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Effects of urban land-use types on avifauna assemblage in a rapidly developing urban settlement in Ghana

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Abstract

Given that rates of urbanization are rising globally, the need to maintain and enhance urban biodiversity has become important. This study examines the relative influence of different land-use types as well as environmental resources (trees, flowering trees, fruiting trees, shrubs, telecommunication mast, pylons, electric poles, buildings) on bird diversity indicators in a rapidly developing urban settlement in Ghana. Remote sensing was used to estimate the extent of conversion of natural habitats into urban settlements. Using point count surveys, bird species were recorded and compared in randomly selected plots of four land-use types of farmlands, remnant forest, residential and commercial areas. We further evaluated the relative influence of habitat resources on bird diversity indicators. We found a significant expansion of built-up areas into natural habitats in the study area. Also, there has been a significant increase in sparse vegetation coupled with a drop in the area covered by dense vegetation over the last three decades. Avifauna diversity indicators differ significantly across the four land-use types with urban farmlands being the most species diverse, followed by urban remnant forests, then residential and finally commercial areas. Our findings suggest that avian species diversity indicators decreased significantly with increasing land-use intensity and revealed that the study area still possesses significant conservation potentials for urban birds and by extension biological diversity as long as vegetation fragments are maintained within a sustained urban expansion framework. We propose increasing the quantity and complexity of the vegetation cover in residential areas by supporting citizens to establish private yards to increase the city’s green network.

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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A.P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI), Jos, Nigeria, and the Department of Conservation Biology and Entomology, University of Cape Coast, Ghana for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation Biology and Entomology, School of Biological Sciences, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    Joseph K. Afrifa, Kweku A. Monney & Justus P. Deikumah

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  1. Joseph K. Afrifa
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Correspondence to Joseph K. Afrifa.

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Appendices

Appendices

Appendix A. Source and characteristics of satellite imagery downloaded from USGS website.
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Appendix B.
figure a

Overall species accumulation curve showing the rate of species accumulation per sample visit in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly

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Appendix C. Variation in (mean ± standard error) of environmental resources across land-use types within the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly
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Appendix D. Pearson correlation coefficients between independent variables and their Variance Inflation Factors (VIF). Correlated values are in bold fonts
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Appendix E. Summary table of parameter estimates of avian diversity indicators as a function of environmental variables. Values in bold characters indicate significant coefficients of estimation
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Afrifa, J.K., Monney, K.A. & Deikumah, J.P. Effects of urban land-use types on avifauna assemblage in a rapidly developing urban settlement in Ghana. Urban Ecosyst 26, 67–79 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01281-0

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