Comparative Studies of Wildlife in Cities

Charles NilonDepartment of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences

University of MissouriColumbia, MO USA

Relevance to Benchmarks for Cities

Long interest in comparative studies – Luniak 1991

Development of working group – Nagoya 2010

Types of data, analyses , potential application

Comparative Studies of Cities

Interest in comparative ecological studies of cities

Value to urban wildlife studies?

Value to management and planning decisions?

Biodiversity in Everyday Settings

“Wildlife”

Vertebrates

Birds

Mammals

Reptiles

Amphibians

Approach

Wildlife Management (Caughley)

“The art and science of applying ecological knowledge in ways that seek a balance between the needs of wildlife and the needs of people.”

NCEAS Working GroupComparative Ecology of Cities

Project Goals

1. Compile and synthesize large, diverse datasets of the flora and avifauna of cities around the world;

2. Compare the patterns and ecological responses of birds and plants in urban habitats;

3. Understand the social constraints on biodiversity in cities;

4. Develop recommendations for monitoring biodiversity in urban areas.

A Cross-City Comparison of Urban Birds

Chris Lepczyk – University of Hawaii

Paige Warren – University of Massachusetts

Madhu Katti – California State University Fresno

Mark Goddard – Leeds University

Ulla Mortberg – Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)

Marcus Hedblom – Swedish Agricultural University

Jip Louwe Koojimans – Birdlife Netherlands

Ian MacGregor-Fors - INECOL

Cities with Bird DataN > 100

Criteria for selecting cities

Complete avifauna

All land uses represented

Data since 1990's

Point counts and / or atlas data

What Makes an Urban Biota “Urban”?

Questions relevant to management:– Variables about

cities that are correlates of species richness at multiple scales?

– Patterns of similarity among cities?

– Life history traits associated with urban species?

Using Data to Address Three Questions

1. Correlates of Species richness

Differences Among Cities:Setting

Differences Among CitesPercent Urbanization

15 km buffer

30 km buffer

Indirect measure of fragmentation, isolation (?)

Differences Among CitiesPrecipitation, Temperature

Mean annual precipitation and temperature

Maximum summer temperature

Minimum winter temperature

Variation Within CitiesLand Cover / Socioeconomic

Using Data to Address Three Questions

2. Similarity Among Cities (Homogenization Question)

A pilot study using six cities

Describing / Classifying CitiesPotential Natural Vegetation

Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD

Eastern Broadleaf / Needleleaf Forest

Tucson, AZ / Phoenix, AZ

Western Shrub

Vancouver, BC / Seattle, WA

Western Needleleaf Forest

Species Checklists175 species

Baltimore (Denison 2010)

Washington, DC (Hadidian et al. 1997)

Phoenix (Hostetler and Knowles-Yanez 2003)

Tucson (Turner 2003) Seattle (Donnelley and

Marzluff 2006) Vancouver (Melles et al.

2003)

Question:Similarity of Avifauna Among Cities

Methods:

List of species for each of 6 cities

Species presence / absence data

Classification

Cluster Analysis (Jacard and BetaSim)

Two-way cluster analysis

10 of 175 Species Occur in 5 Cities

European Starling

House Finch

House Sparrow

Northern Flicker

Red-winged Blackbird

Song Sparrow

Killdeer

Mallard

Mourning Dove

Rock Pigeon

Results

Cities support a large number bird species

Cities have different bird species associated with potential natural vegetation

Based on presence cities are not homogeneous

Using Data to Address Three Questions

3. Applying bird trait data to understanding patterns among cities

A pilot study using same six cities and a subset of 114 bird species

Question:Trait Data, Species and Cities

Methods:

List of species with trait data available (Lepczyk and Flather 2007)

Traits - nest height, clutch size, incubation time, time to fledging

Ordination

Canonical Correspondence Analysis: • Species presence / absence for cities

• Trait data (“environmental data”)

Results of CCA

Separation of raptors from other species

Traits Incubation Time Time to Fledging Nest Height

vs Clutch Size

Separation of cities

Additional Questions

How much of the regional avifauna is captured in urban areas?

Does species abundance matter?

Applications

Birds part of Cities Biodiversity Index

Baseline for comparing one city to another

Baseline for evaluating city-wide conservation strategies

Baseline for management at multiple scales within a city