Unraveling how urbanization shapes bird functional diversity and exploring the urban ecological integrity

• Grant number: 24/11059-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Wesley Rodrigues Silva
• Grantee: Pâmela Rodrigues Braga
• Supervisor: Ian Macgregor Fors
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Helsinki, Finland
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/11262-8 - The influence of urban landscape and local variables on birds in green areas at Campinas-SP city, BP.MS

Abstract

Urbanization is one of the major threats to biodiversity. Birds are an important group to study in this context because they have different responses to urbanization intensity and contribute to a myriad of ecosystem services. Species specific traits determine how species interacts with and is affected by its environment. Functional diversity analysis can provide insights into mechanisms underlying urban communities' structure, as well as on the ecosystem services provision. This measure has three complementary components: functional richness, divergence, and evenness, that provide a comprehensive description of species distribution within functional space. However, there is still limited knowledge about if and how neotropical urban landscapes affects bird functional diversity. This proposal is to a three-month research internship under the supervision of Dr. MacGregor-Fors from the University of Helsinki, Finland. The aims are to understand the drivers that shapes bird functional diversity in urban green areas in Campinas-SP, and to explore a novel approach to study urban systems: the Urban Ecological Integrity Index. We will quantify some additional metrics, functional diversity components, and use generalized linear models ranked using the Akaike Information Criterion corrected for small samples. This proposal will represent a step ahead in the MSc student career and will generate valuable evidence at one of the largest cities within the Atlantic Forest.