Mammals adjust diel activity across gradients of urbanization

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator–prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hr light–dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust their temporal activity to mitigate or adapt to environmental change has become a recent topic of discussion and is important for effective wildlife management and conservation. While spatial habitat is a fundamental consideration in wildlife management and conservation, temporal habitat is often ignored. We formulated a temporal resource selection model to quantify the diel behavior of 8 mammal species across 10 US cities. We found high variability in diel activity patterns within and among species and species-specific correlations between diel activity and human population density, impervious land cover, available greenspace, vegetation cover, and mean daily temperature. We also found that some species may modulate temporal behaviors to manage both natural and anthropogenic risks. Our results highlight the complexity with which temporal activity patterns interact with local environmental characteristics, and suggest that urban mammals may use time along the 24-hr cycle to reduce risk, adapt, and therefore persist, and in some cases thrive, in human-dominated ecosystems

GOLDEN-CHEEKED WARBLER HABITAT PRIORITIZATION IN CENTRAL TEXAS

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Conservation and Stewardship in Human-Dominated Landscapes

My dissertation focuses on identifying elements of human-dominated landscapes that benefit both people and wildlife. In my research framework, humans and their actions are explicitly considered as an integral part of the ecosystem. I examine the dynamics between people and nature in three different ecosystems: (1) residential yards and neighborhoods of Cook County, (2) the Great Plains migratory bird flyway, and (3) the industrialized Calumet region south of Chicago

Appendix A. Bird species observed and yard-related indices.

Bird species observed and yard-related indices

Appendix B. Social survey distributed to residents to gather information about yard characteristics.

Social survey distributed to residents to gather information about yard characteristics

High-Performance Landscapes: Re-Thinking Design and Management Choices to Enhance Ecological Benefits in Urban Environments

A growing body of research indicates that urban landscapes can support biodiversity and provide multiple ecosystem services. However, we still have limited knowledge about how specific design and management choices impact environmental benefits within highly modified landscapes. Furthermore, we know relatively little about the potential tradeoffs and synergies encountered when managing for multiple ecosystem services within urban landscapes. In this study, we address knowledge gaps in both research and practice by leveraging a ‘designed experiment’ approach that included a diverse team of researchers and practitioners to evaluate the impacts of designed landscapes on several focal environmental outcomes essential for urban sustainability. Specifically, we evaluated small-scale designed-landscape research plots that varied in plant richness, origin of vegetation, and drought tolerance, and we simultaneously quantified impacts on water conservation, pollinators, and maintenance-related impacts, as well as their intersection with aesthetic appeal for residents. Our results indicate that key landscape choices such as the selection of drought-tolerant plants and a diverse native plant palette can simultaneously enhance water conservation, increase resources for pollinators, and reduce maintenance impacts. Importantly, the designs that rated more highly in terms of visual quality were also those that supported higher pollinator biodiversity and required relatively little water for irrigation, indicating that synergy across multiple benefits is achievable in designed landscapes. In urban landscapes, aesthetic appeal is often a top priority, and our results indicate that visual quality does not need to be sacrificed in order to design landscapes that additionally support water conservation and provide resources for pollinators

Landscape-scale differences among cities alter common species’ responses to urbanization

Understanding how biodiversity responds to urbanization is challenging, due in part to the single-city focus of most urban ecological research. Here, we delineate continent-scale patterns in urban species assemblages by leveraging data from a multi-city camera trap survey and quantify how differences in greenspace availability and average housing density among 10 North American cities relate to the distribution of eight widespread North American mammals. To do so, we deployed camera traps at 569 sites across these ten cities between 18 June and 14 August. Most data came from 2017, though some cities contributed 2016 or 2018 data if it was available. We found that the magnitude and direction of most species\u27 responses to urbanization within a city were associated with landscape-scale differences among cities. For example, eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) responses to urbanization changed from negative to positive once the proportion of green space within a city was \u3e~20%. Likewise, raccoon (Procyon lotor) and Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) responses to urbanization changed from positive to negative once the average housing density of a city exceeded about 700 housing units/km2. We also found that local species richness within cities consistently declined with urbanization in only the more densely developed cities (\u3e~700 housing units/km2). Given our results, it may therefore be possible to design cities to better support biodiversity and reduce the negative influence of urbanization on wildlife by, for example, increasing the amount of green space within a city. Additionally, it may be most important for densely populated cities to find innovative solutions to bolster wildlife resilience because they were the most likely to observe diversity losses of common urban species