The Effects of Residential Greenspace on Avian Biodiversity in Beijing

Abstract Residential communities are the primary living spaces for people in China. Their associated greenspaces are important elements of the urban ecosystem, providing neighborhood ecosystem services and hosting bird populations of differing community structures compared with other urban green areas. This study analyzes avian community characteristics within residential communities and their differences compared with urban parks in Beijing. Furthermore, we assess the key environmental factors determining species composition and population sizes and the spatial scales at which these factors are most significant. We randomly selected 27 residential communities to assess the habitat structure and landscape characteristics that underpin residential avian assemblages across multiple spatial scales. Independent sample t-test and model selection methods based on AICc were used for data analysis. Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) (hereafter ETS) alone accounted for 91.0% of total individuals. Compared with urban parks, more migrants and omnivores were found in residential communities. Within-site forest patch connectivity simultaneously decided resident species diversity and individual abundance, with the exception of ETS. Tree species richness and coverage are key predictors for resident species richness and ETS numbers, respectively. Even in the most urbanized species, ETS retained ecological attributes found in “wilder” settings. Residential communities skewed toward avian communities with dominant numbers of ETS. In these low-quality habitats, our results suggest that landscape configuration is more important than local habitat structure. Within-site habitat connectivity and the number of surrounding forest patches with shorter between-patch distances deserve more attention in future landscape design for residential communities.