<
https://theconversation.com/bringing-the-tui-back-to-town-how-native-birds-are-returning-to-nzs-restored-urban-forests-182064>
"Urbanisation, and the destruction of habitat it entails, is a major threat to
native bird populations. But as our new research shows, restored urban forests
can return native birds to our cities and improve species richness.
We define restored urban forests as green areas within a city, dominated by
native vegetation that has been planted intentionally. To evaluate restoration
success, we tracked changes in native bird communities in 25 restored forests
in two of New Zealand’s cities, Hamilton and New Plymouth.
The forests we used in our study ranged widely in their ages, including one
where initial restoration efforts began 72 years ago. We also compared these
restored forests to remnant patches of native, mature forest – both within and
beyond the city – that had never been clear-felled.
Our findings show older restored forests support more species of native birds,
and some are close to the species richness of untouched remnants of native
forest. The abundance of birds increased as the forest canopy became denser.
Contrary to our initial predictions, introduced invasive mammals had no
significant effect on either species richness or abundance of native birds in
urban forests."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
