Abstract
We analysed the effect of the urban matrix, the urban space surrounding distinct habitat patches, on bird communities. In doing so we assessed the impact of urbanisation beyond the effect of habitat loss. We used a set of 54 wasteland sites of early successional stages that were scattered over the entire urban area of Berlin, Germany. Sites were similar to each other in habitat structure but differed in their surroundings, the urban matrix. Thus, our study design allows to investigate associations between birds and the urban matrix. Our measures for urbanisation are human population density and degree of sealing within 50 to 2,000 m buffer zones surrounding each wasteland site. Along the urbanisation gradients we calculated three measures of bird communities: alpha diversity, beta diversity, and trait profile of the entire bird community regarding food, life-history, and behavioural traits. Alpha diversity did not change significantly along the gradients of urbanisation. However, beta diversity increased along the urbanisation gradients with urbanisation at the local scale (50 m) but decreased at the landscape scale (200 and 2,000 m). Fourth-corner analysis of relationships between urbanisation and species traits showed trait shifts: adult survival rate increased with human population density and densities of birds that are more often reported to show innovative behaviour increased with both human population density and degree of sealing. We conclude that the influence of the urban matrix contributes to the homogenisation of the avifauna by filtering certain species traits and promoting others.
Published Version
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