LB 32-308 - Factors driving bird diversity along an urban-rural gradient: a fine-scale integrated assessment in Taizhou city of Jiangsu province, China

Background/Question/Methods:

Frequent land use changes and high urbanization are the main drivers of avian habitat loss in developing countries. However, few studies have examined the effects of urbanization intensity on avian diversity distribution and its importance in guiding eco-friendly urban planning. We surveyed bird distribution (n=68 species) along urbanization gradient in Jiangyan District, Jiangsu, China, from July 2018 to May 2019.

Results/Conclusions:

The results showed that there were no significant regional differences in bird abundance between the breeding and non-breeding seasons, but differ markedly in the richness, and species richness in all guilds across the seasons peaked in moderately urbanized areas and the abundance and richness of habitat specialists and urban generalist significantly varied with urbanization. Although specialists bird communities were not negatively correlated with urbanization intensity, they significantly depended upon Blue-Green infrastructure (BGI) distribution patterns (Habitat type: Dryland p= 0.014, Water body p= 0.022, Woody vegetation p= 0.014, Forage type: Water body p= 0.006 ) that also supported higher bird diversity. Our results clearly pointed out that increasing natural patches in cities could provide some relief from habitat fragmentation and resource depletion, and then highlighted the necessity of BGI (wetland, arable-land and woodlands connectivity and homogeneity) in agro-urban land use, which could contribute to natural habitat restoration and improve bird biodiversity in urban areas.