Dataset Information

Urban green roofs provide habitat for migrating and breeding birds and their arthropod prey.

ABSTRACT: The world is rapidly urbanizing, and many previously biodiverse areas are now mostly composed of impervious surface. This loss of natural habitat causes local bird communities to become dominated by urban dweller and urban utilizer species and reduces the amount of habitat available for migrating and breeding birds. Green roofs can increase green space in urban landscapes, potentially providing new habitat for wildlife. We surveyed birds and arthropods, an important food source for birds, on green roofs and nearby comparable conventional (non-green) roofs in New York City during spring migration and summer breeding seasons. We predicted that green roofs would have a greater abundance and richness of both birds and arthropods than conventional roofs during both migration and the breeding season for birds. Furthermore, we predicted we would find more urban avoider and urban utilizer bird species on green roofs than conventional roofs. We found that both birds and arthropods were more abundant and rich on green roofs than conventional roofs. In addition, green roofs hosted more urban avoider and utilizer bird species than conventional roofs. Our study shows that birds use green roofs as stopover habitat during migration and as foraging habitat during the breeding season. Establishing green roofs in urban landscapes increases the amount of habitat available for migrating and breeding birds and can partially mitigate the loss of habitat due to increasing urbanization.

SUBMITTER: Partridge DR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6114707 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Urban green roofs provide habitat for migrating and breeding birds and their arthropod prey.

Partridge Dustin R DR Clark J Alan JA

PloS one 20180829 8

The world is rapidly urbanizing, and many previously biodiverse areas are now mostly composed of impervious surface. This loss of natural habitat causes local bird communities to become dominated by urban dweller and urban utilizer species and reduces the amount of habitat available for migrating and breeding birds. Green roofs can increase green space in urban landscapes, potentially providing new habitat for wildlife. We surveyed birds and arthropods, an important food source for birds, on gre ...[more]

PMID: 30157217

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Project description:Changes in land cover during urbanization profoundly affect the diversity of bird communities, but the demographic mechanisms affecting diversity are poorly known. We advance such understanding by documenting how urbanization influences breeding dispersal-the annual movement of territorial adults-of six songbird species in the Seattle, WA, USA metropolitan area. We color-banded adults and mapped the centers of their annual breeding activities from 2000-2010 to obtain 504 consecutive movements by 337 adults. By comparing movements, annual reproduction, and mate fidelity among 10 developed, 5 reserved, and 11 changing (areas cleared and developed during our study) landscapes, we determined that adaptive breeding dispersal of sensitive forest species (Swainson's Thrush and Pacific wren), which involves shifting territory and mate after reproductive failure, was constrained by development. In changing lands, sensitive forest specialists dispersed from active development to nearby forested areas, but in so doing suffered low annual reproduction. Species tolerant of suburban lands (song sparrow, spotted towhee, dark-eyed junco, and Bewick's wren) dispersed adaptively in changing landscapes. Site fidelity ranged from 0% (Pacific wren in changing landscape) to 83% (Bewick's wren in forest reserve). Mate fidelity ranged from 25% (dark-eyed junco) to 100% (Bewick's wren). Variation in fidelity to mate and territory was consistent with theories positing an influence of territory quality, asynchronous return from migration, prior productivity, and reproductive benefits of retaining a familiar territory. Costly breeding dispersal, as well as reduced reproductive success and lowered survival cause some birds to decline in the face of urbanization. In contrast, the ability of species that utilize edges and early successional habitats to breed successfully, disperse to improve reproductive success after failure, and survive throughout the urban ecosystem enables them to maintain or increase population size.

Dataset Information

Urban green roofs provide habitat for migrating and breeding birds and their arthropod prey.

Publications

Urban green roofs provide habitat for migrating and breeding birds and their arthropod prey.

Similar Datasets

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