Influence of environmental factors on bird diversity in greenspaces in an Amazonian city

Abstract

In the Amazon, urbanization is increasing rapidly, and greenspaces have become important sites to sustain bird diversity in urban areas. However, there is still little information for this bioregion on the relationship of birds with greenspace characteristics and, consequently, on what management measures are needed to maintain biodiversity in these spaces. Here, we assessed the association between bird diversity and environmental factors in 18 greenspaces in the city of Florencia, Colombia. As response variables, we include bird species richness and abundance, analyzing exotic species separately. We considered greenspace characteristics (size and habitat attributes) as local factors and land cover types in the surrounding urban matrix as landscape factors. The bird community was composed of 61 species, where one exotic species (Columba livia) represented 20.2% of the total abundance. At the local scale, environmental factors did not have a significant effect on bird richness. In contrast, native bird abundance was positively influenced by the number of shrubs. At the landscape scale, native bird richness and abundance were positively related to woody vegetation cover. As expected, exotic birds were positively influenced by variables associated with urbanization. Finally, considering the role of vegetation in maintaining native bird diversity, we proposed some management measures at different spatial scales that can be implemented in other Neotropical cities.