Travis Gallo

Mammal diversity and metacommunity dynamics in urban green spaces: implications for urban wildlife conservation

As urban growth expands and natural environments fragment, it is essential to understand the ecological roles fulfilled by urban green spaces. To evaluate how urban green spaces function as wildlife habitat, we estimated mammal diversity and metacommunity dynamics in city parks, cemeteries, golf courses, and natural areas throughout the greater Chicago, Illinois, USA region. We found similar α-diversity (with the exception of city parks), but remarkably dissimilar communities in different urban green spaces. Additionally, the type of urban green space greatly influenced species colonization and persistence rates. For example, coyotes (Canis latrans) had the highest, but white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) the lowest probability of persistence in golf courses compared to other green space types. Further, most species had a difficult time colonizing city parks even when sites were seemingly available. Our results indicate that urban green spaces contribute different, but collectively important, habitats for maintaining and conserving biodiversity in cities.

Biodiversity: Making wildlife welcome in urban areas

Careful design of the green spaces in cities will benefit both wild animals and humans.

Need for multiscale planning for conservation of urban bats.

For over a century there have been continual efforts to incorporate nature into urban planning. These efforts (i.e., urban reconciliation) aim to manage and create habitats that support biodiversity within cities. Given that species select habitat at different spatial scales, understanding the scale at which urban species respond to their environment is critical to the success of urban reconciliation efforts. We assessed species-habitat relationships for common bat species at 50-m, 500-m, and 1 km spatial scales in the Chicago (U.S.A.) metropolitan area and predicted bat activity across the greater Chicago region. Habitat characteristics across all measured scales were important predictors of silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) and eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) activity, and big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) activity was significantly lower at urban sites relative to rural sites. Open vegetation had a negative effect on silver-haired bat activity at the 50-m scale but a positive effect at the 500-m scale, indicating potential shifts in the relative importance of some habitat characteristics at different scales. These results demonstrate that localized effects may be constrained by broader spatial patterns. Our findings highlight the importance of considering scale in urban reconciliation efforts and our landscape predictions provide information that can help prioritize urban conservation work.

The effect of exurban development on wintering birds in Colorado

ABSTRACT Large-scale land-use change driven by residential development has degraded native ecosystems and altered the composition of species communities. Concern over the loss of habitat for human-sensitive species has led to questions about how housing impacts bird communities along the urban to rural gradient. Yet most studies of birds in residential ecosystems are limited to the breeding season, thus the effects of housing on avian habitat use in winter are not well understood. We surveyed winter resident birds, vegetation cover and structure, and human activity along a housing gradient in a Colorado landscape undergoing exurban development. Using an occupancy-based approach, we evaluated models for species with sufficient detections (n = 8). We found that habitat use by six species [American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia), Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea), Townsends Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi)] was positively associated with housing density at scales ranging from 100–1,000 m. In contrast, habitat use by two species [Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) and Stellers Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)] was negatively associated with housing proximity, and human activity had no effect on habitat use for any species. Canopy cover or understory vegetation cover and structure were important covariates for predicting habitat use of all species modeled. Our results suggest that to maximize the value of residential areas for a diverse wintering bird community, areas with natural vegetation should be incorporated into development planning. Overall, we found that the resident winter birds evaluated in our study were resilient to development in exurban areas. Indeed, these species may be opportunistic in occupying residential habitats that allow them to exploit anthropogenic resources during an energetically expensive time of year.

Small-Scale Woodland Reduction Practices Have Neutral or Negative Short-Term Effects on Birds and Small Mammals☆

ABSTRACT Woodland reduction has been underway for decades to improve habitat for certain wildlife species, increase forage for livestock, improve watershed function and reduce soil erosion, and increase plant community heterogeneity. Land managers have implemented a variety of techniques to reduce woodlands. Yet most studies on outcomes are observational and focus on plant communities; fewer studies experimentally compare the relative effects of woodland reduction methods on wildlife. We conducted an experiment to evaluate the effects of three mechanical tree removal methods on habitat use by native birds and abundance of small mammals in the first 2 yr after treatment. Located in the Piceance Basin, Colorado, United States, this study consisted of seven replicated 1-ha stands of pinyon-juniper woodland treated with chaining, roller-chop, hydro-ax, as well as untreated plots (n = 28 plots). We found no differences in initial bird habitat use or small mammal abundance among the woodland reduction treatment methods. However, we found evidence that habitat use was significantly lower in all woodland reduction treatment plots than in control plots for birds of dense woodland and open woodland habitats, and that use was positively associated with tree cover. Furthermore, no grassland or shrubland obligate birds used the treatment plots, suggesting that small-scale woodland reduction treatments may not provide attractive habitat for shrubland or grassland birds, at least within 2 yr following treatment. Because some bird species responded negatively to all methods of woodland reduction treatments, and no bird or small mammal species responded positively, the initial effects of small-scale chaining, roller-chop, and hydro-ax treatments on wildlife should not be overlooked.