1
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Breitbart ST, Agrawal AA, Wagner HH, Johnson MTJ. Urbanization and a green corridor do not impact genetic divergence in common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.). Sci Rep 2023; 13:20437. [PMID: 37993590 PMCID: PMC10665382 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47524-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Urbanization is altering landscapes globally at an unprecedented rate. While ecological differences between urban and rural environments often promote phenotypic divergence among populations, it is unclear to what degree these trait differences arise from genetic divergence as opposed to phenotypic plasticity. Furthermore, little is known about how specific landscape elements, such as green corridors, impact genetic divergence in urban environments. We tested the hypotheses that: (1) urbanization, and (2) proximity to an urban green corridor influence genetic divergence in common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) populations for phenotypic traits. Using seeds from 52 populations along three urban-to-rural subtransects in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, one of which followed a green corridor, we grew ~ 1000 plants in a common garden setup and measured > 20 ecologically-important traits associated with plant defense/damage, reproduction, and growth over four years. We found significant heritable variation for nine traits within common milkweed populations and weak phenotypic divergence among populations. However, neither urbanization nor an urban green corridor influenced genetic divergence in individual traits or multivariate phenotype. These findings contrast with the expanding literature demonstrating that urbanization promotes rapid evolutionary change and offer preliminary insights into the eco-evolutionary role of green corridors in urban environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie T Breitbart
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada.
- Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada.
- Centre for Urban Environments, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada.
| | - Anurag A Agrawal
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, E145 Corson Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
- Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 2126 Comstock Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Helene H Wagner
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada
- Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
- Centre for Urban Environments, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
| | - Marc T J Johnson
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada
- Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
- Centre for Urban Environments, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
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2
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Suarez-Rubio M, Bates PJ, Aung T, Hlaing NM, Oo SSL, Htun YKZ, Ohn Mar SM, Myint A, Wai TLL, Mo PM, Fehrmann L, Nölke N, Kleinn C, Renner SC. Bird diversity along an urban to rural gradient in large tropical cities peaks in mid-level urbanization. PeerJ 2023; 11:e16098. [PMID: 37842049 PMCID: PMC10569181 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
The gradient from natural to urban areas strongly associates with the structure of avian communities over that gradient. Most research on urban birds is from temperate areas and knowledge from tropical Southeast Asia is lacking. We examined bird species diversity, relative abundance, and species composition along an urban to rural gradient in three Myanmar cities, and assessed potential environmental factors responsible for the changes. We counted birds within 40 point-count sites with 50-m fixed-radius in three large cities of Myanmar, namely Mandalay, Mawlamyine, and Myeik. We distinguished four urban habitat types (Downtown-urban, University Campus-suburban, Paddy Field-agriculture, Hill-forest). We classified all species into migrant or resident and into major feeding groups and related with several environmental parameters such as 'impervious surface'. We counted 5,423 individuals of 103 species with roughly equal species diversity between the three cities. Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) was the most frequent species. The species composition differed significantly between the four major habitat types. Omnivores were more abundant in the city center than all other functional groups. Interestingly, insectivores were also predominant in the city center. In addition, more generalist' species occurred towards the city center compared to the periphery, indicating that the periphery has increased relevance for specialized birds. We found some marked differences in species composition between the three cities of Mandalay, Mawlamyine, and Myeik. Additionally to species composition, species diversity and relative abundance differed significantly between each of the four major habitat types in all three cities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcela Suarez-Rubio
- Institute of Zoology, Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, University of Natural Resources and Life Science, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Thein Aung
- Myanmar Bird and Nature Society, Yangon, Myanmar
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Lutz Fehrmann
- Forest Inventory and Remote Sensing, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nils Nölke
- Forest Inventory and Remote Sensing, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Christoph Kleinn
- Forest Inventory and Remote Sensing, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Swen C. Renner
- Ornithology, Natural History Museum Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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3
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Lokatis S, Jeschke JM, Bernard-Verdier M, Buchholz S, Grossart HP, Havemann F, Hölker F, Itescu Y, Kowarik I, Kramer-Schadt S, Mietchen D, Musseau CL, Planillo A, Schittko C, Straka TM, Heger T. Hypotheses in urban ecology: building a common knowledge base. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2023; 98:1530-1547. [PMID: 37072921 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 04/20/2023]
Abstract
