Cemeteries and biodiversity conservation in cities: how do landscape and patch-level attributes influence bird diversity in urban park cemeteries? Abstract Cemeteries can help conserve biodiversity in urban landscapes, but their capacity to support native species is likely to be influenced by variables at different spatial scales. There is growing evidence on how landscape and patch-level attributes influence biodiversity in urban parks. However, there is limited evidence about cemeteries. Park cemeteries are dominated by vegetation because they are managed to simulate traditional parks, and thus, could contribute to the conservation of native fauna in cities. We present the first study on how patch variables (cemetery size and vegetation density) and landscape variables (vegetation cover and road density within 1 km) influence the richness and abundance of native birds in urban park cemeteries. During summer and autumn, we surveyed birds in park cemeteries in the Mediterranean city of Santiago, Chile – a large Latin American city located in a biodiversity hotspot. We recorded 42 bird species (38 native and 4 exotic). We found that cemeteries surrounded by high vegetation cover supported more native birds, whereas cemeteries surrounded by high road density supported low native bird abundance. We also found a seasonal effect: cemeteries supported more individuals of native birds in autumn than in summer, probably due to birds migrating to our study area from higher latitude, altitude, and surrounding environments, in their search for milder weather conditions. Our findings demonstrate that park cemeteries host a variety of native birds, which contributes to maintain biodiversity in urban landscapes. However, the surrounding landscape influences their capacity to support native birds and to conserve biodiversity in cities.

Win–win urban ecology: near-home fishing promotes diversity of Odonata Abstract It is generally thought that increased human activity or infrastructure automatically translates to decreased wildlife activity or abundance. We surveyed dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) at fourteen urban parks with water features to determine factors that promote or hinder species richness or overall abundance. We constructed basic decision trees with either richness or abundance as a response variable and a suite of park characteristics (e.g., size, footprint of the water feature(s), habitat heterogeneity, presence and extent of infrastructure) as predictors. We found that the key predictor of both higher odonate richness and higher odonate abundance was the presence and extent of fishing activities. Despite higher human use at parks that promoted angling, as well as more infrastructure and increased management at these parks—factors that typically are thought to be correlated negatively with biodiversity—odonates and humans benefit from maintaining them and, we suggest, ensuring proper water quality persists. If it is good for fish, it is good for aquatic insects.

Caterpillar phenology predicts differences in timing of mountain chickadee breeding in urban and rural habitats Abstract To ensure the survival of their offspring, birds need to precisely time their reproduction: when offspring have the highest demand for food, food resources should be most abundant. In temperate environments, caterpillars are often a key food source for nestlings, so many insectivorous bird species time their reproduction to correspond to the peak abundance of caterpillars in their habitat. Mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) are small songbirds that naturally inhabit coniferous forests, but are also found in urban areas. Reproductive timing of these birds may be altered by urbanization, as mountain chickadees in the city have been shown to breed earlier than those in natural habitat. This study aimed to determine if caterpillar abundance drives reproductive timing of mountain chickadees and if urbanization alters the timing of caterpillar abundance. Birds in both urban and rural habitats were monitored throughout the breeding season. Caterpillar abundance was estimated at each nest location by collecting samples of caterpillar excrement (frass). We found that in both urban and rural habitat, frass mass changed throughout the breeding season, but the date of maximum frass mass occurred about one week earlier in urban habitat. However, in both habitats maximum frass mass occurred when offspring were approximately 11 days old. Our results suggest that mountain chickadees time their reproduction to correspond to caterpillar abundance, and birds in urban environments may be reproducing earlier to correspond with earlier peak caterpillar abundance in the city.

Downsizing for downtown: limb lengths, toe lengths, and scale counts decrease with urbanization in western fence lizards ( Sceloporus occidentalis ) Abstract Urbanization-induced habitat loss and alteration causes significant challenges for the survival of many species. Identifying how species respond to urbanization can yield insights for the conservation of wildlife, but research on reptiles has been narrowly-focused. We compared morphology among four populations of western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) to determine whether a common native species affected by urbanization exhibits morphological differences consistent with habitat use. We quantified habitat differences across four sites in Los Angeles County, California, USA that varied in level of urbanization, measured how lizards used microhabitats, and assessed variation in body size, limb length, toe length, and scalation of lizards collected from each site. Urban and suburban populations of fence lizards mostly used human-made substrates while lizards from more natural areas mostly used natural woody substrates. Lizards from the most urban site also exhibited the widest breadth of substrates used, indicating that urban sites might offer more variable microhabitats. Urban lizards had reduced limb lengths and toe lengths consistent with how they used microhabitats and other habitat characteristics (e.g., percent impervious surface cover). Urban lizards also had fewer dorsal scales, which might be associated with changes in ambient temperature (e.g., urban heat island effect), given that lizards with fewer and larger scales typically have reduced evaporative water loss. Our results uniquely differ from past studies on lizard responses to urbanization, indicating that work on diverse taxa is necessary to assess the potential varied pathways of morphological adaptations to urban environments.

