Analysis shows bird-species richness remains high in urban forests, suggesting these areas serve as biodiversity refuges.
Urban forests provide many ecosystem services in urbanized landscapes, including biodiversity conservation. The sustainable management of urban forests requires a thorough understanding of biodiversity changes in the context of rapid urbanization. As biodiversity in rapidly changing urban areas is very dynamic, we need a better understanding of long-term biodiversity changes in urban forests. Birds are very good bioindicators of urban forest biodiversity because they are strongly habitat-sensitive. However, a major knowledge gap exists in long-term trends in bird diversity in temperate urban forests. This study analyzed a comparison of bird-species richness in a temperate Central European urban forest over a time span of 37 years. Bird-counts using the standard line-transect method conducted in 2023–2024 were compared with older field data from 1987 gained using the same method in a lowland hardwood floodplain forest in the Czech Republic. The results revealed significant faunistic similarities in the bird-species diversity of an urban forest during the 1987–2024 period. The high local alpha diversity of the bird community (42 nesting bird species) as well as the relatively high long-term stability in bird richness indicated the importance of the studied urban forest as a stable biodiversity refugium in a dynamic urbanized landscape. Therefore, urban forests can be considered very stable biodiversity refugia in dynamically changing urban areas.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Ivo Machar (2025) studied this question.