Urban ecology is a rapidly growing research field that has to keep pace with the pressing need to tackle the sustainability crisis. As an inherently multi-disciplinary field with close ties to practitioners and administrators, research synthesis and knowledge transfer between those different stakeholders is crucial. Knowledge maps can enhance knowledge transfer and provide orientation to researchers as well as practitioners. A promising option for developing such knowledge maps is to create hypothesis networks, which structure existing hypotheses and aggregate them according to topics and research aims. Combining expert knowledge with information from the literature, we here identify 62 research hypotheses used in urban ecology and link them in such a network. Our network clusters hypotheses into four distinct themes: (i) Urban species traits & evolution, (ii) Urban biotic communities, (iii) Urban habitats and (iv) Urban ecosystems. We discuss the potentials and limitations of this approach. All information is openly provided as part of an extendable Wikidata project, and we invite researchers, practitioners and others interested in urban ecology to contribute additional hypotheses, as well as comment and add to the existing ones. The hypothesis network and Wikidata project form a first step towards a knowledge base for urban ecology, which can be expanded and curated to benefit both practitioners and researchers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Lokatis
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstr. 4, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Jonathan M Jeschke
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
| | - Maud Bernard-Verdier
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
| | - Sascha Buchholz
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstr. 2, Münster, 48149, Germany
| | - Hans-Peter Grossart
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Potsdam University, Maulbeerallee 2, Potsdam, 14469, Germany
| | - Frank Havemann
- Institut für Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Dorotheenstraße 26, Berlin, 10117, Germany
| | - Franz Hölker
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
| | - Yuval Itescu
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
| | - Ingo Kowarik
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Institute of Ecology, Technische Universität Berlin, Rothenburgstr. 12, Berlin, 12165, Germany
| | - Stephanie Kramer-Schadt
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Institute of Ecology, Technische Universität Berlin, Rothenburgstr. 12, Berlin, 12165, Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Alfred-Kowalke-Str. 17, Berlin, 10315, Germany
| | - Daniel Mietchen
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education (IGDORE), Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Camille L Musseau
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
| | - Aimara Planillo
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Alfred-Kowalke-Str. 17, Berlin, 10315, Germany
| | - Conrad Schittko
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Institute of Ecology, Technische Universität Berlin, Rothenburgstr. 12, Berlin, 12165, Germany
| | - Tanja M Straka
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Institute of Ecology, Technische Universität Berlin, Rothenburgstr. 12, Berlin, 12165, Germany
| | - Tina Heger
- Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 310, Berlin, 12587, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Technical University of Munich, Restoration Ecology, Emil-Ramann-Str. 6, Freising, 85350, Germany
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Szabó B, Korányi D, Gallé R, Lövei GL, Bakonyi G, Batáry P. Urbanization decreases species richness, and increases abundance in dry climates whereas decreases in wet climates: A global meta-analysis. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 859:160145. [PMID: 36395843 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2022] [Revised: 10/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Soil invertebrates have an essential role in decomposition, nutrient turnover and soil structure formation, all of which are strongly threatened by urbanization. Sealing, compaction by trampling and pollution destroy and degrade city soils and potentially damage soil-living invertebrates. The existing literature on how urbanization affects soil invertebrates is inconsistent, presenting both negative and positive effects. Therefore, here we aimed to synthesize the effects of urbanization on soil invertebrates considering their taxonomic (Acari, Annelida, Carabidae, Collembola, Gastropoda, Isopoda, Myriapoda, Nematoda) and functional (soil living vs. soil-related; mobility) identities, as well as to examine how the overall effect is modulated by climatic conditions (total annual precipitation, annual mean ambient temperature), urban heat island effect (based on ambient temperature differences between urban and rural areas) and city population. In a systematic review using hierarchical and categorical meta-analyses, we extracted 158 effect sizes from 75 studies on abundance and 125 effect sizes from 84 studies on species richness. Invertebrate abundance showed an increase (r = 0.085), whereas species richness significantly decreased with increasing urbanization (r = -0.168). The reason behind this could be that a few generalist species can adapt well to the urban environment and achieve strongly elevated densities. The species richness of annelids (r = -0.301), springtails (r = -0.579), and snails (r = -0.233) decreased with advancing urbanization, most probably because these animals are sensitive to soil compaction and pollution, both of which are common consequences of urbanization. The temperature did not modify the effects of urbanization, but precipitation modified the effects on abundance (r = -0.457). Abundance increased with advancing urbanization in drier climates, probably because irrigation increased soil moisture, whereas it decreased in wet climates, as urban areas were drier than their surroundings. Making future cities more climate-neutral could better sustain soil biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Borbála Szabó
- Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, 'Lendület' Landscape and Conservation Ecology, Alkotmány u. 2-4, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary.