The influence of garden flowers on pollinator visits to forest flowers: comparison of bumblebee habitat use between urban and natural areas Abstract As garden plants in urbanized environments provide considerable diverse floral resources to pollinators, the availability of floral resources has changed as a consequence of increasing urbanization. Although pollinators often forage at different sites in response to spatiotemporal variations in floral resources, little is known about the differences in pollinator foraging between urban and nearby natural environments. We monitored the foraging patterns of bumblebees in open and forest habitats in two areas with and without urban gardens with respect to flowering phenology and the availability of floral resources in each habitat. Floral richness in the forest habitat decreased as the season progressed, with a peak in late spring to early summer, whereas floral resources in the open habitat increased late in the season. Thus, floral resources in the open habitat could compensate for seasonal declines in forest floral resources. In the urban area, which contained green gardens, floral richness in the open habitat was much greater than that in the forest habitat. This resulted in a relatively high density of bumblebees in the open habitat in the urban area compared with those in the natural area, which lacked green gardens. Visitation frequency of bumblebees to forest flowers decreased as the floral richness of the open habitat increased. These results suggest that although urban gardens are important foraging sites for pollinators, the high attractiveness of garden flowers reduces pollinator visits to wildflowers in nearby forests. This may result in reduced pollination of native flowers.

Variability of agroecosystems and landscape service provision on the urban–rural fringe of Wuhan, Central China Abstract Urbanization drives changes in peri-urban farmland use which probably affects the spatial pattern of landscape service provision. This study charts patterns in these services and analyses the impacts of biophysical and social-economic factors such as land use allocation and proximity. A spatially explicit survey was conducted among 767 farmer households on the urban–rural fringe of rapidly urbanizing Wuhan (China). The hypothesis of a largely linear change with distance from the urban centre was tested separately for 7 quantified landscape services with RDA and regression analysis. Significant linear patterns were found for 4 landscape services: food, vegetables and fruits, trees, and storm water runoff reduction. Air pollution mitigation and recreation were found to be associated with nearby water rather than green infrastructure, which is likely due to the abundance of water around Wuhan. In addition, storm water runoff reduction correlated with green infrastructure (grasslands and forests). Bundling of landscape services was found to vary along the urban–rural fringe, with recreation and air pollution mitigation bundled at the urban end, while ponds and recreation bundled in the rural outer zone. In short, several provisioning and regulating services varied linearly with distance, whereas others did not, due to the strong geographical forcing by water.

Designing and modeling innovation across scales for urban water systems Abstract Effective, sustainable management of urban water systems, including drinking water, stormwater, wastewater, and natural water systems, is critical to the health and well-being of people in urban areas and the ecosystems that encompass them. The demands of human population growth, aging infrastructure, and changing climate will increase pressure on these systems and require future innovations in water management. Planning for urban water systems will increasingly require collaborations between water professionals and researchers to imagine, design and model the response of novel urban water systems to future conditions. We highlight benefits and challenges of transdisciplinary projects for integrated urban water management; organized broadly into: (1) engagement of water managers and planners; (2) transdisciplinary design of innovative systems, and once designed; (3) modeling and evaluation of urban water system response to various innovations. We describe the development of a multi-scale approach to design and evaluation of innovative urban water systems, and illustrate its application using examples from the Willamette River Basin and Portland, Oregon. The scenario-based approach described here offers several key contributions to the design and modeling of innovation. First, this process provides the opportunity to convene professionals and researchers, who do not typically collaborate, as participants in a collaborative process. Second, it engages participants in thinking together across land and water management sectors to develop plausible futures at multiple spatial extents and multidecadal time horizons. Third, it helps to identify critical gaps in extant water modeling capabilities, and thus helps define the near-term research agenda for modelers.

