Key drivers of avifauna in greenspace of institutional campuses in a state in Western Africa

Abstract

Urbanization is causing rapid loss of important habitats for wildlife and most birds in urban areas are therefore unable to maintain a viable population due to poor habitat. However, some birds are able to retreat to urban greenspaces for safety and survival such that these areas may sometimes support high biodiversity. Understanding the dynamics that shape the distribution of birds in urban greenspaces is therefore necessary for setting priorities to improve outcomes for biodiversity conservation. In this study, we investigated the key drivers of bird species richness and abundance in greenspaces of institutional campuses. We surveyed a total of 53 transects (each of 500-meters in length and 200 m wide) for bird species in 15 institutional campuses in Plateau State, North-Central Nigeria. We sampled habitat level variables at every 100 m section of the transect, and also obtained landscape-level variables such as campus size and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from satellite imagery. Data analysis revealed that bird species richness and abundance differed significantly between campus categories (highly, moderately and sparsely woody). We identified campus age, number of tree species and number of shrubs as strong and positive predictors of avifauna. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic however, were negatively related to bird species richness and abundance. We recommend that conservation effort and management planning should focus on the planting and growth of multiple components of vegetation structure with diverse trees and shrub complexity.