Combining land cover, animal behavior, and master plan regulations to assess landscape permeability for birds.
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Date
2021
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Abstract
Cities are new and expanding ecosystems that harbor a variety of habitats with different degrees of permeability
to the local fauna. However, the assessment of urban landscape permeability usually considers biotic and abiotic
conditions, with sociopolitical dimensions (e.g., zoning regulations) – also important in shaping urban biodi-
versity – being underrepresented in the formulation of resistance surfaces. Our main goal was to compare urban
landscape permeability for birds between two scenarios: one that considers only species’ responses to land cover for the formulation of resistance surfaces (LandC), and another that incorporates how birds would respond to
different levels of occupation (i.e., amount of permeable area and maximum building height per individual lot)
given the urban zoning regulations defined by the city’s master plan (LandC + UrbZ). We used the software
LSCorridors to simulate Multiple Least Cost Corridors (MLCC) for five forest bird species. We hypothesized that
incorporating master plan regulations would better describe the variation on landscape resistance through the
urban landscape. The simulations resulted in different MLCC among species and between scenarios, highlighted
by differences in landscape permeability. As expected, simulations for scenario LandC resulted in more options
for straighter paths than simulations for scenario LandC + UrbZ. Our results demonstrate the potential influences
of sociopolitical aspects on landscape permeability modelling. Within cities, species movements are influenced
not only by behavioral and environmental characteristics, but also by the urban landscape that was shaped by
planning and management decisions throughout a city’s history. Therefore, we emphasize that sociopolitical
dimensions must be considered when assessing urban landscape permeability.
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Keywords
Urban ecology, Urban planning, Understory birds, Functional connectivity, South American city
Citation
DUARTE, T. B. F. et al. Combining land cover, animal behavior, and master plan regulations to assess landscape permeability for birds. Landscape and Urban Planning, v. 214, 2021. Disponível em: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204621001341>. Acesso em: 29 abr. 2022.