Long-Term Changes in Bird Communities in the Urban Parks of Mar del Plata City, Argentina

Abstract

Urbanization is related to the loss of biodiversity and alteration of ecosystem processes. However, long-term changes in bird communities of the southern hemisphere have been scarcely analyzed in urban areas. The general objective of this work was to analyze changes in bird species richness, diversity and composition of parks located in urban and suburban landscapes of Mar del Plata City between 2003 and 2018. Additionally, we aimed to analyze whether these changes were associated with an increase in urbanization or with alterations in the habitat structure of the parks. Tree cover showed a significantly lower coverage during 2018. Results showed an increase in species richness and diversity in all parks by 2018. Rarefaction curves showed that bird richness did not differ between landscapes surrounding parks, but Shannon and Simpson diversities were higher in suburban landscapes than in urban landscapes. Shannon and Simpson diversities showed higher values in suburban parks during 2018. However, diversity values were similar between years in parks located in urban landscapes. Species composition was significantly different between landscapes and years. Turnover was the most predominant pattern of species dissimilarity between landscapes, and nestedness explained the most dissimilarity between years. Nestedness between years was related to the population increase of many bird species in 2018. In conclusion, differences were observed in the bird community between years and between landscape typess. However, the long-term community changes were not associated with an urbanization increase. Instead, the local bird community changes were more related to regional bird species population changes associated with climate warming and increased crop cover.