Large-scale variations of raptor communities in urban green spaces of neotropical cities.

LM LEVEAU

Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation

Elsevier

Año: 2022

2530-0644

Urban areas are expanding continuously inducing changes in raptor communities.However, our knowledge about urbanization impacts on raptor communities atcontinental scales is scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study is to relate geographical(city location) and environmental characteristics of cities with raptor species richness,taxonomic composition and functional composition in urban green spaces (UGS) ofNeotropical cities. Data about raptor species present in UGS was compiled throughsearch of scientific articles and thesis in databases. Raptor species richness increasedin the tropics and decreased with increasing altitude. Species richness also increasedwith the increasing minimum UGS area of studies. Species composition dissimilaritywas influenced by altitude and the geographic location of cities, and was dominated byspecies turnover. Scavengers were more frequent in cities of the east coast of Brazil,whereas semi-open habitat species were more frequent in southern South Americancities. Raptor body size was related positively with UGS size. The results obtainedconfirmed the pattern of increasing raptor species richness in the tropics. However,anthropogenic factors such as green area loss in urban areas may influence themacrogeographical patterns of raptor species richness. The species compositiondissimilarity between cities is dominated by a pattern of species replacements, relatedto species distributions in the Neotropics. Species functional traits were affected bymacrogeographical factors and also by green area size, suggesting that urbanizationmay alter ecosystem processes provided by raptors. In short, the conservation andplanning of large UGS is fundamental to maintain raptor communities in theNeotropical cities.