Seeking the least urbanized landscape: white stork nest abundance variation in a Mediterranean capital city
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Seeking the least urbanized landscape: white stork nest abundance variation in a Mediterranean capital city Mohamed-Jad Hmamouchi 1 & Kamal Agharroud 2 & Jamila Dahmani 1 & Saâd Hanane 3 Received: 7 April 2020 / Revised: 15 June 2020 / Accepted: 5 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Knowledge of the factors influencing variation of nest abundance in cities is a major topic in urban ecology with important management and planning implications. In the present study, we aimed to investigate this issue with regards to white stork (WS) (Ciconia ciconia) in the capital of Morocco, Rabat. Here, we used data on a series of topographic, anthropogenic, and landscape variables to identify best predictors causing variation in the WS nest abundance by means of generalized linear models. Results revealed an increase in nest abundances with a weaker length of roads and greater non-built-up areas. Therefore, the less urbanized the areas of the city of Rabat are, the more attractive for nest establishment by storks they are. This information is of use to the Rabat urban environmental managers in order not only to (1) maintain this Ciconiidae species at manageable levels but also to (2) suitably manage this city taking into account the needs of storks. Reproducing this study in other Mediterranean urban areas would be relevant to find out if variation in nest abundances of this species depends on the same factors as those in Rabat. Keywords Ciconia ciconia . Urban landscape ecology . Spatial distribution . Nesting . North Africa
Introduction On a global scale, urbanization has created an entirely new type of landscape which has influenced the biological evolution of the wildlife (Adams et al. 2014) that increasingly uses urban areas (Si Bachir et al. 2013; Jokimäki et al. 2018; Bernat-Ponce et al. 2018; Ciach and Frohlich 2019). Manmade structures would therefore be beneficial to some species, insofar as they provide food sources (Tryjanowski et al. 2009), perches and roosting sites (Mainwaring 2015), or breeding locations (Moreira et al. 2018). These structures are particularly attractive for generalist species (compared with species with specialist habitat requirements) that are known to cope well with environmental change and disturbance, such as availability of food resources, suitable nesting sites, human
* Saâd Hanane [email protected] 1
Laboratory of Botany, Biotechnology and Plant Protection, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, 133, 14000 Kénitra, BP, Morocco
2
Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Avenue de Sebta, Mhannech II, 93002 Tétouan, Morocco
3
Forest Research Center, Avenue Omar Ibn El Khattab, BP 763, Agdal, 10050 Rabat, Morocco
disturbance, and predation (Devictor et al. 2008; Pettett et al. 2017; Buxton et al. 2018; Kettel et al. 2019). Studying demographic parameters is therefore crucial to (1) understand mechanisms governing spatial distribution of the population; (2) assess the ability o
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