Apfelbeck Beate A, Navalpotro Buscail Marina, Sommer Anna, Petermann Jana S
Department of Environment and Biodiversity, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Ecology Department, Biology Faculty, University of Barcelona, Diagonal, 643, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
Urban Ecosyst. 2025;28(4):131. doi: 10.1007/s11252-025-01738-y. Epub 2025 May 28.
Urbanization continues to be a major threat to biodiversity. The knowledge of local and site characteristics that influence species diversity within cities is of importance to design and manage urban spaces that promote biodiversity and ecosystem services. While the characteristics of urban green spaces for biodiversity have been studied in detail, the urban matrix has received less attention. We, therefore, studied the role of sampling site and local-scale parameters at different urbanization intensities on bird and tree communities during the breeding season across the city of Salzburg encompassing the heterogeneity of the urban landscape. We found more exotic than native tree species, however areas with many trees, were dominated by native tree species. Although building cover negatively related to bird species richness at all scales, bird species richness increased with the amount of grass cover, the number of trees and the number of native tree species at the smallest, i.e. sampling site, scale. Building cover and the number of trees in a sampling site also influenced bird community composition. At larger scales, land cover (i.e., building cover and green urban area) was more strongly related to bird community composition than sampling site characteristics. Relationships with community composition can partly be explained by species-specific responses as the occurrence of different species was associated with different sampling site characteristics. Our study shows the importance of unsealed soil, i.e. grass cover, and native trees on bird communities within cities, but different species may require different configurations of these habitat parameters. Furthermore, also within the urban matrix site characteristics can promote avian diversity even in areas with high building cover.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11252-025-01738-y.
城市化仍然是生物多样性面临的主要威胁。了解影响城市物种多样性的当地和场地特征，对于设计和管理促进生物多样性和生态系统服务的城市空间至关重要。虽然已经详细研究了城市绿地对生物多样性的特征，但城市基质受到的关注较少。因此，我们研究了在萨尔茨堡市不同城市化强度下，采样点和局部尺度参数对繁殖季节鸟类和树木群落的作用，涵盖了城市景观的异质性。我们发现外来树种比本地树种更多，然而树木较多的区域以本地树种为主。尽管建筑覆盖率在所有尺度上都与鸟类物种丰富度呈负相关，但在最小尺度即采样点尺度上，鸟类物种丰富度随着草地覆盖率、树木数量和本地树种数量的增加而增加。采样点的建筑覆盖率和树木数量也影响鸟类群落组成。在较大尺度上，土地覆盖（即建筑覆盖率和城市绿地面积）与鸟类群落组成的关系比采样点特征更强。与群落组成的关系部分可以通过物种特异性反应来解释，因为不同物种的出现与不同的采样点特征相关。我们的研究表明，未密封土壤即草地覆盖率和本地树木对城市鸟类群落很重要，但不同物种可能需要这些栖息地参数的不同配置。此外，即使在建筑覆盖率高的地区，城市基质场地特征也可以促进鸟类多样性。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s11252-025-01738-y获取的补充材料。
