Rock climbing activity and physical habitat attributes impact avian community diversity in cliff environments.

ABSTRACT: As the sport of outdoor rock climbing rapidly grows, there is increasing pressure to understand how it can affect communities of organisms in cliff habitats. To that end, we surveyed 32 cliff sites in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and assessed the relative roles of human recreation and natural habitat features as drivers of bird diversity and activity. We detected only native avian species during our observations. Whereas avian abundance was not affected by climbing, avian species diversity and community conservation value were higher at low-use climbing formations. Models indicated that climber presence and cliff aspect were important predictors of both avian diversity and avian cliff use within our study area, while long-term climbing use frequency has a smaller, but still negative association

SUBMITTER: Covy N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6334907 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature