Vol. 38 No. 1 (2023)

Composition of the urban bird assemblage in the City of Chilecito, Monte de Sierras y Bolsones Ecoregion (La Rioja, Argentina)

Abstract

The advance of urbanization leads to a decrease in biodiversity and it is necessary to know how its characteristics influence wildlife in order to mitigate its negative impact on cities and surrounding natural environments. Chilecito, a city with 52,000 inhabitants, has shown an accelerated growth in the last two decades. Our objective is to determine the composition, richness and diversity of birds in urban areas in Chilecito. Three cases of urbanization were defined: Downtown, Residential area and Public Open Space. In each case, 3 sites were selected for sampling 10 fixed-radius point counts, per site and season, totaling 360 counts. Diversity was measured using the Shannon index (H'). Differences in richness and abundance were analyzed with the Kruskall-Wallis test and comparison of diversity with the Shannon's t-test for differences. Relative importance of species was determined using the relative importance index (RI). A total of 51 species were recorded: 34 in Downtown, 42 in Residential area and 17 in Open space. Differences in abundance, richness and diversity were significant. Species with RI greater than 0.5 were House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) in Downtown and Spot-winged Pigeon (Patagioenas maculosa) in Residential area and Open space. The results indicate that the type of urbanization affects biodiversity, with differential impact on the specific composition, abundance, richness, diversity and relative importance of bird species.

References

How to cite

María Dolores Juri, Ana Laura Calvar, Andrés Yañez Castillo, Néstor Alberto Mariano (2023). Composition of the urban bird assemblage in the City of Chilecito, Monte de Sierras y Bolsones Ecoregion (La Rioja, Argentina). El Hornero, Vol. 38 No. 1 (2023), 71-86. https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v38i1.1425

Downloads

1357Full-text views
1Formats
CC

License: CC BY-NC 4.0