We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Depleted suburban house sparrow Passer domesticus population not limited by food availability.
- Authors
Peach, Will J.; Mallord, John W.; Ockendon, Nancy; Orsman, Chris J.; Haines, William G.
- Abstract
Little is known about the environmental factors that limit the demography and abundance of wild vertebrates in highly modified urban environments. The House Sparrow Passer domesticus is a globally widespread species whose urban populations have recently undergone substantial declines particularly in Europe. The environmental drivers of these declines remain unknown. In a previous study we showed that invertebrate availability during the breeding season limited reproductive success but not population size in a suburban sparrow population. In this study we test experimentally whether year-round food availability limits demography and population size. Supplementary feeding involved the provision of invertebrate prey (during the breeding season) plus unlimited high-energy seed (year-round) at 33 sparrow colonies spread across suburban London over two successive calendar years. Thirty-three unfed colonies served as controls. Supplementary feeding increased fledgling abundance, but had no impact on overwinter survival or population size. We conclude that this depleted suburban sparrow population is not limited by food availability, and conservation efforts based primarily on food provision are unlikely to succeed. We also tested whether cross-colony variation in sparrow abundance was correlated with a set of potential environmental stressors including measures of predator abundance and pollution. Sparrows were more abundant, or showed more positive temporal changes in abundance, at localities containing large areas of seed-rich habitat and low levels of nitrogen dioxide air pollution. Further research is merited into the potential impacts of air pollution on the fitness of urban birds.
- Subjects
ENGLISH sparrow; BIRD populations; DEMOGRAPHY; BIRD breeding; FOOD shortages
- Publication
Urban Ecosystems, 2018, Vol 21, Issue 6, p1053
- ISSN
1083-8155
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11252-018-0784-4