The application of island biogeography to bird communities in urban greenspaces- A case study in Kaohsiung City

• Main Authors: Ruei-Heng He, 何瑞恒
• Other Authors: Chao-Chieh Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/9v838t

碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 生物醫學暨環境生物學研究所 === 102 === Island biogeography theory explains species richness of islands mathematically. The area effect and distance effect of island biogeography theory are also applied for habitat islands, such as urban greenspaces. However, the relationship between mainland (species source) and habitat islands was ignored in many park bird studies due to the lack of a mainland. In order to investigate whether Shoushan plays as a species source for park avifauna in Kaohsiung City, I surveyed bird communities of 26 city parks as well as Shoushan. Besides, I measured landscape characteristics and human disturbances of the 26 city parks and neighborhood areas to assess the influence of these factors on bird communities and specific guilds of these city parks. The results indicated that bird community similarity indices between city parks and Shoushan were significantly related to area size of city parks. When taking Banpingshan as a species source, the trends were similar, but with a relatively smaller P value. The results of stepwise multiple regression indicated that bird species richness and Margalef’s species richness were both positively affected by area size of city parks, percentage of water areas and percentage of greenspaces in neighborhood space. Bird density was positively affected by average number of visitors in the breeding season. Shannon diversity index was positively affected by area size of city parks and percentage of water areas in both seasons, but was negatively affected by canopy cover density in the non-breeding season. In addition, evenness was negatively affected by canopy cover density in the non-breeding season. The influence of landscape characteristics and human disturbances were different among bird guilds of city parks. In conclusion, in addition to Shoushan, Banpingshan also plays as a species source for city park avifauna in Kaohsiung City. Among all, area size of parks is the most important factor that influences bird diversity in city parks. As a result, it is essential to make a park as large as possible, to maintain high habitat diversity, and to increase greenspace percentage in neighborhood space and the connection around large city parks.