| | - Dávid Korányi
- Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, 'Lendület' Landscape and Conservation Ecology, Alkotmány u. 2-4, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary
| | - Róbert Gallé
- Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, 'Lendület' Landscape and Conservation Ecology, Alkotmány u. 2-4, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary
| | - Gábor L Lövei
- Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Flakkebjerg Research Centre, DK-4200 Slagelse, Denmark; ELHK-DE Anthropocene Ecology Research Group, Egyetem sq. 1., H-4030 Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Gábor Bakonyi
- Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Zoology and Ecology, Páter K. u. 1, H-2100 Gödöllő, Hungary
| | - Péter Batáry
- Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, 'Lendület' Landscape and Conservation Ecology, Alkotmány u. 2-4, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary
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5
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Dung beetles prefer used land over natural greenspace in urban landscape. Sci Rep 2022; 12:22179. [PMID: 36564513 PMCID: PMC9789146 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-26841-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Urbanization drives land-use and patterns of biodiversity. Yet, very little is known about how biodiversity of structurally different habitats is responded to urbanization. We surveyed coprophagous dung beetles and their ecological functional groups-tunnellers, dwellers, and rollers-in shaded natural semi-evergreen forests of sacred groves and the neighbouring relatively open home gardens of sites that represent three levels of urbanization to address the following questions: (1) Do sacred groves have higher abundance, richness, and diversity of dung beetles than home gardens? (2) Is urbanization a key driver of dung beetle abundance, richness, diversity, and community? (3) Is dung beetle assemblage of sacred groves immune to urbanization? and (4) Which ecological functional groups of dung beetles are affected by urbanization? We hypothesized that the sacred groves have a distinct community, resulting in higher abundance, richness, and diversity of dung beetles than home gardens, and the dung beetle assemblage of sacred groves may be immune to urbanization. We sampled the beetles during wet and dry periods using cow dung as a bait. Against our predictions, dung beetle abundance, richness, and diversity were higher in used lands than sacred groves, particularly in urban landscapes. The two habitats had distinct compositions of dung beetles. Tunnellers and rollers were affected by urbanization, but not dwellers. Heliophilic and synanthropic species characterized by smaller species dominated overall catches in the used lands of urban areas. Results downplay sacred grove as a potential refuge for dung beetles and suggest that the biodiversity of native forests may be affected more by urbanization than the manipulated anthropogenic habitats.
