Affiliation:
1. Department of Forest and Natural Environment Sciences, International Hellenic University, 66100 Drama, Greece
Abstract
Birds are important features of the urban landscape, offering valuable ecosystem services, such as physiological and psychological stress reduction, aesthetic pleasure, and education. Knowing the populations of bird species in cities is important for their successful conservation. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a remotely sensed metric used as a green cover proxy. We estimated the abundance of 15 bird species in the urban green spaces of Kavala, Greece, and calculated the NDVI at 19 survey stations with three different spatial scales: 50 m, 200 m, and 500 m circular buffers. NDVI was shown to significantly affect the abundance of 13 species. The 50 m buffer best predicted the abundance of 4 species, the 200 m buffer predicted 7 species, and the 500 m buffer predicted 4 species. Abundance decreased with NDVI for 9 species (urban dwellers) and increased for 6 species (urban utilizers). These findings suggest that NDVI is a reliable predictor of the abundance of bird species in urban areas. More importantly, bird abundance and NDVI associations can be better described if determined at various spatial scales. These findings could be used for the prediction and monitoring of urban bird species populations and incorporated into urban conservation management plans.
Subject
Nature and Landscape Conservation,Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous),Ecological Modeling,Ecology
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