Forest cover is important across multiple scales for bird communities in vacant lots

Urban vacant lots can vary considerably in their vegetation structure, from dense, shrubby habitats to wooded remnant fragments that may provide habitat for a variety of birds. By identifying which features promote diverse bird communities, we can determine at which scale management practices should...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inUrban ecosystems Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 561 - 571
Main Authors Rega-Brodsky, Christine C., Nilon, Charles H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.06.2017
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Abundance
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Birds
Canopies
Communities
Dispersal
Ecology
Environmental gradient
Environmental Management
Forest management
Forests
Fragments
Habitats
Landscape
Life Sciences
Nature Conservation
Ordination
Species richness
Urban areas
Urban Ecology
Vegetation
Trees
Greenspace
Baltimore
Habitat quality
Urban bird community
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Summary:Urban vacant lots can vary considerably in their vegetation structure, from dense, shrubby habitats to wooded remnant fragments that may provide habitat for a variety of birds. By identifying which features promote diverse bird communities, we can determine at which scale management practices should focus and the necessary habitat structure and composition features. We surveyed 150 vacant lots throughout Baltimore, Maryland for their bird communities, lot vegetation, and landscape-level forest cover. An ordination of the bird community indicated a response to a gradient of canopy cover and canopy height at the vacant lot. We also found that forest cover within 100 m of the vacant lot was the most important predictor of abundance for five bird species of interest. Species richness was spatially autocorrelated among sites, indicating that bird communities may also be driven by species’ dispersal and environmental gradients across the city. Overall, bird communities are responding to habitat features across multiple scales, from the vacant lot vegetation, to landscape-level forest cover, to city-wide dynamics. Thus, we recommend management practices to focus on increasing city-wide forest cover in order to increase species richness, yet with awareness regarding where the lot occurs within the city.
ISSN:1083-8155
1573-1642
DOI:10.1007/s11252-016-0614-5