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Graham A, Nguyen J, Sasaki K. Woodland Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) Abundance Declines with Increasing Urban Land Use in the Piedmont. ICHTHYOLOGY & HERPETOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1643/h2022001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ashley Graham
- Winthrop University Department of Biology,
701 Oakland Ave, Rock Hill, South Carolina 29733; (AG) ; and (KS) . ORCID: (AG) 0000-0002-0073-6056
| | - Jack Nguyen
- Winthrop University Department of Biology,
701 Oakland Ave, Rock Hill, South Carolina 29733; (AG) ; and (KS) . ORCID: (AG) 0000-0002-0073-6056
| | - Kiyoshi Sasaki
- Winthrop University Department of Biology,
701 Oakland Ave, Rock Hill, South Carolina 29733; (AG) ; and (KS) . ORCID: (AG) 0000-0002-0073-6056
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7
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Sweet FST, Apfelbeck B, Hanusch M, Garland Monteagudo C, Weisser WW. Data from public and governmental databases show that a large proportion of the regional animal species pool occur in cities in Germany. JOURNAL OF URBAN ECOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/jue/juac002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Cities have been shown to be biodiverse, but it is unclear what fraction of a regional species pool can live within city borders and how this differs between taxa. Among animals, most research has focused on a few well-studied taxa, such as birds or butterflies. For other species, progress is limited by the paucity of data. We used species occurrence data for 11 taxa and 23 German cities from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the different German states, in a 50-km buffer around the city centre, to investigate what proportion of species of the regional species pools also occur in cities. While data could be obtained for all cities from GBIF, state databases only provided data for a subset of cities. Sample coverage of data from GBIF was higher across all taxa than of the state databases. For each database and taxon, we analysed (i) all cities where the number of occurrences of a taxon was >50 and (ii) only those cities where additionally sample coverage was >0.85. Across all taxa studied on average, 44.9 ± 7.2% (GBIF) and 40.8 ± 9.6% (German states) of the species of the regional species pool were also found in cities. When all cities were considered together, more than 76% of all species occurred within city borders. Our results show that German cities harbour a large part of the regional diversity of different taxa when city borders rather than the city centre is considered. This opens up ample opportunities for conservation and for fostering human–nature relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabio S T Sweet
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, Freising 85354, Germany
| | - Beate Apfelbeck
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, Freising 85354, Germany
- Department of Environment and Biodiversity, Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstraße 34, Salzburg 5020, Austria
| | - Maximilian Hanusch
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, Freising 85354, Germany
- Department of Environment and Biodiversity, Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstraße 34, Salzburg 5020, Austria
| | - Cynthia Garland Monteagudo
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, Freising 85354, Germany
| | - Wolfgang W Weisser
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Science Systems, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, Freising 85354, Germany
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Tóth Z, Hornung E, Szlavecz K. Urban effects on saprophagous macroarthropods are mainly driven by climate: A global meta-analysis. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 797:149182. [PMID: 34311374 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Revised: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 07/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Macrodecomposers provide important ecosystem services even in human dominated habitats including urban ecosystems, but the effect of urban land conversion on their species diversity and abundance has not been explored at global scale. Here, we present the first meta-analysis to quantify the general response of two major arthropod taxa, terrestrial isopods and millipedes to urbanization and to reveal the underlying mechanisms. Climatic (temperature, precipitation, growing season length), edaphic (pH, organic carbon, CaCO3 and clay content of surface soils), urban (population density, city age, vegetation cover and mean actual evapotranspiration) parameters and methods of study (duration, sampling technique, replications) were used as moderators. We used a hierarchical meta-analytic approach to consider the dependence of multiple effect sizes obtained from one study. Altogether 156 paired observations were extracted from 59 urban studies conducted between 1980 and 2020. Urbanization had a negative effect on species diversity (species richness and Shannon index) of both macroarthropod taxa. However, both the direction and strength of their abundance response varied to a greater extent, resulting in a neutral effect of urban disturbance on them. The key drivers influencing the urban effects on macroarthropods were mean annual temperature and precipitation, absolute minimum temperature and length of growing season. The study also highlighted the importance of sampling methods: direct sampling (hand collecting) resulted in stronger urban effects presumably due to several sources of sampling bias. Our global synthesis highlighted that urbanization is a threat to soil arthropods, particularly to litter-dwelling detritivores, which potentially alters plant residue processing and ultimately soil biogeochemical cycles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zsolt Tóth
- Institute for Soil Sciences, Centre for Agricultural Research, ELKH, Herman Ottó út 15, H-1022 Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Elisabeth Hornung
- Department of Ecology, Institute for Biology, University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest, Rottenbiller str. 50, H-1077 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Katalin Szlavecz
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218-2681, USA
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Argañaraz CI, Gleiser RM. Are spider communities influenced by urbanisation? An approach using species and guilds resolutions and their interaction with the anthropogenic environment. J NAT HIST 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2020.1863496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Carina I. Argañaraz
- IMBIV, Centro de Relevamiento y Evaluación de Recursos Agrícolas y Naturales (CREAN), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba- CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina
| | - Raquel M. Gleiser
- IMBIV, Centro de Relevamiento y Evaluación de Recursos Agrícolas y Naturales (CREAN), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba- CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
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COVID-19 Pandemic Turns Life-Science Students into “Citizen Scientists”: Data Indicate Multiple Negative Effects of Urbanization on Biota. SUSTAINABILITY 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/su13052992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions strongly affect the higher education community and require diverse teaching strategies. We designed a course where we combined online teaching with independently conducted ecological data collections by students using a “citizen science” approach. The aim was to analyze the impact of urbanization on biota by comparing urban and rural grasslands. Seventy-five students successfully conducted the data collections and the results provide evidence for prevailing negative effects of urbanization. Individual numbers of ground-dwelling invertebrates (−25%) and pollinating insects (−33%) were generally lower in urban sites. Moreover, animal and seed predation were reduced in urban grasslands, indicating the potential of urbanization to alter ecosystem functions. Despite the general limitations of online teaching and citizen science approaches, outcomes of this course showed this combination can be a useful teaching strategy, which is why this approach could be used to more actively involve students in scientific research.
