Effects of Landscape Attributes on Campuses Bird Species Richness and Diversity, Implications for Eco-Friendly Urban Planning

Abstract

Landscape changes due to urban expansion may severely influence urban biodiversity through direct and indirect effects. Hence, a comprehensive understanding of the urban expansion effects on species diversity is essential for conservation biologists, urban planners, and policymakers to help design more practical and effective conservation strategies. Here, based on monthly bird survey data of 12 university campuses distributed in the center and the Xianlin university town of Nanjing city, we first compared the differences of the campuses bird species richness, Shannon-Wiener, and Simpson indices. Then, we analyzed the effects of a variety of landscape attributes on the campuses bird species richness. Unlike other studies, we also constructed a 2 km buffer area surrounding each campus and analyzed the effects of the landscape attributes of the buffer area on species richness. We found that bird species richness was higher in the campus of Xianlin compared to those in the center. Landscape attributes played an important role on bird species richness, especially for the determinants in the buffer area. Specifically, species richness, Shannon-Wiener, and Simpson indices increased with the increasing area of water and green space both within the campus and the buffer area. Not surprisingly, bird species richness and diversity were more affected by fragmentation of the buffer area, increasing with the aggregation index and decreasing with the splitting index. Our study emphasized that landscape attributes of both campuses and buffer areas determined bird species richness and diversity, offering several practical implications for urban biodiversity maintenance and eco-friendly urban planning.