ASSESSING URBAN HABITAT QUALITY IN RELATION TO SOCIOECONOMIC DEPRIVATION-IMPLICATIONS FOR SPECIES CONSERVATION (original) (raw)
Related papers
2009
Abstract: Urban areas are increasingly recognised as an important resource for wildlife, as studies have shown that gardens, parks and brownfield sites can contain high insect and plant diversity. Urban centres can also provide resources for species of conservation concern, and it is therefore important to monitor urban habitat quality and ensure the maintenance of urban biodiversity. However urban habitats are often difficult to monitor effectively due to access and sight restrictions in built up areas.
SOCIOECONOMIC DEPRIVATION AS AN INDICATOR OF URBAN HOUSE SPARROW OCCURRENCE
Summary: Obtaining detailed information on urban biodiversity is problematic, due to the difficulty of accessing urban sites. Here nationwide datasets on socioeconomic status are used to combat this problem by comparing the distribution of house sparrows to the prevalence of urban deprivation in cities.
House sparrows (Passer domesticus) have declined world over, with their presence rarely seen in cities. Urbanization has lead to significant changes in the population biology of the species affecting their structure and community composition. We investigated the spatial and temporal distribution of House sparrow in various landscapes and the role of habitat attributes along a gradient of urbanization to uncover their possible sites of nesting and habitat preferences. With the study, we report that urban centres have lost favourable nesting habitats for House sparrows and they have locally migrated to the suburban and rural parts of the city. House sparrow abundance was higher in the suburban landscapes, compared to the rural and urban landscapes. House sparrow in the urban occupied a broader niche breath, than the populations in the sub urban and rural matrix. In the urban, the most preferred habitats of the House sparrow were residential areas with tiled and thatched roofs, in the sub urban, rice mills were most preferred and in the rural landscapes residential areas with tiled and thatched roofs and rice mills were equally preferred by the species. Our results revealed that along the gradient shrub cover, built up cover, socio economic status and economic prosperity were positively related to the abundance of House sparrow populations.
Journal of Ornithology, 2008
The House Sparrow Passer domesticus is traditionally associated with human habitation. However, the species has undergone dramatic declines in many urban areas in north-western Europe. There are many theories as to why this decline has occurred, but the lack of data on House Sparrow numbers prior to their decline has hampered efforts to investigate these theories in detail. This review summarises the demographic changes in urban House Sparrow populations since the 1970s, and considers evidence that the current distribution of House Sparrows may reflect changes in urban habitats caused by socioeconomic change. Evidence is mounting that, within urban landscapes, House Sparrows appear to be more prevalent in areas with a relatively low human socioeconomic status. Here, we present evidence to suggest that House Sparrows may have disappeared predominantly from more affluent areas, and that these areas are more likely to have undergone changes to habitat structure. We also show how these changes in habitat could influence House Sparrow populations via impacts upon nesting success, foraging and predation risk.
Urban Birds related to habitat, population density, and socioeconomics in Cambridge
2019
Analyses of breeding birds at 31 locations in Cambridge MA revealed significant associations between the numbers of resident and migrant species and individuals and tree canopy cover, impervious surface cover, the ratio of canopy to impervious surface, and human population density. No significant correlations occurred between income or poverty and bird diversity, likely due to the compact, densified nature of Cambridge. Five wooded areas in the western part of the city had the majority of bird species. Most sites were dominated by a few common species, especially House Sparrows (Passer domesticus, >50% individuals). Mature residential areas and forested urban areas are of great importance to urban bird diversity, and continuous monitoring is necessary to mitigate the negative impacts of lot and block scale urban development on birds. Despite high bird diversity in key areas and well-distributed recreational open space in Cambridge, the potential daily exposure of the bulk of Camb...
LAND USE IN RELATION TO NATIONWIDE HOUSE SPARROW OCCURRENCE
Summary: Studies of urban biodiversity are problematic, due to the difficulty of obtaining large scale, yet detailed information on urban habitat quality. This information is nevertheless important to obtain, as urban areas provide potential habitat for a wide variety of species, including many of conservation concern.
HOME RANGE AND HABITAT USE OF BREEDING URBAN HOUSE SPARROWS
Investigating the role of socioeconomic status in determining urban habitat quality for the house sparrow, Passer domesticus
Summary: Recent evidence suggests that the decline of the house sparrow in urban areas may be in part due to small-scale habitat changes that reduce the availability of suitable foraging and nesting habitat for the species. The success of conservation strategies will therefore depend on gaining an accurate estimate of the habitat requirements of the species; both in terms of the area needed to sustain breeding colonies, and also of the selection preferences of birds within their range. Here we use radio telemetry to define the home ...
Birds
Urban planning and management need long-term population level studies for evaluating how urbanization influences biodiversity. Firstly, we reviewed the current population trends of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) in Europe, and evaluated the usefulness of citizens’ science projects to monitor these species in Finland. Secondly, we conducted a long-term (1991–2020) winter field study in 31 urban settlements along a 950 km north–south extent in Finland to study how latitude, weather and urbanization influence on sparrow’s growth rates. The House Sparrow is declining in 15 countries, and increasing in 5, whereas the Eurasian Tree Sparrow is declining in 12 and increasing in 9 European countries. The trend of the House Sparrow was significantly negative in continental Europe. However, the trend of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow was not significant. Both species have declined simultaneously in six countries, whereas in four countries, thei...
Environmental and socio‐economic factors related to urban bird communities
2012
Urban fauna communities may be strongly influenced by environmental and socio-economic factors, but the relative importance of these factors is poorly known. Most research on urban fauna has been conducted in large cities and it is unclear if the patterns found in these locations coincide with those from smaller human settlements. We examined the relative importance of environmental and socio-economic factors in explaining variation in urban bird communities across 72 neighbourhoods in 18 regional towns in south-eastern Australia. Native bird species richness varied from 6 to 32 across neighbourhoods and was higher in neighbourhoods with more nectar-rich plants. Variation in bird species diversity across neighbourhoods was also strongly positively related to the density of nectar-rich plants, but was higher also in neighbourhoods with higher socio-economic status (reflecting higher levels of disposal income, education and home ownership). The density of native birds across neighbourhoods per season varied from 1 to 15 birds per hectare and was lower in neighbourhoods with a greater cover of impervious surfaces. The density of exotic birds (introduced to Australia) per season also varied across neighbourhoods (0-13 birds per hectare) and was lower in neighbourhoods with more nectar-rich plants and higher in neighbourhoods with greater impervious surface cover. Our results demonstrated that the vegetation characteristics of household gardens, along streetscapes and in urban parklands had a strong influence on the richness and diversity of urban bird communities.The density of native and exotic birds varied primarily in response to changes in the built environment (measured through impervious surface cover). Socio-economic factors had relatively little direct influence on urban birds, but neighbourhood socio-economics may influence bird communities indirectly through the positive relationship between socio-economic status and vegetation cover recorded in our study area.