Urbanization has been recognized as one of the most widespread threats to biodiversity. However, the response of wildlife to urbanization differs among groups, with many species being able to persist, adapt, and even thrive in these novel ecosystems. With the aim of assessing the response of avian communities in a neotropical green city, we evaluated their species richness and composition across a gradient of urbanization density comprised by a citywide survey performed in two consecutive years and considering both breeding and non-breeding seasons. As expected, species richness decreased with urbanization. Species loss was drastic when considering data from both years and both seasons, and gradual when seasons were assessed separately. Avian composition for both years and seasons differed largely between the less urbanized and the more urbanized sites, whereas sites with intermediate built cover showed to be more similar to each other. When evaluating avian composition by season in both years, highest differences were recorded between more urbanized sites and all other studied sites, while less urbanized sites showed high similarity regardless of the surveyed season. Sites with intermediate built cover had higher similarity among seasons, showing that such conditions shelter similar species in both seasons. This study presents findings on one of the first citywide gradients of urbanization density from the urban Neotropics, showing both differences and similarities in relation to previous studies from the Global North. Briefly, our species richness results showed a punctuated decrease when considering both seasons and years, rather than a gradual decrease or humped-shaped relations with higher richness at intermediately urbanized sites. Also, our composition findings stress the high representation of insectivore birds as part of avian communities across a citywide gradient of urbanization density. Undoubtedly, identifying the similarities and differences in the urban ecology patterns across cities, together with the particularities of some urban systems, will allow for increased effectiveness of urban management and planning strategies in the transformation toward more livable, resilient, and biodiverse cities.

中文翻译：

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越绿越好！跨越新热带城市化密度梯度的鸟类群落

城市化已被公认为对生物多样性最普遍的威胁之一。然而，野生动物对城市化的反应因群体而异，许多物种能够在这些新的生态系统中生存、适应甚至茁壮成长。为了评估新热带绿色城市中鸟类群落的反应，我们评估了它们在城市化密度梯度上的物种丰富度和组成，该梯度由连续两年进行的全市调查组成，并考虑了繁殖和非繁殖季节。正如预期的那样，物种丰富度随着城市化而下降。当考虑来自两个年份和两个季节的数据时，物种损失是剧烈的，而在单独评估季节时则是逐渐减少的。城市化程度较低的地点和城市化程度较高的地点之间的年份和季节的鸟类组成差异很大，而中等建筑覆盖的地点彼此之间更相似。在这两年按季节评估鸟类组成时，城市化程度较高的地点与所有其他研究地点之间记录的差异最大，而城市化程度较低的地点无论调查季节如何，都表现出高度相似性。中等建筑覆盖的地点在季节之间具有更高的相似性，表明这种条件在两个季节都庇护了相似的物种。本研究展示了来自城市新热带地区的首批城市范围内城市化密度梯度之一的发现，显示了与之前来自全球北部的研究的差异和相似之处。简要地，我们的物种丰富度结果在考虑季节和年份时显示出间断下降，而不是在中等城市化地点与较高的丰富度逐渐下降或呈驼峰状关系。此外，我们的组成调查结果强调了在全市城市化密度梯度中，食虫鸟类作为鸟类群落的一部分的高度代表性。毫无疑问，识别不同城市的城市生态模式的异同，以及一些城市系统的特殊性，将有助于提高城市管理和规划战略在向更宜居、更具弹性和生物多样性的城市转型的过程中的有效性。此外，我们的组成调查结果强调，在全市城市化密度梯度中，食虫鸟类作为鸟类群落的一部分具有很高的代表性。毫无疑问，识别不同城市的城市生态模式的异同，以及一些城市系统的特殊性，将有助于提高城市管理和规划战略在向更宜居、更具弹性和生物多样性的城市转型的过程中的有效性。此外，我们的组成调查结果强调，在全市城市化密度梯度中，食虫鸟类作为鸟类群落的一部分具有很高的代表性。毫无疑问，识别不同城市的城市生态模式的异同，以及一些城市系统的特殊性，将有助于提高城市管理和规划战略在向更宜居、更具弹性和生物多样性的城市转型的过程中的有效性。