Project number: 18-16738S
Project title: Effects of urbanization on multilevel avian diversity: linking bird community metrics to pollution level, vegetation and building density
Programme: GAČR
Project coordinator: Ing. Hana Jenšíková
Project partners: PřF UK Praha
Project leader: Federico Daniel Morelli, Ph.D.
Project schedule: 2018 - 2020
Total project budget: 5 501 000,-
Abstract:
Urbanization is increasing across the globe, and urban areas constitute one of the fastest growing land-use types. Several studies highlighted how biodiversity plays an important role in conserving ecosystem function and how urbanization reduces the resilience of ecosystems. However, approaches focused on different and complementary biodiversity measures are needed to understand how specific elements of urbanization impacts biodiversity. This project will assess the effect of urbanization on different levels of biodiversity in bird communities in European cities, exploring bioindicators related to environmental quality in urban areas. The framework combines novel approaches with conventional tools to reach the research goals, i.e. linking each bird community metric to pollution level, vegetation distribution and building density. Our findings will provide new insights into bird responses to urbanization. Moreover, we will identify diversity configurations associated to high environmental quality of urban areas providing a guideline for more sustainable management of urban areas.
More information you can see here.