Dense city centers support less evolutionary unique bird communities than sparser urban areas

Urbanization alters avian communities, generally lowering the number of species and contemporaneously increasing their functional relatedness, leading to biotic homogenization. Urbanization can also negatively affect the phylogenetic diversity of species assemblages, potentially decreasing their evolutionary distinctiveness. We compare species assemblages in a gradient of building density in seventeen European cities to test whether the evolutionary distinctiveness of communities is shaped by the degree of urbanization. We found a significant decline in the evolutionary uniqueness of avian communities in highly dense urban areas, compared to low and medium-dense areas. Overall, communities from dense city centers supported one million years of evolutionary history less than communities from low-dense urban areas. Such evolutionary homogenization was due to a filtering process of the most evolutionarily unique birds. Metrics related to evolutionary uniqueness have to play a role when assessing the effects of urbanization and can be used to identify local conservation priorities.

EVI and NDVI as proxies for multifaceted avian diversity in urban areas

Most ecological studies use remote sensing to analyze broad-scale biodiversity patterns, focusing mainly on taxonomic diversity in natural landscapes. One of the most important effects of high levels of urbanization is species loss (i.e., biotic homogenization). Therefore, cost-effective and more efficient methods to monitor biological communities' distribution are essential. This study explores whether the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can predict multifaceted avian diversity, urban tolerance, and specialization in urban landscapes. We sampled bird communities among 15 European cities and extracted Landsat 30-meter resolution EVI and NDVI values of the pixels within a 50-m buffer of bird sample points using Google Earth Engine (32-day Landsat 8 Collection Tier 1). Mixed models were used to find the best associations of EVI and NDVI, predicting multiple avian diversity facets: Taxonomic diversity, functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity, specialization levels, and urban tolerance. A total of 113 bird species across 15 cities from 10 different European countries were detected. EVI mean was the best predictor for foraging substrate specialization. NDVI mean was the best predictor for most avian diversity facets: taxonomic diversity, functional richness and evenness, phylogenetic diversity, phylogenetic species variability, community evolutionary distinctiveness, urban tolerance, diet foraging behavior, and habitat richness specialists. Finally, EVI and NDVI standard deviation were not the best predictors for any avian diversity facets studied. Our findings expand previous knowledge about EVI and NDVI as surrogates of avian diversity at a continental scale. Considering the European Commission's proposal for a Nature Restoration Law calling for expanding green urban space areas by 2050, we propose NDVI as a proxy of multiple facets of avian diversity to efficiently monitor bird community responses to land use changes in the cities.

Spatial Overlap and Habitat Selection of Corvid Species in European Cities

Understanding habitat and spatial overlap in sympatric species of urban areas would aid in predicting species and community modifications in response to global change. Habitat overlap has been widely investigated for specialist species but neglected for generalists living in urban settings. Many corvid species are generalists and are adapted to urban areas. This work aimed to determine the urban habitat requirements and spatial overlap of five corvid species in sixteen European cities during the breeding season. All five studied corvid species had high overlap in their habitat selection while still having particular tendencies. We found three species, the Carrion/Hooded Crow, Rook, and Eurasian Magpie, selected open habitats. The Western Jackdaw avoided areas with bare soil cover, and the Eurasian Jay chose more forested areas. The species with similar habitat selection also had congruent spatial distributions. Our results indicate that although the corvids had some tendencies regarding habitat selection, as generalists, they still tolerated a wide range of urban habitats, which resulted in high overlap in their habitat niches and spatial distributions.

