Variation in Temperature, Precipitation, and Vegetation Greenness Drive Changes in Seasonal Variation of Avian Diversity in an Urban Desert Landscape

Fábio Suzart de Albuquerque, Heather L. Bateman, Cameron Boehme, Daniel C. Allen and Luis Cayuela
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Fábio Suzart de Albuquerque: Science and Mathematics, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ 85212, USA
Heather L. Bateman: Science and Mathematics, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ 85212, USA
Cameron Boehme: Science and Mathematics, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ 85212, USA
Daniel C. Allen: Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
Luis Cayuela: Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Madrid, Spain

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-13

Abstract: Previous studies in urban desert ecosystems have reported a decline in avian diversity. Herein, we expand and improve these studies by disentangling the effect of land-use and land-cover (LULC) types (desert, riparian desert, urban, riparian urban, agriculture), vegetation greenness (normalized difference vegetation index—NDVI), climate, and their interactions on avian seasonal variation abundance and richness. Avian community data were collected seasonally (winter and spring) from 2001 to 2016. We used generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and multimodel inference to investigate how environmental predictors explain patterns of avian richness and abundance. Avian abundance and richness oscillated considerably among the years. GLMM indicated that LULC was the most important predictor of avian abundance and richness. Avian abundance was highest in urban riparian and urban LULC types, followed by agriculture. In contrast, avian richness was the highest in riparian environments (urban and desert), followed by agriculture, urban, and desert. NDVI was also strongly related to avian abundance and richness, whereas the effect of temperature and precipitation was moderate. The importance of environmental predictors is, however, dependent on LULC. The importance of LULC, vegetation cover, and climate in influencing the seasonal patterns of avian distribution highlights birds’ sensitivity to changes in land use and cover and temperature.

Keywords: avian diversity; arid systems; biogeography; biological conservation; urban ecology; long-term ecological research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:5:p:480-:d:548285

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