Birds and the City: Urban Biodiversity, Land Use, and Socioeconomics

By Michael W. Strohbach, Dagmar Haase, Nadja Kabisch. 2009

163 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We examined bird diversity in relation to land use and socioeconomic indicators in Leipzig, Germany. We used neighborhood diversity (ND) and bivariate correlation to show that the potential to experience biodiversity in a city is associated with population density, household income, unemployment, and urban green space. People living in urban districts with high socioeconomic status experience the highest species richness around their homes, whereas lower social status increases the chance of living in species-poor neighborhoods. High-status districts are located along forests, parks, and rivers that have a high quantity and quality of green space. However, green space in general does not guarantee high bird diversity. We conclude that bird diversity mirrors land use and socioeconomic patterns within the compact European city of Leipzig. Therefore, urban planning should focus on decreasing these patterns and protecting the remaining species-rich green spaces.

Subfields: Ecology, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/837f4ebbb458402c0929a725b4ea26d87e9484d4

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In Ecology

In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

The influence of native versus exotic streetscape vegetation on the spatial distribution of birds in suburbs and reserves (2013, background): “All interfaces were located in suburban areas of similar high socio-economic status (which can be interpreted as a proxy for similarity and quality of private gardens: Strohbach et al., 2009) and similar access to public parkland (see Table S1 in Supporting Information).”
Seize the night: European Blackbirds (Turdus merula) extend their foraging activity under artificial illumination (2015, background): “The city is characterized by a densely built-up center and a riparian forest which crosses the center in a north–south direction (Strohbach et al. 2009).”
Enhancing urban biodiversity and its influence on city-dwellers: An experiment (2014, background): “They pose a growing threat to biodiversity and contribute to physical, geographical and emotional separation of people from nature (Strohbach et al., 2009).”
Synergies, Trade-offs, and Losses of Ecosystem Services in Urban Regions: an Integrated Multiscale Framework Applied to the Leipzig-Halle Region, Germany (2012, background): “Carbon mitigation Above ground carbon storage [MgCO2] Extrapolation of field data for carbon storage in trees Strohbach et al. (2011)”