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Kent E, Schwartz ALW, Perkins SE. Life in the fast lane: roadkill risk along an urban–rural gradient. JOURNAL OF URBAN ECOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/jue/juaa039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Wildlife-vehicle collisions are a major cause of mortality in animal populations and can cause significant population-level effects. Urban areas are typically associated with higher road densities and unique wildlife communities in comparison to rural areas, and therefore have the potential to be associated with high numbers of collisions, and roadkill risk. Here, we use a citizen science database of wildlife roadkill and species distribution models to assess how roadkill risk (probability of roadkill observation per km2) varied along an urban–rural gradient for British wildlife. Roadkill risk was positively associated with road density, until around 5000 m/km2, a value representing villages or the outskirts of towns and cities. Beyond 5000 m/km2, risk remained high for some species (hedgehog, fox, pigeons and gulls) but reduced for other species (badger, rabbit, pheasant). Roadkill risk was a function of live species distribution for badger, hedgehog and rabbit, with significant overlap between spatial patterns of roadkill risk and the species’ live distribution. This was not the case for fox, pheasant, pigeons and gulls. Fox roadkill risk was underrepresented in rural areas, possibly due to low road density, while pheasant risk was overrepresented. For pigeons and gulls—well-known urban exploiters—roadkill risk was overrepresented in urban areas given their live distributions, possibly due to risks associated with foraging, particularly roadkill scavenging by gulls. Our results highlight the dangers of the UK’s dense road networks to wildlife, even to species considered adapted to urban environments and human disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleri Kent
- Cardiff School of Biosciences, The Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AX, UK
| | - Amy L W Schwartz
- Cardiff School of Biosciences, The Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AX, UK
| | - Sarah E Perkins
- Cardiff School of Biosciences, The Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AX, UK
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Abstract
Urbanization poses a major threat to biodiversity worldwide. We focused on birds as a well-studied taxon of interest, in order to review literature on traits that influence responses to urbanization. We review 226 papers that were published between 1979 and 2020, and aggregate information on five major groups of traits that have been widely studied: ecological traits, life history, physiology, behavior and genetic traits. Some robust findings on trait changes in individual species as well as bird communities emerge. A lack of specific food and shelter resources has led to the urban bird community being dominated by generalist species, while specialist species show decline. Urbanized birds differ in the behavioral traits, showing an increase in song frequency and amplitude, and bolder behavior, as compared to rural populations of the same species. Differential food resources and predatory pressure results in changes in life history traits, including prolonged breeding duration, and increases in clutch and brood size to compensate for lower survival. Other species-specific changes include changes in hormonal state, body state, and genetic differences from rural populations. We identify gaps in research, with a paucity of studies in tropical cities and a need for greater examination of traits that influence persistence and success in native vs. introduced populations.
