with specific species (scientific names in Appendix A) to assist the urban planner and others involved in the planning process to identify local species responses to landscape changes. Next, we review studies that have illuminated some of the major processes that have contributed to the observed patterns of population and community change with urbanization. Finally, we outline future avian research needs that will specifically aid urban planning decisions.

Section snippets

Patterns of urban impacts by matrix habitat type

Total breeding bird density is often higher in urban areas than in the surrounding native habitat (Walcott, 1974, Gavareski, 1976, Lancaster and Rees, 1979, Beissinger and Osborne, 1982). However, species richness is usually lower in urban areas, where the avian community is dominated by a few, often introduced, species (Gavareski, 1976, Lancaster and Rees, 1979, Beissinger and Osborne, 1982, Cam et al., 2000). Urbanization favors a few species but selects against most such that the avian

Urban impacts on raptors

Studies of passerine responses to urbanization are often devoid of important reproductive information that is more descriptive of habitat quality than measures of abundance (Van Horne, 1983). Studies of raptors can be illuminating in this regard, as demographic parameters have often been measured on urban nesting owls, hawks, falcons, and eagles. However, an important caveat is that unlike most passerines raptors may have home ranges that extend beyond the urban boundary and therefore do not

Vegetation changes

There is often a strong positive correlation between the volume and structure of native vegetation and native bird diversity and species richness (Emlen, 1974, Mills et al., 1989). Likewise, non-native species diversity is correlated with exotic vegetation (Mills et al., 1989). Emlen (1974) found that certain native desert birds responded positively to urbanization in Tucson, Arizona, a city that maintains a high proportion of native vegetation. In support of Emlen's assertion, Mills et al.

Conclusions

The effect of urbanization can be immense, yet our understanding is rudimentary. Taxonomically, bird communities in distinctly different habitats are most different in the least disturbed sites and the most similar in the most urbanized sites (Blair, 2001). Urbanization selects for omnivorous, granivorous, and cavity nesting species (Emlen, 1974, Lancaster and Rees, 1979, Beissinger and Osborne, 1982, Rosenberg et al., 1987, Mills et al., 1989, Allen and O’Conner, 2000, Kluza et al., 2000).

Acknowledgements

Carl Bock and Alex Cruz provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Jameson F. Chace is an assistant professor of environmental studies in the Biology Department at Villanova University. Jim received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado-Boulder studying cowbird-host interactions in Colorado and Arizona at the urban/wildland interface.

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    Jameson F. Chace is an assistant professor of environmental studies in the Biology Department at Villanova University. Jim received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado-Boulder studying cowbird-host interactions in Colorado and Arizona at the urban/wildland interface.

    John J. Walsh is a visiting scientist at the Department of Physical Planning at Alterra, Wageningen, The Netherlands, while concurrently working on his Master's in Urban Planning in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington-Seattle. He received a M.A. in biology from the University of Colorado-Boulder.

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