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Replacement of semi-natural cover with artificial substrates in urban parks causes a decline of house sparrows Passer domesticus in Mediterranean towns

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Abstract

Many European towns and cities have undergone reurbanisation processes in recent decades. However, their effects on urban biodiversity have been poorly studied. Currently urbanisation processes include park remodelling, which involves the replacement of semi-natural substrates (natural grass, bare soil) with artificial ones (pavement, concrete, areas for dogs, artificial grass). Our aim was to explore, for the first time, the effects of park remodelling on the trends and abundance of a declining urban exploiter, the House Sparrow. An abundance index of House Sparrows was obtained in 32 urban parks of four towns in the Valencian Community (Spain) in four summers (2015–2018). Of the studied parks, 10 were remodelled during the study period. Before remodelling, the trends and abundance of House Sparrows in both groups of parks were similar and stable on average, which suggest no bias between both park groups. However, House Sparrow abundance was significantly reduced in parks affected by remodelling works while in those non-remodelled it remained stable. Park remodelling might be linked to a reduction in both habitat suitability and availability of trophic resources, which could harm urban House Sparrows populations and possibly other species as well. Therefore, new park policies and urban planning measures are urgently needed to preserve urban House Sparrows.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Ruedi Nager and Mattia Brambilla for a preliminary check of this manuscript and their constructive suggestions to improve the text. We are thankful to the Environment Departments of Alcoy, Muro de Alcoy, Cocentaina and Onteniente for their help with the data about park remodelling. We thank Helen, Carla and Yuliet for their English check. We also kindly appreciate the comments of the Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers which improved the final version of the manuscript. This research was supported by the Generalitat Valenciana and the European Social Fund who gave a PhD grant to E. Bernat-Ponce (grant number ACIF/2018/015).

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Table 4 Coefficients of the beta regression model relating the decline proportion of the House Sparrow abundance index in the first summer after remodelling to the proportion of remodelled area in each park and the affected substrate type. Phi is the precision parameter of the model

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Bernat-Ponce, E., Gil-Delgado, J.A. & López-Iborra, G.M. Replacement of semi-natural cover with artificial substrates in urban parks causes a decline of house sparrows Passer domesticus in Mediterranean towns. Urban Ecosyst 23, 471–481 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00940-4

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