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13
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Piano E, Souffreau C, Merckx T, Baardsen LF, Backeljau T, Bonte D, Brans KI, Cours M, Dahirel M, Debortoli N, Decaestecker E, De Wolf K, Engelen JMT, Fontaneto D, Gianuca AT, Govaert L, Hanashiro FTT, Higuti J, Lens L, Martens K, Matheve H, Matthysen E, Pinseel E, Sablon R, Schön I, Stoks R, Van Doninck K, Van Dyck H, Vanormelingen P, Van Wichelen J, Vyverman W, De Meester L, Hendrickx F. Urbanization drives cross-taxon declines in abundance and diversity at multiple spatial scales. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2020; 26:1196-1211. [PMID: 31755626 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/01/2019] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
The increasing urbanization process is hypothesized to drastically alter (semi-)natural environments with a concomitant major decline in species abundance and diversity. Yet, studies on this effect of urbanization, and the spatial scale at which it acts, are at present inconclusive due to the large heterogeneity in taxonomic groups and spatial scales at which this relationship has been investigated among studies. Comprehensive studies analysing this relationship across multiple animal groups and at multiple spatial scales are rare, hampering the assessment of how biodiversity generally responds to urbanization. We studied aquatic (cladocerans), limno-terrestrial (bdelloid rotifers) and terrestrial (butterflies, ground beetles, ground- and web spiders, macro-moths, orthopterans and snails) invertebrate groups using a hierarchical spatial design, wherein three local-scale (200 m × 200 m) urbanization levels were repeatedly sampled across three landscape-scale (3 km × 3 km) urbanization levels. We tested for local and landscape urbanization effects on abundance and species richness of each group, whereby total richness was partitioned into the average richness of local communities and the richness due to variation among local communities. Abundances of the terrestrial active dispersers declined in response to local urbanization, with reductions up to 85% for butterflies, while passive dispersers did not show any clear trend. Species richness also declined with increasing levels of urbanization, but responses were highly heterogeneous among the different groups with respect to the richness component and the spatial scale at which urbanization impacts richness. Depending on the group, species richness declined due to biotic homogenization and/or local species loss. This resulted in an overall decrease in total richness across groups in urban areas. These results provide strong support to the general negative impact of urbanization on abundance and species richness within habitat patches and highlight the importance of considering multiple spatial scales and taxa to assess the impacts of urbanization on biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Piano
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Life Sciences and System Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Caroline Souffreau
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Thomas Merckx
- Behavioural Ecology and Conservation Group, Biodiversity Research Centre, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Lisa F Baardsen
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Thierry Backeljau
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Brussels, Belgium
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Dries Bonte
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Kristien I Brans
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Marie Cours
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Natural Environment, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Maxime Dahirel
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Evolution Unit, Université de Rennes 1 (CNRS), Rennes, France
| | - Nicolas Debortoli
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics and Ecology, URBE, NAXYS, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium
| | | | - Katrien De Wolf
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Brussels, Belgium
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Jessie M T Engelen
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Diego Fontaneto
- CNR-IRSA, National Research Council, Water Research Institute, Verbania-Pallanza, Italy
| | - Andros T Gianuca
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Ecology, Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
| | - Lynn Govaert
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Fabio T T Hanashiro
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Janet Higuti
- Centre of Research in Limnology, Ichthyology and Aquaculture/PEA, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
| | - Luc Lens
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Koen Martens
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Natural Environment, Brussels, Belgium
- Laboratory of Limnology, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Hans Matheve
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Erik Matthysen
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Eveline Pinseel
- Laboratory of Protistology & Aquatic Ecology, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Research Department, Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium
| | - Rose Sablon
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Isa Schön
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Natural Environment, Brussels, Belgium
- Zoology Research Group, University of Hasselt, Hasselt, Belgium
| | - Robby Stoks
- Evolutionary Stress Ecology and Ecotoxicology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Karine Van Doninck
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics and Ecology, URBE, NAXYS, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium
| | - Hans Van Dyck
- Behavioural Ecology and Conservation Group, Biodiversity Research Centre, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Pieter Vanormelingen
- Laboratory of Protistology & Aquatic Ecology, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Jeroen Van Wichelen
- Laboratory of Protistology & Aquatic Ecology, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Aquatic Management, Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Wim Vyverman
- Laboratory of Protistology & Aquatic Ecology, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Luc De Meester
- Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Frederik Hendrickx
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Brussels, Belgium
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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Piano E, Bona F, Isaia M. Urbanization drivers differentially affect ground arthropod assemblages in the city of Turin (NW-Italy). Urban Ecosyst 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s11252-020-00937-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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15
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Perez A, Diamond SE. Idiosyncrasies in cities: evaluating patterns and drivers of ant biodiversity along urbanization gradients. JOURNAL OF URBAN ECOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/jue/juz017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Urbanization is expected to reduce biodiversity. However, an increasing number of studies report urban biodiversity comparable to that of surrounding nonurban areas, leaving open the question: what maintains biodiversity in cities? We characterized patterns of ant biodiversity across urbanization gradients of three major cities in the Midwestern United States and evaluated the support for two mechanisms underlying the maintenance of biodiversity in cities, specifically via introduced non-native species and differential phenology of communities along each urbanization gradient. We observed idiosyncrasies in ant species diversity such that each city displayed either increased, decreased or no change in biodiversity across the urbanization gradient. We found partial support (one of the three cities) for the hypothesis that non-native species can contribute positively to overall species diversity in cities, though even with introduced species removed from consideration, native ant biodiversity was maintained along the urbanization gradient. We found no support for systematic differential phenology across urbanization gradients, although species diversity did vary over time across all sites. Our results further challenge the assumption of biodiversity loss in cities, as two of our three cities exhibited maintained species diversity along the urbanization gradient. Most importantly, our study demonstrates that urban biodiversity can be maintained entirely by native communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abe Perez
- Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, 2080 Adelbert Road, Cleveland, OH, USA
| | - Sarah E Diamond
- Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, 2080 Adelbert Road, Cleveland, OH, USA
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16
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Schueller SK, Paul S, Payer N, Schultze R, Vikas M. Urbanization decreases the extent and variety of leaf herbivory for native canopy tree species Quercus rubra, Quercus alba, and Acer saccharum. Urban Ecosyst 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s11252-019-00866-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
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17
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Bode RF, Grove S, Krueger N. Limits to biocontrol: the effects of urbanization and elevation on Bruchidius villosus and Exapion fuscirostre—two biological control agents of Cytisus scoparius. Biol Invasions 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s10530-018-1882-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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18
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Jesse WAM, Behm JE, Helmus MR, Ellers J. Human land use promotes the abundance and diversity of exotic species on Caribbean islands. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:4784-4796. [PMID: 29851186 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2017] [Revised: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/07/2018] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Human land use causes major changes in species abundance and composition, yet native and exotic species can exhibit different responses to land use change. Native populations generally decline in human-impacted habitats while exotic species often benefit. In this study, we assessed the effects of human land use on exotic and native reptile diversity, including functional diversity, which relates to the range of habitat use strategies in biotic communities. We surveyed 114 reptile communities from localities that varied in habitat structure and human impact level on two Caribbean islands, and calculated species richness, overall abundance, and evenness for every plot. Functional diversity indices were calculated using published trait data, which enabled us to detect signs of trait filtering associated with impacted habitats. Our results show that environmental variation among sampling plots was explained by two Principal Component Analysis (PCA) ordination axes related to habitat structure (i.e., forest or nonforest) and human impact level (i.e., addition of man-made constructions such as roads and buildings). Several diversity indices were significantly correlated with the two PCA axes, but exotic and native species showed opposing responses. Native species reached the highest abundance in forests, while exotic species were absent in this habitat. Human impact was associated with an increase in exotic abundance and species richness, while native species showed no significant associations. Functional diversity was highest in nonforested environments on both islands, and further increased on St. Martin with the establishment of functionally unique exotic species in nonforested habitat. Habitat structure, rather than human impact, proved to be an important agent for environmental filtering of traits, causing divergent functional trait values across forested and nonforested environments. Our results illustrate the importance of considering various elements of land use when studying its impact on species diversity and the establishment and spread of exotic species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wendy A M Jesse
- Department of Ecological Science - Animal Ecology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Jocelyn E Behm
- Department of Ecological Science - Animal Ecology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Integrative Ecology Lab, Center for Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Matthew R Helmus
- Integrative Ecology Lab, Center for Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Jacintha Ellers
- Department of Ecological Science - Animal Ecology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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19
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Reducing management intensity and isolation as promising tools to enhance ground-dwelling arthropod diversity in urban grasslands. Urban Ecosyst 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s11252-018-0786-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
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Alvarez Guevara JN, Ball BA. Urbanization alters small rodent community composition but not abundance. PeerJ 2018; 6:e4885. [PMID: 29868284 PMCID: PMC5984581 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2018] [Accepted: 05/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Desert ecosystems are one of the fastest urbanizing areas on the planet. This rapid shift has the potential to alter the abundances and species richness of herbivore and plant communities. Herbivores, for example, are expected to be more abundant within urban desert remnant parks located within cities due to anthropogenic activities that concentrate food resources and reduce native predator populations. Despite this assumption, previous research conducted around Phoenix, AZ, USA has shown that top-down herbivory led to equally reduced plant biomass in both urban and outlying locations. It is unclear if this insignificant difference in herbivory at urban and outlying sites is due to unaltered desert herbivore populations or altered activity levels that counteract abundance differences. Small rodent herbivore/granivore populations were surveyed at four sites inside and four sites outside of the core of Phoenix during fall 2014 and spring 2015 in order to determine whether abundances and richness differ significantly between urban and rural sites. In order to survey species composition and abundance at these sites, 100 Sherman traps and eight larger wire traps that are designed to attract and capture small vertebrates such as mice, rats, and squirrels were set at each site for two consecutive trap nights. Results suggest that the commonly assumed effect of urbanization on herbivore abundances does not apply to small rodent populations in a desert city, as overall small rodent abundances were statistically similar regardless of location. Though a significant difference was not found for species richness, a significant difference between small rodent genus richness at these sites was observed, with altered community composition. The compositional differences likely reflect the altered vegetative community and may impact ecological interactions at these sites.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Becky A. Ball
- School of Mathematical & Natural Sciences, Arizona State University, Glendale, AZ, USA
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21
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Affiliation(s)
- Rana El‐Sabaawi
- Department of BiologyUniversity of Victoria Victoria BC Canada
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22
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Batáry P, Kurucz K, Suarez-Rubio M, Chamberlain DE. Non-linearities in bird responses across urbanization gradients: A meta-analysis. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:1046-1054. [PMID: 29080260 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2017] [Revised: 10/16/2017] [Accepted: 10/23/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Urbanization is one of the most extreme forms of environmental alteration, posing a major threat to biodiversity. We studied the effects of urbanization on avian communities via a systematic review using hierarchical and categorical meta-analyses. Altogether, we found 42 observations from 37 case studies for species richness and 23 observations from 20 case studies for abundance. Urbanization had an overall strong negative effect on bird species richness, whereas abundance increased marginally with urbanization. There was no evidence that city size played a role in influencing the relationship between urbanization and either species richness or abundance. Studies that examined long gradients (i.e. from urban to rural) were more likely to detect negative urbanization effects on species richness than studies that considered short gradients (i.e. urban vs. suburban or urban vs. rural areas). In contrast, we found little evidence that the effect of urbanization on abundance was influenced by gradient length. Effects of urbanization on species richness were more negative for studies including public green spaces (parks and other amenity areas) in the sampled landscapes. In contrast, studies performed solely in the urban matrix (i.e. no green spaces) revealed a strong positive effect on bird abundance. When performing subset analyses on urban-suburban, suburban-rural and suburban-natural comparisons, species richness decreased from natural to urban areas, but with a stronger decrease at the urban-suburban interface, whereas bird abundance showed a clear intermediate peak along the urban-rural gradient although abundance in natural areas was comparable to that in suburban areas. This suggests that species loss happens especially at the urban-suburban interface, and that the highest abundances occur in suburban areas compared to urban or rural areas. Thus, our study shows the importance of suburban areas, where the majority of birds occur with fairly high species richness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Péter Batáry
- Agroecology, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
- GINOP Sustainable Ecosystems Group, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Tihany, Hungary
| | - Kornélia Kurucz
- Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
| | - Marcela Suarez-Rubio
- Institute of Zoology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Dan E Chamberlain
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei Sistemi, University of Turin, Torino, Italy
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