Top ten birds indicators of high environmental quality in European cities
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Bird species richness Conservation Environmental quality Greenery Light pollution Urban trees Urban bird diversity
Date
2021-11-19Referencia bibliográfica
Federico Morelli... [et al.]. Top ten birds indicators of high environmental quality in European cities, Ecological Indicators, Volume 133, 2021, 108397, ISSN 1470-160X, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108397]
Sponsorship
Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 18-16738S; Spanish Government PID2019-107423GA-I00/SRA; Hungarian Ministry for Innovation and Technology TKP2020-IKA12 TKP2020-NKA-16; Charles University PRIMUS/17/SCI/16Abstract
Urban and suburban areas are among the fastest-growing land-use types globally, reducing and fragmenting
natural habitats for many animal species and making human-wildlife interactions more common. However, cities
also create habitat for several species considered urban tolerant or urban exploiter species. Additionally, the
environmental characteristics of urban areas can strongly affect the life quality of citizens. This study aimed to
assess the effectiveness of common bird species as indicators of urban areas with high environmental quality
within cities. Our study recorded 128 bird species in 1441 point counts distributed in fifteen different European
cities. We classified urban areas as “high environmental quality” – HEQ when they were simultaneously characterized
by a high vegetation cover and heterogeneity, low level of light pollution, and avian communities with
high potential resilience to face ecological stress. Species indicators of HEQ urban areas were identified using the
species-level indicator value (IndVal) analysis. Such species can be used as ecological indicators of HEQ in
different European cities. The list of top ten birds indicators of HEQ in European cities is led by the Eurasian
blackcap, selected as an indicator in more than half of the survey cities. Other birds indicators of HEQ in multiple
cities are Blackbird (47%), Great tit (40%), Blue tit, Tree sparrow and Magpie (all 33%). The mean specificity of
the top-ranked bird indicator of HEQ urban areas (Eurasian blackcap) was 0.778. Most of the HEQ-indicators are
resident or resident/short migratory species characterized by territorial behaviour. Our findings support using
multiple species as bioindicators of urban changes by using specific groups with few common species as surrogates
of HEQ urban areas. The approach proposed in this study can be applied in different European cities to
monitor biodiversity status periodically, even involving citizen science initiatives.