Daytime noise predicts nocturnal singing in urban robins

Ambient noise interferes with the propagation of acoustic signals through the environment from sender to receiver. Over the past few centuries, urbanization and the development of busy transport networks have led to dramatic increases in the levels of ambient noise with which animal acoustic communications must compete. Here we show that urban European robins Erithacus rubecula, highly territorial birds reliant on vocal communication, reduce acoustic interference by singing during the night in areas that are noisy during the day. The effect of ambient light pollution, to which nocturnal singing in urban birds is frequently attributed, is much weaker than that of daytime noise.     

Urban birds have broader environmental tolerance

Urbanization dramatically changes the composition and diversity of biotic communities. The characteristics distinguishing species that persist in urban environments, however, are poorly understood. Here we test the hypothesis that broadly adapted organisms are better able to tolerate urbanization, using a phylogenetically controlled, global comparison of birds. We compared elevational and latitudinal distributions of 217 urban birds found in 73 of the world's largest cities with distributions of 247 rural congeners to test the hypothesis that urban birds possess broader environmental tolerance. Urban birds had markedly broader environmental tolerance than rural congeners, as estimated by elevational and latitudinal distributions. Our results suggest that broad environmental tolerance may predispose some birds to thrive in urban habitats. The mechanisms mediating such environmental tolerance warrant further investigation, but probably include greater behavioural, physiological and ecological flexibility.     

The Not-so-Dark Ages: ecology for human growth in medieval and early twentieth century Portugal as inferred from skeletal growth profiles

This study attempts to address the issue of relative living standards in Portuguese medieval and early 20th century periods. Since the growth of children provides a good measure of environmental quality for the overall population, the skeletal growth profiles of medieval Leiria and early 20th century Lisbon were compared. Results show that growth in femur length of medieval children did not differ significantly from that of early 20th century children, but after puberty medieval adolescents seem to have recovered, as they have significantly longer femora as adults. This is suggestive of greater potential for catch-up growth in medieval adolescents. We suggest that this results from distinct child labor practices, which impact differentially on the growth of Leiria and Lisbon adolescents. Work for medieval children and adolescents were related to family activities, and care and attention were provided by family members. Conversely, in early 20th century Lisbon children were more often sent to factories at around 12 years of age as an extra source of family income, where they were exploited for their labor. Since medieval and early 20th century children were stunted at an early age, greater potential for catch-up growth in medieval adolescents results from exhausting work being added to modern adolescent's burdens of disease and poor diet, when they entered the labor market. Although early 20th century Lisbon did not differ in overall unfavorable living conditions from medieval Leiria, after puberty different child labor practices may have placed modern adolescents at greater risk of undernutrition and poor growth.     

Winter feeding of birds increases productivity in the subsequent breeding season

Supplementary food given to birds can have contemporary effects by reducing the risk of starvation, increasing survival and altering movements and reproductive performance. There is, however, a widely held perception that birds benefit from extra food over winter, but that it is better that they 'look after themselves' during breeding. Here we describe a landscape-scale experiment showing for the first time that the effects of increasing food availability only during the winter can be carried over to the subsequent breeding season. Even though food supplementation stopped six weeks prior to breeding, birds living on sites provisioned over winter had advanced laying dates and increased fledging success compared with birds living on unprovisioned sites. Thus, supplemental feeding of wild birds during winter, in a manner mimicking householders provisioning in gardens and backyards, has the potential to alter bird population dynamics by altering future reproductive performance. With levels of bird feeding by the public continuing to increase, the impacts of this additional food supply on wild bird populations may be considerable.     

Spatial heterogeneity in genetic relatedness among house sparrows along an urban-rural gradient as revealed by individual-based analysis

Understanding factors that shape patterns of kinship in sedentary species is important for evolutionary ecologists as well as conservation biologists. Yet, how patterns of relatedness are hierarchically structured in space remains poorly known, even in common species. Here, we use information from 16 polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers to study how small-scale kinship structure varies among house sparrows (Passer domesticus) along an urban-rural gradient. Average levels of relatedness were higher among urban individuals than among individuals from rural areas, suggesting lower rates of dispersal in more built-up habitats. Comparison of observed levels of relatedness with simulated distributions of known kinship values showed that central urban individuals had the highest proportion of closely related conspecifics in their immediate neighbourhood. Spatial auto-correlograms supported this small-scale genetic structure and further indicated stronger effects of genetic drift and/or limited dispersal in urban populations. Results of this study underscore the importance of individual-level analyses as a complementary approach to traditional population-level analyses when studying genetic population structure over small spatial scales.     

Temporal changes in greenspace in a highly urbanized region

The majority of the world's population now lives in towns and cities, and urban areas are expanding faster than any other land-use type. In response to this phenomenon, two opposing arguments have emerged: whether cities should 'sprawl' into the wider countryside, or 'densify' through the development of existing urban greenspace. However, these greenspaces are increasingly recognized as being central to the amelioration of urban living conditions, supporting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision. Taking the highly urbanized region of England as a case study, we use data from a variety of sources to investigate the impact of national-level planning policy on temporal patterns in the extent of greenspace in cities. Between 1991 and 2006, greenspace showed a net increase in all but one of 13 cities. However, the majority of this gain occurred prior to 2001, and greenspace has subsequently declined in nine cities. Such a dramatic shift in land use coincides with policy reforms in 2000, which favoured densification. Here, we illustrate the dynamic and policy-responsive nature of urban land use, thereby highlighting the need for a detailed investigation of the trade-offs associated with different mechanisms of urban densification to optimize and secure the diverse benefits associated with greenspaces.     

Shoreline urbanization interrupts allochthonous subsidies to a benthic consumer over a gradient of lake size

The role of resource subsidies across ecosystem boundaries has emerged as an important concept in contemporary ecology. For lake ecosystems, this has led to interest in quantifying the contribution of terrestrial allochthonous carbon to aquatic secondary production. An inverse relationship between habitat area and the role of allochthonous subsidies has been documented on marine islands and assumed for lakes, yet there have been no tests of this pattern among benthic (lake bottom) consumers. Here, we used carbon stable isotopes to trace terrestrial allochthonous and benthic autochthonous carbon use by the crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus over a gradient of lake area, productivity and urbanization. Consistent with findings from terrestrial islands, habitat size dictated the importance of allochthonous subsidies, as P. leniusculus transitioned from using predominantly terrestrial carbon in small lakes to an increased reliance on autochthonous production in larger lakes. However, shoreline urbanization interacted with this pattern, particularly for small lakes where greater urbanization resulted in reduced use of allochthonous resources. As such, we provide, to our knowledge, the first confirmation of the predicted relationship between habitat size and importance of allochthonous subsidies to lake benthic consumers, but found that urbanization can interfere with this pattern.     

深圳市龙华地区快速城市化过程中的景观结构研究——林地的结构和异质性特征分析

利用多时段景观遥感制图信息和景观格局研究方法 ,对深圳市龙华地区快速城市化过程中林地组分的结构特征进行了动态分析 ,重点研究了该组分在 1 988～ 1 996年期间的一般结构特征和空间分布差异的动态变化情况。结果表明研究时段内 ,龙华地区由于快速城市化过程导致林地受到强烈的分割和转化影响 ,总面积损失了 4 9% ,并导致碎裂化、相邻度等景观结构特征发生显著变化。林地的动态变化过程可以分成两个阶段 ,1 988～ 1 992年为大面积林地的碎裂化阶段 ,1 992～ 1 996年为小面积残遗斑块被大量转化阶段 ,最终使原来环绕龙华盆地周围的连续林地分布区域被分割成几个孤立的岛屿。1 988年工作区内林地呈低孔隙度水平的宏观异质性分布 ,1 992年呈随机分布 ,1 996年为高孔隙度水平的宏观异质性分布。研究还表明信息熵法和孔隙度指数可以优势互补 ,二者同时使用有助于全面了解景观异质性细节信息。     

厦门海湾型城市发展累积生态效应动态评价

港湾地区的快速城市化使港湾湿地生态系统及其生产功能和服务功能发生急剧改变并在时间和空间上产生累积效应。以具有典型意义的厦门港湾湿地为研究对象，采用系统动力学方法，定性分析系统因子因果反馈关系，筛选港湾湿地水动力环境、水质环境、生物生态环境、地形地貌、景观环境作为厦门海湾型城市发展的累积生态效应指示因子。通过调整模型的相关政策变量及组合，仿真模拟了不同发展策略下厦门港湾湿地的累积生态效应，并结合灰色评估模型对累积生态效应进行量化，得出不同发展策略的累积生态效应指数，并对模型进行了模型验证与敏感性分析。设计三大未来发展情景，即基准情景（BS）、发展规划情景（S1）、生态城市发展情景（S2）。模型模拟结果表明：基准情景下2020年厦门城市发展对港湾湿地的累积生态效应指数为0.61;发展规划情景下对港湾湿地的累积生态效应指数为0.37;生态城市发展情景下对港湾湿地的累积生态效应指数为0.30，相对基准情景下可减少累积生态效应50%，建议厦门市按照海湾型生态城市模式进行发展。     

The Direct Material Inputs into Singapore's Development

Because human population and socioeconomic activity are both increasingly concentrated in cities, an improved understanding of the environmental consequences of urbanization is needed. A 41-year annual time series of direct material flows was compiled for Singapore, representing a case of fast, export-driven industrialization. Results show that the spectacular economic growth of Singapore by a factor of 20 was associated with a similar expansion of domestic material consumption (DMC). DMC remained closely coupled to economic activity, increasing from below 4 tonnes per capita annually in 1962 to more than 50 tonnes annually in 2000. Despite economic structural changes and a growing service sector, no significant improvements in overall material productivity have been observed.