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Previous studies in urban desert ecosystems have reported a decline in avian diversity. Herein, we expand and improve these studies by disentangling the effect of land-use and land-cover (LULC) types (desert, riparian desert, urban, riparian urban, agriculture), vegetation greenness (normalized difference vegetation index—NDVI), climate, and their interactions on avian seasonal variation abundance and richness. Avian community data were collected seasonally (winter and spring) from 2001 to 2016. We used generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and multimodel inference to investigate how environmental predictors explain patterns of avian richness and abundance. Avian abundance and richness oscillated considerably among the years. GLMM indicated that LULC was the most important predictor of avian abundance and richness. Avian abundance was highest in urban riparian and urban LULC types, followed by agriculture. In contrast, avian richness was the highest in riparian environments (urban and desert), followed by agriculture, urban, and desert. NDVI was also strongly related to avian abundance and richness, whereas the effect of temperature and precipitation was moderate. The importance of environmental predictors is, however, dependent on LULC. The importance of LULC, vegetation cover, and climate in influencing the seasonal patterns of avian distribution highlights birds’ sensitivity to changes in land use and cover and temperature.
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Ready, Set, Go: Community Science Field Campaign Reveals Habitat Preferences of Nonnative Asian Earthworms in an Urban Landscape
Abstract Asian pheretimoid earthworms of the genera Amynthas and Metaphire (jumping worms) are leading a new wave of coinvasion into Northeastern and Midwestern states, with potential consequences for native organisms and ecosystem processes. However, little is known about their distribution, abundance, and habitat preferences in urban landscapes—areas that will likely influence their range expansion via human-driven spread. We led a participatory field campaign to assess jumping worm distribution and abundance in Madison, Wisconsin, in the United States. By compressing 250 person-hours of sampling effort into a single day, we quantified the presence and abundance of three jumping worm species across different land-cover types (forest, grassland, open space, and residential lawns and gardens), finding that urban green spaces differed in invasibility. We show that community science can be powerful for researching invasive species while engaging the public in conservation. This approach was particularly effective in the present study, where broad spatial sampling was required within a short temporal window.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2025982
- PAR ID:
- 10317091
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- BioScience
- Volume:
- 71
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0006-3568
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa150
