Urban Ecology
Avian functional and phylogenetic diversity: interactive effects of urbanization and habitat conservation practices at home
Fifty-five percent of humanity now lives in urban areas. While the urban footprint constitutes less than 3% of global land area, it is projected to nearly triple in area between 2000 and 2030. Urbanization is thought to have a disproportionate impact on biodiversity because concentrations of human populations tend to spatially coincide with regions of high biodiversity, and urbanization effects extend beyond the anthropogenic boundaries of urbanized areas. As such, global urbanization and ensuing habitat loss has been associated with species abundance declines and extinctions.
The recognition of both urbanization as a major threat to biodiversity, and cities as potentially important targets for biodiversity conservation, has led to a substantial increase in urban ecology research and biodiversity conservation efforts in cities over the last two decades. Increasingly, research and conservation efforts are engaging urban residents and encouraging habitat conservation activities in both urban public spaces and private gardens. One such effort, Bring Conservation Home, has enrolled over 1,000 private landowners in the metropolitan area of St. Louis, Missouri, USA to engage in habitat enhancement activities in their own backyards (Figure 1). Each yard is categorically ranked as Silver, Gold, or Platinum according to certification criteria based on the percentage of native plant coverage or invasive plant eradication, the number of stewardship practices in place to reduce negative impacts on particular taxa, and the degree to which landowners have developed plans for reaching the next category. |
A change of plans...
had been planning and preparing for over a year to begin studying birds, their predatory behaviors, and their own predation risk, in a subset of these backyards during spring and fall migration, and the summer breeding season of 2020. Along with the rest of the world, however, my plans have drastically changed due to COVID-19, and instead I am committed to keeping the curve flat, staying at home, and finding a path forward.
I am switching gears to employ a no-contact, socially-distanced, stay-at-home sampling regime. With the help of landowners, I will be deploying AudioMoth acoustic sampling devices in 63 yards stratified by Bring Conservation Home certification and the intensity of urbanization in the surrounding landscape (Figure 2). And in doing so, I am diving head first into the world of bioacoustic sampling! |
Collaborators
Billiken Bee Lab, Saint Louis University
Adalsteinsson Ecology Lab, Tyson Research Station, Washington University
Anne Tieber, Curator of Birds, Saint Louis Zoo
St. Louis Audubon Society
Adalsteinsson Ecology Lab, Tyson Research Station, Washington University
Anne Tieber, Curator of Birds, Saint Louis Zoo
St. Louis Audubon Society
Publications
Heath, S. K., N. S. Fogel, J. C. Mullikin, and T. Hull. 2020. An expanded scope of biodiversity in urban agriculture, with implications for conservation, in Urban Agroecology: Past, Present, and Future Directions in Interdisciplinary Research (Monika Egerer and Hamutahl Cohen, Editors). Abingdon, UK. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis.
|
Resources
The Birds and the Bees in St. Louis Metropolitan Area (oh, mosquitoes too!) - Presentation to St. Louis Audubon.
|
Media Coverage
Collaborators Bring Conservation (and science) Home! St. Louis Audubon Society newsletter.
St. Louis researchers receive funding for new biodiversity projects. Nikki Forrester, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. |
Research Assistants