Urbanization causes biotic homogenization of woodland bird communities at multiple spatial scales.

ABSTRACT: Urbanization is a major contributor to biodiversity declines. However, studies assessing effects of urban landscapes per se (i.e., disentangled from focal habitat effects) on biodiversity across spatial scales are lacking. Understanding such scale-dependent effects is fundamental to preserve habitats along an urbanization gradient in a way that maximizes overall biodiversity. We investigated the impact of landscape urbanization on communities of woodland-breeding bird species in individual (local scale) and across multiple (regional scale) cities, while controlling for the quality of sampled habitats (woodlands). We conducted bird point counts and habitat quality mapping of trees, dead wood, and shrubs in 459 woodlands along an urban to rural urbanization gradient in 32 cities in Sweden. R

SUBMITTER: Sidemo-Holm W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9804485 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature