Urban domestic gardens (V): relationships between landcover composition,housing and landscape

The contribution to urban green space by private or domestic gardens in residential zones was investigated in the city of Sheffield, UK, as part of a wider study of the garden resource and its associated biodiversity. The attributes of 61 gardens, including patterns of landcover and vegetation cover, were explored in relation to housing characteristics and the nature of the surrounding landscape. The number of surrounding houses, and the areas of buildings and of roads were negatively correlated with garden area. The proportion of a housing parcel comprising garden increased with parcel size, although the proportion that was rear garden remained relatively constant. Garden size played an overwhelming role in determining garden composition: larger gardens supported more landcovers, contained greater extents of three-quarters of the recorded landcovers, and were more likely to contain trees taller than 2 m, vegetable patches, and composting sites. Unvegetated landcovers made greater proportional contributions as garden size declined. All categories of vegetation canopy increased with garden size, and large gardens supported disproportionately greater cover above 3 m. House age was a less significant factor determining garden landcover. Gardens of newer houses were more likely to occur towards the edge of the urban area, and older properties, that contained fewer hedges, possessed less canopy between 2–3 m. The extent and occurrence of different landcovers in gardens, and their consequences for wildlife, are considered for residential patches in urban areas. The implications for urban planners are discussed.     

Plant and animal diversity in a region of the Southern Alps: the role of environmental and spatial processes

Different organisms respond to landscape configuration and spatial structure in different terms and across different spatial scales. Here, regression models with variation partitioning were applied to determine relative influence of the three groups of variables (climate, land use and environmental heterogeneity) and spatial structure variables on plant, bird, orthopteran and butterfly species richness in a region of the Southern Alps, ranging in elevation from the sea level to 2,780 m. Grassland and forest cover were positively correlated with species richness in both taxonomic groups, whilst species richness decreased with increasing urban elements and arable land. The variation was mainly explained by the shared component between the three groups in plants and between landscape and environmental heterogeneity in birds. The variation was related to independent land use effect in insects. The distribution in species richness was spatially structured for plants, birds and orthopterans, whilst in butterflies, no spatial structure was detected. Plant richness was associated with linear trend variation and broad-scale spatial structure in the northern part of the region, whilst bird richness with broad-scale variation which occurs on the external Alpine ridge. Orthopteran diversity was strongly related to fine-scale spatial structure, generated by dynamic processes or by unmeasured spatially structured abiotic factors. Although the study was carried out in relatively small area, the four taxonomic groups seem to respond to biodiversity drivers in a surprisingly different way. This has considerable implications for conservation planning as it restricts the usefulness of simple indicators in prioritizing areas for conservation purposes.     

Soundscapes of urban parks: An innovative approach for ecosystem monitoring and adaptive management

Urban foresters are addressing the challenge of urban biodiversity loss through management plans in the context of rapid urbanization. Protecting the integrity of the urban ecosystem requires long-term monitoring and planning for resilience as well as effective management. The soundscape assessment has attracted attention in this field, but applying the soundscape assessment in urban ecological monitoring requires a protocol that links soundscapes to the impact of resource management on biodiversity over time. The effective processing and visualization of large-scale data also remains an important challenge. The aim of this study was to better understand the relationship between soundscape and physical environment, and examine the feasibility of this innovative soundscape approach in highly urbanized areas. Soundscape recordings were collected for 20 urban parks twice on 4 consecutive days in Spring. A total of 691,200 min of sound material were automatically obtained. In order to track the spatio-temporal patterns of a soundscape and determine its potential suitability for ecosystem monitoring, our study characterized soundscape information by adopting 4 widely used acoustic indices: acoustic diversity index (ADI), bioacoustic index (BIO), normalized difference vegetation index (NDSI), and power spectral density (PSD). Daily patterns of PSD have provided a potential connection between soundscapes and bird songs, and 1–2 kHz presented a similar pattern that was linked to human activity. Through further modeling, we tested the relationship of soundscapes to physical environment characteristics. The results showed the importance of habitat vegetation structure for acoustic diversity. More vertical heterogeneity, with an uneven canopy height or multilayered vegetation, was associated with more acoustic diversity. This suggests that clearing ground cover may have a significant negative impact on wildlife. Our results suggest that soundscape approaches provide a way to quickly synthesize large-scale recording data into meaningful patterns that can track changes in bird songs and ecosystem conditions. The proposed approach would enable regular assessment of urban parks and forests to inform adaptive planning and management strategies that can maintain or enhance biodiversity.     

Bird response to disturbance varies with forest productivity in the northwestern United States

Huston’s Dynamic Equilibrium Hypothesis predicts that the response of biodiversity to disturbance varies with productivity. Because disturbance is thought to break competitive advantage of dominant species in productive ecosystems, species richness is predicted to increase with disturbance frequency in productive systems. Recovery of plant biomass following disturbance is also predicted to be faster in productive systems. Here we provide the first test of Huston’s hypothesis in the context of setting harvest rates in managed forests for achieving biodiversity objectives. We examined predictions relating to vegetation and bird response to disturbance and succession in productive and less productive forests in western Oregon and Washington, USA. We found that measurements of understory cover and shrub diversity were higher in young, productive stands than less productive stands of similar age. Later-seral forests in productive environments (mean age = 67 years) had less variable and more complete canopy closure than similar-age forests in less favorable settings. At the stand scale, bird abundance and richness decreased with canopy closure in highly productive forests whereas bird abundance and richness increased with canopy closure in less productive forests. At the landscape scale, bird abundance and richness within stands increased with increasing levels of disturbance in the surrounding landscape within highly productive forests, whereas bird abundance and richness decreased with increasing disturbance in the surrounding landscape within less productive forests. Our results indicate that bird response to disturbance varies across levels of productivity and suggest that bird species abundance and associated species richness will be maximized through relatively more frequent disturbance in highly productive systems.     

Interrelationship of birds and habitat features in urban greenspaces in Delhi, India

Biodiversity conservation in urban areas has become significant not only because of increasing human population in urban centers but also because it is one of the innovative ways to conserve biodiversity as suggested by various global environmental conventions. The present study was conducted with the purpose of assessing diversity and density of bird and woody species in some greenspaces of Delhi, the rapidly urbanizing capital of India. The landscape of Delhi consists of a broad spectrum of environments ranging from the city forests to highly modified artificial landscapes in certain parks. We assessed bird and woody vegetation in 20 m×50 m belt transects in each of the 19 randomly selected greenspaces of varying size. Results exhibit a negative relationship between the density of exotic woody species and bird diversity. Specifically, Prosopis juliflora – an exotic, which was the most abundant tree in our samples – exhibited a negative relationship with bird diversity. Principal component analysis (PCA) reveals that forest-preferring bird species increase with increasing greenspaces size, shrub diversity and shrub density. We conclude that maintaining larger greenspaces with high structural diversity may be effective in maintaining plant and bird diversity in the study area.     

Taxonomic diversity,functional diversity and evolutionary uniqueness in bird communities of Beijing's urban parks: Effects of land use and vegetation structure

The importance of biodiversity conservation is well recognized, and the loss of biodiversity is particularly evident in highly urbanized areas. On the other hand, green spaces inside cities, as parks, can provide a resource for maintaining and increasing biodiversity, especially for bird species. However, only a few studies have addressed the effects of vegetation structure and land use composition on different components of biodiversity.Here, we explored the response of bird community composition to environmental differences related to land use composition and vegetation structure in green spaces in the city of Beijing, China. We compared the values of taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and community evolutionary distinctiveness in breeding bird communities, among ten urban parks of the world's third most populous city. Variation partitioning analysis and generalized linear mixed models were used to explore the unique and shared effects of land use composition and vegetation structure on each biodiversity metric.Park size was not associated with the diversity of bird communities in Beijing. Land use composition was the best predictor of change in bird community composition, followed by vegetation structure at ground level and the intersection between land use and vegetation structure at tree level. Water coverage increased bird species richness, while the presence of large trees increased both taxonomic diversity and bird functional richness in urban parks. Finally, the presence of patches of deciduous trees showed a positive effect on the average score of evolutionary distinctiveness of bird communities. In conclusion, we highlight that different elements of the environment are supporting different components of bird community diversity.     

Semi-natural vegetation and its relationship to designated urban green space at the landscape scale in Leeds, UK

The species composition of semi-natural vegetation in urban areas is influenced by a diversity of factors operating at a variety of spatial scales. This study investigates relationships at the landscape scale between species numbers of semi-natural plant communities and variations in the nature of designated urban green space. Species’ records were obtained from a survey of tetrads (2 km × 2 km) across a contiguous central area of built-up landscape and nearby satellite settlements in the metropolitan borough of Leeds, northern England. Plant species were categorised into natives, archaeophytes, neophytes, casuals and conservation-designated species. The type and extent of designated urban green space within a tetrad was determined using GIS. There was more built-up and designated green space area in the central urban area than in the satellite settlements. However, this difference was not reflected statistically significantly in plant category species’ numbers. Numbers of native species correlated positively with areas of green space designated for relatively high nature conservation value. Neophytes and casuals correlated positively with semi-natural green space lacking rare native species or high native species richness but designated principally for local community accessibility. The value of such spaces and the importance of their appropriate management, not only for community benefits like individual physical health and mental well-being, but also for overall urban plant biodiversity, is highlighted.     

The importance of university campuses for the avian diversity of cities

In a world of increasing urban areas and their subsequent negative effect on biodiversity, university campuses arise as environmentally friendly designs that can help enhancing biodiversity. However, current information on the topic is mainly based on single-campus studies, taxonomic diversity variables (e.g., species richness), and specific geographic regions like Asia or North America. Multi-campus comparisons, studies on other components of biodiversity (e.g., functional or phylogenetic diversity) and biodiversity information from other regions of the world are needed to generalize the previous findings. In this study, we try to fill in these gaps by simultaneously investigating taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of bird communities on 15 university campuses of Spain, which is located within the Mediterranean hotspot of biodiversity where no previous study on this topic have been conducted. We compared campus areas with other randomly selected urban areas to test whether university campuses hold higher levels of bird diversity than non-campus areas. We also analyzed other environmental variables (e.g., green and building cover in and around campuses) to identify whether their influence in university campuses varies from other urban areas. Our results show that taxonomic diversity was higher within university campuses compared to other areas, but this pattern was not confirmed for functional and phylogenetic diversity. We found that grass cover, buildings, and the green area around the study areas have different associations with taxonomic, functional, or phylogenetic diversity respectively in campuses or non-campus areas. Our findings highlight the importance of university campuses for the conservation of Mediterranean urban biodiversity and support their use as relevant resources for promoting nature conservation among citizens.     

Green and calm: Modeling the relationships between noise pollution propagation and spatial patterns of urban structures and green covers

The mechanism of noise pollution propagation is considerably affected by 1) the type and configuration of its receiving environment and 2) the distance that sound waves pass to reach that environment. This study adopts a spatio-statistical approach to quantify and model associations between noise pollution levels and landscape metrics of land categories (built-up structures and urban green covers). Accordingly, noise levels were measured employing a sound pressure meter to quantify equivalent levels (Leq in dB A), in addition to their corresponding percentiles (L₁₀ and L₉₀). A collection of 30 sampling points were selected to measure noise data within the fall season and between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. hours of the day. A hierarchical distance-sampling framework based on buffer areas with different radius (300 m, 600 m and 1 km) around each sampling point was compiled to measure composition and configuration metrics of land categories within each buffer area. The results derived from Pearson correlation analysis and multiple-linear regression models indicated that there is a distance-dependent relationship between the metrics of green areas and noise levels. We didn’t find remarkable distance-dependency between built-up structures and noise levels. Based on our new spatio-statistical approach, we conclude that more connected and compacted pattern of green areas closer to pollution centers can significantly alleviate the effects of noise propagation mechanism and appropriate pattern of built-up areas follows a low density distribution with coming green areas in between. Findings of this study highlight the potential of landscape ecology approach as an effective planning paradigm for designing greener and calmer cities.     

Spatial variations of plant species diversity in urban soil seed banks in Beijing,China: Implications for plant regeneration and succession

The near-to-nature urban forestry concept and practices are widely recognized for urban greening, urban ecosystem restoration, urban greenspace management for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. However, the regeneration and succession of urban vegetation are rarely studied due to the complex settings of the urban environment. To this end, we conducted a large-scale field investigation in the metropolitan area of Beijing, China to explore the spatial variations in plant species composition and diversity in soil seed banks, and their similarity to the aboveground vegetation to assess the potential of urban plant regeneration. Overall, 657 vegetation and soil sampling plots from 219 grids, measuring 2 km × 2 km each, were investigated within two perpendicular 10 km wide transects running across the urban center in north-south and east-west directions within the 6th Ring Road of the city. We recorded a total of 102 plant species in soil seed banks, including 13 tree species, 10 shrub species, and 79 herb species. We found that the soil seed bank species diversity and its similarity to that of the aboveground vegetation communities decreased significantly with the urbanization intensity. Higher urbanization intensity is typically associated with increased human management and a reduction in Greenspace Area (GSA). Soil seed bank species richness increased significantly when GSA exceeded 45 % and the similarity of species composition and diversity between soil seed banks and aboveground vegetation communities was the highest in forest parks. This suggests that habitats under forest park management are more conducive to plant regeneration. Soil seed bank species diversity first increased and then decreased significantly with increased distance to the city center, whereas the species similarity between the soil seed banks and the aboveground vegetation communities showed little change with the ring roads going out. The results of this study have important implications for further understanding the potential for urban vegetation regeneration and sustainability, which have significant implications for urban biodiversity conservation and restoration.     

One size does not fit all: The complex relationship between biodiversity and psychological well-being

Conserving urban biodiversity is often promoted as a ‘win-win’ nature-based solution that can help align public health and biodiversity conservation agendas. Yet, research on the relationship between biodiversity and psychological well-being reveals inconsistent and complex results. This body of research is also restricted to a few socio-cultural and environmental contexts and tends to ignore differences in individual characteristics, such as nature relatedness (i.e., emotional affinity to nature) and ecological knowledge, that can influence people’s experience of biodiversity. The aim of this interdisciplinary research is to explore the relationships between biodiversity and psychological well-being, and test the moderating effect of nature relatedness and ecological knowledge on these relationships. An ecological survey was conducted in 24 small urban gardens in Israel to measure the richness and abundance of birds, butterflies and plants, as well as land cover characteristics. In parallel, a social survey (close-ended questionnaires) was conducted in-situ to measure psychological well-being, nature relatedness, ecological knowledge, perceived species richness and socio-demographic variables. Psychological well-being measures were mostly associated with the cover of woody species, perceived species richness, and to a lesser extent, with actual species richness and abundance, for all taxa. Nature relatedness moderated these relationships. Respondents with high nature relatedness demonstrated positive well-being-richness relationships, while those with intermediate, or low nature relatedness showed no, or even negative relationships, respectively. Opposite relationships were recorded for bird abundance. Overall, individuals demonstrated poor ecological knowledge and this variable moderated only few relations between well-being measures, perceived butterfly richness and bird abundance. Our results demonstrate that one-size-does-not-fit-all when considering the relationship between psychological well-being and biodiversity, and that affinity to nature is a key moderator for this relationship. Designing urban green spaces that provide inclusive and meaningful nature experiences and foster emotional affinity to nature, is therefore key to aligning ecological and social objectives for sustainable urban planning.     

Matrix configuration and patch isolation influences override the species–area relationship for urban butterfly communities

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of urban public parks in maintaining connectivity and butterfly assemblages. Using a regression framework, we first test the relative importance of park size and isolation in predicting abundance and species richness of butterfly assemblages across a set of 24 public parks within a large metropolitan area, Marseille (South-East France). Then, we focus on landscape features that affect diversity patterns of the recorded butterfly communities. In this second part, the urban landscape surrounding each park is described (within a 1 × 1 km window) according to two major components: vegetated areas (habitat patches) and impervious or built areas (matrix patches). Specifically, we aim to test whether the incorporation of this built component (matrix) in the landscape analysis provides new insights into the understanding of ecological connectivity in the urban environment. We found a significant effect of both matrix configuration (shape complexity of the built patches) and distance from regional species pool (park isolation) on diversity of butterflies that overrides park size in their contribution to variation in species richness. This result suggests that many previous studies of interactions between biodiversity and urban landscape have overlooked the influence of the built elements.     

Primary productivity in cities and their influence over subtropical bird assemblages

Changes in ecosystem structure caused by urbanization produce a reduction in photosynthetic productivity, which can lead to reductions in resource availability for birds. Here, we analyzed the relation between photosynthetic productivity and bird assemblages in a subtropical urban ecosystem, in North-Western Argentina. We used Generalized Linear Models to assess the responses of bird abundance, richness and diversity to photosynthetic productivity, vegetation cover and distance to main natural forest. We found higher bird richness and diversity with increasing photosynthetic productivity and vegetation cover, and with decreasing distance to forests; while total bird abundance was positively related to vegetation cover. When we classified bird species in different groups, based on their use of the environment, we found that species adapted to urban environments were more dependent on photosynthetic productivity, while species related to native forests were more dependent on the distance to source forests. Understanding the factors that affect bird assemblages in cities is important for the development of strategies for urban planning and conservation.     

Too hot to handle? On the cooling capacity of urban green spaces in a Neotropical Mexican city

Urban areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which can be mitigated by urban vegetation through shading and evapotranspiration. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of spatially explicit information on the cooling capacity of green infrastructure for most Latin American cities. In this study, we employed Land Surface Temperature (LST) of the Neotropical Mexican city of Xalapa to (1) analyze its Surface UHI (SUHI) compared to its peri and extra-urban areas, (2) to assess the cooling capacity of urban green spaces larger than 1 ha, and (3) to evaluate the role of green spaces’ size, shape and their surrounding tree cover percentage (Tc) on green spaces cooling range. We evaluated the cooling range of green spaces and their relationships with green spaces metrics and Tc via a linear mixed-effect model and identified threshold values for the variables at 25 m, 50 m, 100 m, and 200 m from the borders of green spaces through Classification and Regression Trees. Xalapa exhibits a SUHI of 1.70 °C compared to its peri-urban area and 4.95 °C to the extra-urban area. Green spaces > 2 ha mitigated heat at ~2 °C and the cooling range was influenced by the size of green spaces ≥ 2.8 ha and Tc > 21% at 50 m and only by Tc surrounding the green spaces at 100 m and 200 m. This shows that the size threshold of urban green spaces should be complemented with the presence of Tc starting at least 50 m to maximize the cooling capacity provided by the green infrastructure. Planning agendas should account for the interaction between the size of green spaces and the cumulative cooling effect of scattered vegetation inside urban areas towards compact green cities to cope with urban warming.     

The impact of habitat characteristics on bird presence and the implications for wildlife management in the environs of Ottawa,Canada

Urban forestry is increasingly vital for both wildlife conservation and human use, despite frequent conflicts between these functions. A fundamental task in urban habitat and recreation forestry is the identification of those habitat characteristics important for animal species and the evaluation of these within the geographies of human presence, urban proximity and land cover variation and change. This paper examines the habitat characteristics for birds in urban built, green and greenbelt areas of Ottawa, Canada, and an area of continuous Ontario forest, to determine the effects of vegetation density and patch size, and human presence on bird presence. Bird presence was measured by point counts, and land cover was mapped using field observation and aerial photographs (1955 and 1999). At the species level, the pre-dominantly forest birds were affected by human presence and were primarily associated with tree stands in the greenbelt and continuous forest. In dense urban areas there were larger numbers of a few ‘generalist’ species. Both forested and urban (residential/commercial) environments increased in area between 1955 and 1999, creating the two types of land cover favouring the largest number of birds, while the less habituated grass/farmed areas declined in area. More informed bird conservation and recreation management will depend on paying greater attention to vegetation cover combinations with urban development.     

Knoxville’s urban wilderness: Moving toward sustainable multifunctional management

The Knoxville Urban Wilderness (KUW) in Eastern Tennessee is part of a larger global trend of acquiring vacant lands within urban landscapes for their natural habitat and recreation value. At 688 ha, the KUW is one of the largest urban wilderness areas in the United States, consisting of loosely-connected land parcels with multiple stakeholders including state, county, and city governments and private foundations. Here we use the KUW as a case study to address critical questions of management that arise for most urban wilderness projects globally: What should these areas be managed for, and how should they be managed? How can multiple stakeholders be efficiently organized to pool their resources most effectively. The KUW is currently used mainly for recreation and its potential for biodiversity conservation and education and ecosystem services is largely unutilized. As a way to promote and manage this unused potential, we began the first ecological inventory, compiling existing data and conducting biodiversity and invasive plant surveys with citizen scientists. We found that the KUW harbors a significant number of plant (250) and bird (193) species, with many other taxa also identified. We also found widespread infestation of invasive plants for which we provide management suggestions. A preliminary visitor survey shows that most visitors (about two-thirds) are from the immediate vicinity, mainly for walking (74.4%) or biking (19.9%). The vast majority (93.7%) of visitors do not want more vegetation management or removal and 98.3% of visitors would like to see the KUW expanded in area.     

Multi-scale responses of bird species to tree cover and development in an urbanizing landscape

Landscape change is an ongoing process for even the most established landscapes, especially in context to urban intensification and growth. As urbanization increases over the next century, supporting bird species’ populations within urbanizing areas remains an important conservation challenge. Fundamental elements of the biophysical structure of urban environments in which bird species likely respond include tree cover and human infrastructure. We broadly examine how tree cover and urban development structure bird species distributions along the urban-rural gradient across multiple spatial scales. We established a regional sampling design within the Oak Openings Region of northwestern, Ohio, USA, to survey bird species distributions across an extensive urbanization gradient. Through occupancy modeling, we obtained standardized effects of bird species response to local and landscape-scale predictors and found that landscape tree cover influenced the most species, followed by landscape impervious surface, local building density, and local tree cover. We found that responses varied according to habitat affiliation and migratory distance of individual bird species. Distributions of short-distance, edge habitat species located towards the rural end of the gradient were explained primarily by low levels of urbanization and potential vegetative and supplemental resources associated with these areas, while forest species distributions were primarily related to increasing landscape tree cover. Our findings accentuate the importance of scale relative to urbanization and help target where potential actions may arise to benefit bird diversity. Management will likely need to be implemented by municipal governments and agencies to promote tree cover at landscape scale, followed by residential land management education for private landowners. These approaches will be vital in sustaining biodiversity in urbanizing landscapes as urban growth expands over the next century.     

Understanding spontaneous biodiversity in informal urban green spaces: A local-landscape filtering framework with a test on wall plants

In densely urbanized areas, small pockets of vegetated areas such as street verges, vacant lots, and walls can be rich in biodiversity. In spite of their small size, these ‘informal urban greenspaces’ can provide critical ecosystem services to urban residents. Maintaining and enhancing the provisioning of ecosystem services requires a systematic understanding of biodiversity patterns and drivers in informal urban green spaces. The ‘environmental filtering’ (a process of certain species selected by specific environmental conditions) concept in community ecology theory may serve as a useful tool for this goal. We tested a multi-scale filtering framework by examining the spontaneous plant diversity patterns (from 83 surveyed sites) on the vertical surfaces of the ancient city wall of Nanjing, China. We found that the variables representing local-habitat filtering (e.g., wall substrates and aspect) and landscape filtering (including spatial configuration of urban land cover, and nighttime light intensity surrounding the local habitats) can jointly explain substantial fractions of variations in taxonomic diversity (up to ca. 60%) and functional diversity (up to ca. 40%). The explanatory power was stronger in the repaired wall habitats than in the unrepaired counterparts, in line with the prediction that environmental filtering is more pronounced during the early stages of community assembly. While the strength of landscape filtering showed clear scale-dependency, its relative importance consistently outweighs local-habitat filtering across all study scales of 200–1600 m, suggesting that configuration of neighboring landscape context can play an important role in shaping local-scale biodiversity of informal urban green spaces. Our results have useful implications for the study, design, and management of informal urban green spaces. Well-tailored multi-scale filtering frameworks may contribute to understanding urban biodiversity patterns in a systematic way.     

Pocket parks in a compact city: how do birds respond to increasing residential density?

The desire to improve urban sustainability is motivating many city planners to adopt growth strategies that increase residential density, leading to substantial changes to urban landscapes. What effect this change will have on biodiversity remains unclear, but it is expected that the role of public greenspace in providing wildlife habitat will become critical. We explored the role of urban “pocket parks” as habitat for birds, and how this role changed with increasing residential density in the surrounding neighbourhood. We found that parks in neighbourhoods with high levels of public greenspace (corresponding to less residential land) supported more bird species and individuals overall, and more woodland-dependent species, insectivores and hollow-nesters. Total greenspace area was more important (included in the best ranked models for all bird responses) than the configuration (number, average size and connectivity) of greenspace patches. The majority of species were common suburban birds, indicating that species we assume are tolerant to urban areas will be negatively affected by increasing residential density. Parks form part of an interconnected network of urban open space. For parks to continue to support a diverse native bird community, the network must be viewed, managed, and maintained in its entirety. We suggest three key management actions to improve the bird diversity values of urban greenspaces in compact cities: (1) Increase urban greenspace cover in residential neighbourhoods. (2) Increase vegetation structure in greenspace. (3) Encourage homeowners to plant trees and shrubs.