Department of Biodiversity Studies and Bioeducation, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Łódź, Banacha 1/3, 90-237, Łódź, Poland.
Faculty of Biology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089, Warsaw, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 12;11(1):836. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80872-3.
Rapid urbanization has a great impact on avian distribution, ecology, habitat selection, and behavior. Recent avian studies indicated that individuals remain consistent in their behavioral responses to human disturbance across short periods of time. However, there is still little information about keeping consistent behaviors in distinct locations across different stages of the annual cycle. In this study, we aimed to test for long-term consistency in habitat selection with respect to urbanization in a migratory waterbird species, the Eurasian coot Fulica atra. For this purpose, we individually marked ca. 300 coots from four populations that varied in urbanization level and tracked their habitat preferences during the non-breeding season. We found that individuals from urban breeding populations selected habitats with a higher share of artificial areas during the non-breeding season, when compared to non-urban individuals. Also, a comparison of non-breeding sites selected by birds from our study populations with random sites showed that urban birds selected sites with higher urbanization level than resulting from random availability. Finally, we found a seasonal variation in habitat preferences in coots-individuals from all study populations selected more urbanized areas as the non-breeding season progressed. The results indicate that birds are able to remain consistent in habitat preferences not only at a large geographical scale, but also across different seasons. Marked between-population variation in habitat selection across the annual cycle may reflect personality differences of coots from urban and non-urban populations, and it stays in line with the personality-matching habitat choice hypothesis.
快速的城市化进程对鸟类的分布、生态学、栖息地选择和行为都有很大的影响。最近的鸟类研究表明，个体在短时间内对人类干扰的行为反应保持一致。然而，对于不同阶段的年度周期中，在不同地点保持一致的行为的信息仍然很少。在这项研究中，我们旨在测试在迁徙水鸟欧亚黑水鸡 Fulica atra 物种中，城市化背景下对栖息地选择的长期一致性。为此，我们从四个城市化水平不同的种群中标记了大约 300 只黑水鸡，并在非繁殖季节跟踪它们的栖息地偏好。我们发现，与非城市化个体相比，来自城市化繁殖种群的个体在非繁殖季节选择了具有更高人工区域份额的栖息地。此外，将我们研究的鸟类的非繁殖地与随机地点进行比较，结果表明，与随机可用性相比，城市鸟类选择了城市化水平更高的地点。最后，我们发现黑水鸡的栖息地偏好存在季节性变化——所有研究种群的个体在非繁殖季节的进展中选择了更城市化的区域。研究结果表明，鸟类不仅在大地理范围内，而且在不同季节都能保持对栖息地偏好的一致性。整个年度周期中跨种群的栖息地选择存在明显的差异，这可能反映了城市和非城市种群黑水鸡的个性差异，这与个性匹配的栖息地选择假说一致。