Effects of light and noise pollution on avian communities of European cities are correlated with the species' diet

Urbanization affects avian community composition in European cities, increasing biotic homogenization. Anthropic pollution (such as light at night and noise) is among the most important drivers shaping bird use in urban areas, where bird species are mainly attracted by urban greenery. In this study, we collected data on 127 breeding bird species at 1349 point counts distributed along a gradient of urbanization in fourteen different European cities. The main aim was to explore the effects of anthropic pollution and city characteristics, on shaping the avian communities, regarding species' diet composition. The green cover of urban areas increased the number of insectivorous and omnivorous bird species, while slightly decreasing the overall diet heterogeneity of the avian communities. The green heterogeneity-a measure of evenness considering the relative coverage of grass, shrubs and trees-was positively correlated with the richness of granivorous, insectivorous, and omnivorous species, increasing the level of diet heterogeneity in the assemblages. Additionally, the effects of light pollution on avian communities were associated with the species' diet. Overall, light pollution negatively affected insectivorous and omnivorous bird species while not affecting granivorous species. The noise pollution, in contrast, was not significantly associated with changes in species assemblages. Our results offer some tips to urban planners, managers, and ecologists, in the challenge of producing more eco-friendly cities for the future.

Effects of urbanization on taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic avian diversity in Europe

Europe is an urbanized continent characterized by a long history of human-wildlife interactions. This study aimed to assess the effects of specific elements of urbanization and urban pollution on complementary avian diversity metrics, to provide new insights on the conservation of urban birds. Our study recorded 133 bird species at 1624 point counts uniformly distributed in seventeen different European cities. Our results thus covered a large spatial scale, confirming both effects of geographical and local attributes of the cities on avian diversity. However, we found contrasting effects for the different diversity components analyzed. Overall, taxonomic diversity (bird species richness), phylogenetic diversity and relatedness were significantly and negatively associated with latitude, while functional dispersion of communities showed no association whatsoever. At the local level (within the city), we found that urban greenery (grass, bush, and trees) is positively correlated with the number of breeding bird species, while the building cover showed a detrimental effect. Functional dispersion was the less affected diversity metric, while grass and trees and water (rivers or urban streams) positively affected the phylogenetic diversity of avian communities. Finally, the phylogenetic relatedness of species increased with all the main indicators of urbanization (building surface, floors, pedestrian's density and level of light pollution) and was only mitigated by the presence of bushes. We argue that maintaining adequate levels of avian diversity within the urban settlements can help to increase the potential resilience of urban ecosystems exposed to the stress provoked by rapid and continuous changes. We listed some characteristics of the cities providing positive and negative effects on each facet of urban avian diversity.

Assessing the importance of High Nature Value farmlands for the conservation of Lesser Kestrels Falco naumanni

Agricultural areas, such as cereal cultivations, that support species of European and/or national conservation concern are considered as ‘High Nature Value’ farmlands (HNVf) and are very important for the preservation of biodiversity in Europe. The lesser kestrel Falco naumanni is a migratory falcon breeding largely in the HNVf of the Mediterranean basin. The main cause of its decline in Europe has been habitat loss and degradation as a result of agricultural intensification driven largely by the EU Common Agricultural Policies (CAP). In Greece, its population dropped by about 50% since the 1970s and its preferred habitats have shrunk. The aim of this study was to assess habitat preferences of breeding Lesser Kestrels in agro-ecosystems of Greece and relate these habitats to HNVf for conservation purposes. The study area is located in the plain of Thessaly, Central Greece, holding the main lesser kestrel breeding populations in the country, where dry cereal crops have been significantly depleted over the past decades. Species distribution models were developed with generalised additive models for the analyses. Predicted probability of lesser kestrel occurrence was found to be positively associated with farmed landscapes of dry cereal cultivations. Other important predictors were cultivated irrigated farmland and landscape heterogeneity. Main results of the statistical models agree with the findings of other habitatbased studies that highlight the importance of low-input farming systems, that is, HNVf, for safeguarding vital Lesser Kestrels habitats in their breeding grounds in the Mediterranean. A key conservation priority for conserving species dependant on HNVf is the maintenance of those low-input farming systems and the implementation of a greener CAP that would promote environmental-friendly farming practices to preserve and enhance biodiversity in the agro-ecosystems of Europe.