Research paper
New urban developments that retain more remnant trees have greater bird diversity
Highlights
- •
- Bird diversity in new housing developments which retained remnant trees.
- •
- More birds were observed on streets that had retained remnant trees.
- •
- Retaining more trees increased the bird diversity on vegetated streets.
- •
- Streets with retained mature trees had similar species composition to urban parks.
- •
- We recommend retaining large trees in new developments to help increase bird diversity.
Abstract
The
rapid expansion of urban landscapes has significant consequences for
wildlife. Habitat loss and fragmentation cause significant loss of
species richness. While remnant fragments of habitat are important areas
for conservation, the urban matrix between fragments is also critical.
Increasing the suitability of the matrix for wildlife can increase the
diversity of wildlife that utilise urban landscapes and increases the
potential for dispersal among fragments. We investigated the
effectiveness of retaining remnant trees during for increasing the
species richness and abundance of birds in new urban housing
developments. We measured species richness and abundance in four habitat
types: non-vegetated streets, vegetated streets, recreational parks and
bush sites. We discovered that the number of bird species observed was
lowest on the non-vegetated streets and highest within the bush
fragments. Species richness on vegetated streets was intermediate
between non-vegetated streets and parks. The abundance of birds was
highest within recreational parks and we observed significantly more
birds on vegetated streets than non-vegetated streets. Additionally, we
found the number of species and total abundance of birds was positively
associated with the total number of retained mature trees within a
vegetated street. The dominant feeding guild and species composition
varied between the different habitat types. Our findings suggest that
increasing the number of retained mature trees in new housing
developments may be an effective means of increasing the number of bird
species that utilise the urban matrix.
Keywords
- Fragmentation;
- Avian assemblages;
- Urban ecology;
- Urbanisation;
- Remnant vegetation;
- Species diversity
- Corresponding author. Tel.:
+61 404 790329.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
