Sammanfattning

Roadsides can harbour remarkable biodiversity; thus, they are increasingly considered as habitats with potential for conservation value. To improve construction and management of roadside habitats with positive effects on biodiversity, we require a quantitative understanding of important influential factors that drive both positive and negative effects of roads. We conducted meta-analyses to assess road effects on bird communities. We spe-cifically tested how the relationship between roads and bird richness varies when considering road type, habitat characteristics and feeding guild association. Overall, bird richness was similar in road habitats compared to non -road habitats, however, the two apparently differ in species composition. Bird richness was lowered by road pres-ence in areas with denser tree cover but did not differ according to road type. Richness differences between hab-itats with and without roads further depended on primary diet of species, and richness of omnivores was positively affected by road presence. We conclude that impacts of roads on bird richness are highly context-dependent, and planners should carefully evaluate road habitats on a case by case basis. This emphasizes the need for further studies that explicitly test for differences in species composition and abundance, to disentangle contexts where a road will negatively affect bird communities, and where it will not. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Nyckelord

Biodiversity; Edge effect; Habitat fragmentation; Infrastructure; Road ecology; Roadside

Publicerad i

Science of the Total Environment
2022, Volym: 812, artikelnummer: 151478

SLU författare

• Lennartsson, Tommy

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Associerade SLU-program

SLU Centrum för biologisk mångfald, CBM


Globala målen

SDG15 Skydda, återställa och främja ett hållbart nyttjande av landbaserade ekosystem, hållbart bruka skogar, bekämpa ökenspridning, hejda och vrida tillbaka markförstöringen samt hejda förlusten av biologisk mångfald


UKÄ forskningsämne

Ekologi


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151478

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/115628