Do small cities affect bird assemblages? An evaluation from Patagonia

GOROSITO, CRISTIAN ANDRÉS; CUETO, VÍCTOR RODOLFO

Urban Ecosystems

Springer

Año: 2020 vol. 23 p. 289 - 300

1083-8155

Most studies about the impact of urbanization on birdassemblages are from the Northern Hemisphere and most previous research hasreported that cities reduced bird species richness and favored the settlementof exotic bird species. However, most of these studies took place in largecities and few of them were focused on riparian environments. The aim of ourstudy was to investigate how richness and abundance of riparian birds changealong the rural-urban gradient of Esquel, a small city in Patagonia. We establishedtwo rural riparian sites upstream, two urban riparian sites and two ruralriparian sites downstream, and set up six point counts in each site. We countedbirds twice (once in November 2013 and January 2014) and sampled vegetationcoverage at each point count location. We used GLMMs to analyze data. Birdspecies richness decreased from rural to urban sites while bird abundanceincreased. Omnivores thrived in the city whereas insectivores and insectivore-frugivoreswere abundant in rural sites. Birds species richness was associated with plantspecies richness, while abundances of insectivores and insectivore-frugivoresbirds were related to shrub coverage and foliage height diversity. Our studyhighlighted that small cities can modify bird communities in the same way aslarge cities, thus policies for conservation of birds should be created tocoincide with urbanizations. We recommend planting native species in all urbangreen spaces and informing citizens about the benefits of this action. Ifeverybody collaborates, conservation of native birds in developing areas ofAndean Patagonia will be possible.