Mammal diversity and metacommunity dynamics in urban green spaces: implications for urban wildlife conservation

Abstract

As urban growth expands and natural environments fragment, it is essential to understand the ecological roles fulfilled by urban green spaces. To evaluate how urban green spaces function as wildlife habitat, we estimated mammal diversity and metacommunity dynamics in city parks, cemeteries, golf courses, and natural areas throughout the greater Chicago, Illinois, USA region. We found similar α-diversity (with the exception of city parks), but remarkably dissimilar communities in different urban green spaces. Additionally, the type of urban green space greatly influenced species colonization and persistence rates. For example, coyotes (Canis latrans) had the highest, but white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) the lowest probability of persistence in golf courses compared to other green space types. Further, most species had a difficult time colonizing city parks even when sites were seemingly available. Our results indicate that urban green spaces contribute different, but collectively important, habitats for maintaining and conserving biodiversity in cities.

Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas

“…These models show a greater association of carnivores with green space when housing density is high (e.g. coyote and gray fox, Supplementary file 6 , 7 ), consistent with other studies finding urban green space important in maintaining biodiversity in cities ( Gallo et al, 2017 ; Lombardi et al, 2017 ; Matthies et al, 2017 ). It is likely that shyer species are not avoiding regions of high human density, but require patches of forest to navigate residential areas that are freely used by more commensal species, such as red foxes ( Tigas et al, 2002 ), which we frequently detected in yards.…”

Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas

“…These models show a greater association of carnivores with green space when housing density is high (e.g. coyote and gray fox, Supplementary file 6 , 7 ), consistent with other studies finding urban green space important in maintaining biodiversity in cities ( Gallo et al, 2017 ; Lombardi et al, 2017 ; Matthies et al, 2017 ). It is likely that shyer species are not avoiding regions of high human density, but require patches of forest to navigate residential areas that are freely used by more commensal species, such as red foxes ( Tigas et al, 2002 ), which we frequently detected in yards.…”

Living in the concrete jungle: carnivore spatial ecology in urban parks

“…Our results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that underscores the importance of urban greenspaces to ensure long‐term persistence carnivore community (Gallo et al. 2017).…”

“…Key resources such as den sites and prey availability may be intrinsically concentrated in urban green spaces, given that they are essentially habitat fragments embedded in an urban matrix, thus funneling carnivores into parks regardless of human activity (Marzluff 2005). Our results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that underscores the importance of urban greenspaces to ensure long-term persistence carnivore community (Gallo et al 2017).…”

Biodiversity in cities: the impact of biodiversity data across spatial scales on diversity estimates

“…Previous research have explored the effect of land cover types for biodiversity in urban areas using varying grid sizes from 0.1 to 50 Km finding contrasting results on the direction of the effect. Studies performed at 1 Km 2 -a scale explored in our study -found mammal (Gallo et al, 2017;Hursh et al, 2023) and arthropod richness (Fenoglio et al, 2020) declined with urban cover, in line with our findings in the case of arthropods and contrary to our findings in the case of mammals for two of our cities (Groningen and Amsterdam), and species richness increased with the size of green areas (Cooper et al, 2021), in line with our findings for just one of cities explored (Rotterdam). Finally, studies performed at higher resolution (0.01 Km 2 ) found a general trend in increase of species richness with increasing distance to the core of the city (Sweet et al, 2022;Aznarez et al, 2022).…”

Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas

“…These models show a greater association of carnivores with green space when housing density is high (e.g. coyote and gray fox, Supplementary file 6 , 7 ), consistent with other studies finding urban green space important in maintaining biodiversity in cities ( Gallo et al, 2017 ; Lombardi et al, 2017 ; Matthies et al, 2017 ). It is likely that shyer species are not avoiding regions of high human density, but require patches of forest to navigate residential areas that are freely used by more commensal species, such as red foxes ( Tigas et al, 2002 ), which we frequently detected in yards.…”

Living in the concrete jungle: carnivore spatial ecology in urban parks

“…Our results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that underscores the importance of urban greenspaces to ensure long‐term persistence carnivore community (Gallo et al. 2017).…”

“…Key resources such as den sites and prey availability may be intrinsically concentrated in urban green spaces, given that they are essentially habitat fragments embedded in an urban matrix, thus funneling carnivores into parks regardless of human activity (Marzluff 2005). Our results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that underscores the importance of urban greenspaces to ensure long-term persistence carnivore community (Gallo et al 2017).…”

Biodiversity in cities: the impact of biodiversity data across spatial scales on diversity estimates

“…Previous research have explored the effect of land cover types for biodiversity in urban areas using varying grid sizes from 0.1 to 50 Km finding contrasting results on the direction of the effect. Studies performed at 1 Km 2 -a scale explored in our study -found mammal (Gallo et al, 2017;Hursh et al, 2023) and arthropod richness (Fenoglio et al, 2020) declined with urban cover, in line with our findings in the case of arthropods and contrary to our findings in the case of mammals for two of our cities (Groningen and Amsterdam), and species richness increased with the size of green areas (Cooper et al, 2021), in line with our findings for just one of cities explored (Rotterdam). Finally, studies performed at higher resolution (0.01 Km 2 ) found a general trend in increase of species richness with increasing distance to the core of the city (Sweet et al, 2022;Aznarez et al, 2022).…”

Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas

“…These models show a greater association of carnivores with green space when housing density is high (e.g. coyote and gray fox, Supplementary file 6 , 7 ), consistent with other studies finding urban green space important in maintaining biodiversity in cities ( Gallo et al, 2017 ; Lombardi et al, 2017 ; Matthies et al, 2017 ). It is likely that shyer species are not avoiding regions of high human density, but require patches of forest to navigate residential areas that are freely used by more commensal species, such as red foxes ( Tigas et al, 2002 ), which we frequently detected in yards.…”

Living in the concrete jungle: carnivore spatial ecology in urban parks

“…Our results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that underscores the importance of urban greenspaces to ensure long‐term persistence carnivore community (Gallo et al. 2017).…”

“…Key resources such as den sites and prey availability may be intrinsically concentrated in urban green spaces, given that they are essentially habitat fragments embedded in an urban matrix, thus funneling carnivores into parks regardless of human activity (Marzluff 2005). Our results are consistent with a growing body of evidence that underscores the importance of urban greenspaces to ensure long-term persistence carnivore community (Gallo et al 2017).…”

Biodiversity in cities: the impact of biodiversity data across spatial scales on diversity estimates

“…Previous research have explored the effect of land cover types for biodiversity in urban areas using varying grid sizes from 0.1 to 50 Km finding contrasting results on the direction of the effect. Studies performed at 1 Km 2 -a scale explored in our study -found mammal (Gallo et al, 2017;Hursh et al, 2023) and arthropod richness (Fenoglio et al, 2020) declined with urban cover, in line with our findings in the case of arthropods and contrary to our findings in the case of mammals for two of our cities (Groningen and Amsterdam), and species richness increased with the size of green areas (Cooper et al, 2021), in line with our findings for just one of cities explored (Rotterdam). Finally, studies performed at higher resolution (0.01 Km 2 ) found a general trend in increase of species richness with increasing distance to the core of the city (Sweet et al, 2022;Aznarez et al, 2022).…”