The influence of urban park characteristics on bird diversity in Nanjing, China
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(2020) 11:45 Yang et al. Avian Res https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-020-00234-5
Open Access
RESEARCH
The influence of urban park characteristics on bird diversity in Nanjing, China Xueru Yang, Xinwei Tan, Chuanwu Chen and Yanping Wang*
Abstract Background: Habitat loss, fragmentation and decrease of habitat quality caused by urbanization have led to a dramatic decline in biodiversity worldwide. For highly urbanized areas, parks have become “islands” or habitat fragments for wildlife. As an important indicator group of urban ecosystem health, the response of birds to urbanization has attracted the global attention of ecologists. Understanding the key factors affecting bird diversity in urbanized environment is crucial to the protection of biodiversity in urban ecosystems. Methods: We used the line-transect method to survey birds in 37 urban parks in Nanjing, China. We also measured a number of park characteristics (area, isolation, shape index, environmental noise, distance to city center, and habitat diversity) that are commonly assumed to influence bird diversity. We then used the information-theoretic multi-model inference approach to determine which park characteristics had significant impacts on bird species richness. Results: We found that park area, habitat diversity and the distance to city center were the best positive predictors of bird species richness in Nanjing urban parks. By contrast, park isolation, park shape and environmental noise had little or no influence on bird diversity. Conclusions: Our study highlights the importance of park area, habitat diversity and the distance to city center in determining bird diversity in Nanjing city parks. Therefore, from a conservation viewpoint, we recommend that large parks with complex and diverse habitats far away from the city center should be retained or constructed to increase bird diversity in urban design and planning. Keywords: Biodiversity conservation, Bird diversity, Habitat diversity, Park area, Species richness, Urbanization, Urban parks Background The loss of biodiversity caused by urbanization is a serious problem that has aroused global concern (Grimm et al. 2008). With the development of urbanization, more and more natural land has been replaced by tall buildings and hardened roads (Ferenc et al. 2014). In this context, parks in urban areas often act as "islands" or habitat fragments for wildlife (Fernández-Juricic and Jokimäki 2001). Wildlife habitat management in parks is an effective way to protect biodiversity in urban ecosystems (Hagen et al. *Correspondence: [email protected] Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
2017). As an important part of biodiversity, birds are an important indicator group of urban ecosystem health (Lepczyk and Warren 2012). The impacts of urbanization on bird diversity and composition has become a hot topic in urban ecology (Evans et al. 2009; Aronson et al. 2014; Chen and Wang 2017). Theoretical and empirical
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