Use of wildlife-friendly structures in residential gardens by animal wildlife: evidence from citizen scientists in a global biodiversity hotspot

IF 2.5 3区环境科学与生态学 Q2 BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION Urban Ecosystems Pub Date : 2024-03-18 DOI:10.1007/s11252-024-01530-4

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Abstract

Private gardens comprise a large component of greenspace in cities and can offer substantial conservation opportunities. There has been strong advocacy from researchers, policymakers, and conservation practitioners to engage householders in wildlife-friendly gardening practices to increase the quantity, quality and connection of habitat resources for urban wildlife. Despite this call to action, there remains limited knowledge on the use and benefit of some wildlife-friendly structures within gardens, such as artificial refuges and water sources. In collaboration with 131 citizen scientists in southwestern Australia, we examined the use of seven wildlife-friendly structure types by four vertebrate taxa groups. Following 2841 wildlife surveys undertaken between 31 July 2022 and 22 February 2023, we found that all structures were used primarily by target taxa, water sources were often used by relatively common species, certain structures such as possum shelters were used by rare and threatened species (e.g. western ringtail possum), and that there was evidence of animals making use of the wildlife-friendly structures for reproduction (e.g. bird eggs in nest boxes and tadpoles in water sources). Water sources were used more frequently and by a greater diversity of wildlife than artificial refuges. In particular, bird baths were used by the highest number of species (mainly birds) while ponds were used by the greatest variety of taxa (birds, reptiles, frogs, mammals). Our findings provide evidence-based support for the advocacy of wildlife-friendly gardening practices and further highlight the role of residential gardens for biodiversity conservation.

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动物野生动物使用住宅花园中的野生动物友好型结构：来自全球生物多样性热点地区公民科学家的证据

摘要私家花园占城市绿地的很大一部分，可提供大量保护机会。研究人员、政策制定者和保护工作者一直大力提倡让住户参与野生动物友好型园艺实践，以增加城市野生动物栖息地资源的数量、质量和联系。尽管有这样的呼吁，但人们对园林中一些野生动物友好型结构（如人工庇护所和水源）的使用和益处的了解仍然有限。我们与澳大利亚西南部的 131 位公民科学家合作，研究了四类脊椎动物对七种野生动物友好型结构的使用情况。在 2022 年 7 月 31 日至 2023 年 2 月 22 日期间进行了 2841 次野生动物调查后，我们发现所有结构都主要被目标类群使用，水源经常被相对常见的物种使用，某些结构（如负鼠庇护所）被稀有和受威胁物种（如西部环尾负鼠）使用，并且有证据表明动物利用野生动物友好型结构进行繁殖（如巢箱中的鸟蛋和水源中的蝌蚪）。与人工庇护所相比，水源的使用频率更高，野生动物的种类也更多。特别是，鸟浴被最多的物种（主要是鸟类）使用，而池塘则被最多的类群（鸟类、爬行动物、青蛙、哺乳动物）使用。我们的研究结果为倡导野生动物友好型园艺实践提供了基于证据的支持，并进一步强调了住宅花园在保护生物多样性方面的作用。

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来源期刊

Urban Ecosystems BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION-ECOLOGY

CiteScore

5.70

自引率

6.90%

发文量

113

期刊介绍： Urban Ecosystems is an international journal devoted to scientific investigations of urban environments and the relationships between socioeconomic and ecological structures and processes in urban environments. The scope of the journal is broad, including interactions between urban ecosystems and associated suburban and rural environments. Contributions may span a range of specific subject areas as they may apply to urban environments: biodiversity, biogeochemistry, conservation biology, wildlife and fisheries management, ecosystem ecology, ecosystem services, environmental chemistry, hydrology, landscape architecture, meteorology and climate, policy, population biology, social and human ecology, soil science, and urban planning.