Activity patterns and temporal niche partitioning of dogs and medium-sized wild mammals in urban parks of Xalapa, Mexico Abstract Free-ranging domestic dogs are the world most common exotic carnivore species that could negatively interact with the native wildlife as predators, competitors, and disease vectors. Their generalist habits have allowed them to be present in a large number of urban parks, which are the habitat for wild mammal species, some of these animals are restricted to these areas. Moreover, dogs can perform activities alone or in a group during day and night time, having a wide temporal niche. However, the issues related to activity patterns overlap and temporal niche breadth between dogs and wild mammals in urban parks are still poorly known and have not been studied in deep. In this investigation, we evaluated the activity patterns, the temporal niche breadth, and the activity patterns overlap between medium-sized wild mammals (MSWM) and dogs using trap cameras in five urban parks in Xalapa, Veracruz. Mexico. During March to August 2014, there were taken 928 photo-captures of MSWM and dogs (720 trap nights). The activity patterns of MSWM were bimodal (two activity peaks), being more active during night time. MSWM showed low temporal niche breadth versus dogs. Five species of MSWM overlap their activity patterns with dogs in five urban parks. Didelphis marsupialis and Urocyon cinereoargenteus were the species with the greatest overlap regarding dogs, finding some individuals of this species lifeless in the studied sites. Our results show the need to perform studies that assess the effect of this temporal overlap on the biology, behavior, and permanence of these species in urban parks.

Juggling a “junk-food” diet: responses of an urban bird to fluctuating anthropogenic-food availability Abstract Within highly urban systems, anthropogenic activity often fluctuates cyclically, e.g. between weekdays and weekends. Thus, urban species may regularly experience significant changes in human activity and anthropogenic food abundance over very short time scales. Knowledge of how urban birds cope with such fluctuations may improve our understanding of how some species exploit and thrive in urbanised habitats. In this study, we explore the consequences of highly fluctuating anthropogenic food for Red-winged Starlings Onychognathus morio at the University of Cape Town campus, South Africa. Here, high numbers of students (and therefore anthropogenic food resources) are present during weekdays in term time (high human presence “HHP” days). However, students are largely absent and food outlets closed during weekends and vacation periods (“LHP” days). Using focal observations and morning and evening weights of habituated colour-ringed starlings during the non-breeding season, we investigated how diet, behaviour and daily mass gain differed between HHP and LHP days. We hypothesised that anthropogenic food supply is beneficial to this city-dwelling species. We predicted that on HHP days starlings would consume overall more food and a greater proportion of anthropogenic food items, resulting in less time spent foraging and greater daily mass gain compared to LHP days. We found that on HHP days, starlings consumed more anthropogenic food, however overall food intake, and time budgets were similar to LHP days. Additionally, there was an indication that mass gain was greater on HHP days. Thus, starlings appear to cope with potential food shortage on LHP days by including more natural items in their diet.

Effects of variations in water quantity and quality in the structure and functions of invertebrates’ community of a Mediterranean urban stream Abstract Urban streams provide important ecosystem services to cities’ population, from the maintenance of urban biodiversity, temperature, humidity and air quality to improving aesthetics and provision of natural areas for recreation. However, these streams are under multiple-stressors, including artificialization of the channel and flow, poor water quality and cut of riparian vegetation which puts in risk their ecological integrity and consequently their services. In this study, we aimed to understand variations in macroinvertebrate communities and in biological condition as a response to flow and water quality, by following a Mediterranean urban stream over 8 months (December–July). With a monthly periodicity, we sampled invertebrate communities and characterized in situ water physicochemical parameters. The urban stream studied showed a high variation of environmental factors over time. Invertebrate communities were generally poor, with some Ephemeroptera (Baetis sp.) but was dominated by Chironomidae and Oligochaeta that changed over time alongside with environmental conditions. Biological quality based on the Portuguese Invertebrates Index (IPtIS) varied between poor and bad. Multivariate community patterns (at genus level) showed variations in communities over time, as well as in their biological trait patterns (invertebrates’ maximal size, reproduction mode, resistance form, feeding habits and locomotion mode). Periods displaying worse biological quality, less diverse communities and lower functional richness corresponded to peaks of discharge, higher conductivity and hardness while the best quality communities were found under lower nitrate concentrations. Our study points out that the detection of impacts or recovery in urban streams through invertebrate communities might require at least the use of genus level as family level does not detect smoother changes. Communities reflect the complex interplay of environmental variables affecting structural and functional natural patterns and ultimately the biological condition of this urban stream. Rehabilitation measures should carefully consider this complex interplay of variables to enhance quality and ecosystem services.