Biotic homogenisation in urban grasslands: which bird and plant species and traits are selected in urban contexts?

• Published in: Urban ecosystems Vol. 28; no. 5; p. 186
• Main Authors: Pithon, Josephine A., Duflot, Rémi, Beaujouan, Véronique, Cochard, Arnaud, Pain, Guillaume, Daniel, Hervé
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2025; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Biodiversity loss; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Birds; Cities; Community composition; Complementarity; Composition; Ecology; Ecology, environment; Environmental conditions; Environmental Management; Flowers & plants; Gardens; Gardens & gardening; Grassland management; Grasslands; Habitats; Homogenization; Life Sciences; Nature Conservation; Plant species; Rural areas; Species richness; Urban areas; Urban Ecology; Urbanization; France; Mesophilic grasslands; Urban adapters; Urban-rural gradient; Landscape structure; Residential gardens; Urban avoiders
• ISSN: 1083-8155; 1573-1642
• DOI: 10.1007/s11252-025-01783-7

Urbanisation is a key driver of biodiversity loss at local and global scales and results in biotic homogenisation of urban-dwelling plant and animal communities. Identifying the species and traits selected in urban contexts can provide valuable insights to underlying mechanisms. Although species and trait distributions are relatively well known at city scale, fewer studies have focused on single habitats or have simultaneously sampled for animals and plants. Our aim was to analyse variation in species richness and in community composition of both species and traits in response to landscape context. Along an urban-rural gradient of two cities of western France, we sampled plant and bird communities in ordinary, mesophilic grasslands, which occupy large areas with lesser-known effects on biodiversity. Grassland sites were selected in landscapes with varying proportion of built land, herbaceous cover and residential gardens. Even within this relatively homogeneous habitat type, we found strong selection of both bird and plant traits in response to landscape composition, the degree of urbanisation being the most important driver of community composition. An increasing proportion of gardens in the site neighbourhood also significantly influenced species richness (positively, for plants only) and composition (for both taxa). Grasslands in the urban contexts we studied were subject to specific forms of taxonomic and trait-based biotic homogenisation as compared with other habitat types. Such insights should contribute, together with consideration of local management practices and habitat complementarity between grasslands and other habitats, to appropriate integration and management of grassland habitats at both site and neighbourhood levels.