Title: Biblio RTF Export
Author: Biblio 7.x

Iknayan, K.; Heath, S.; Terrill, S. B.; Wenny, D. G.; Panlasigui, S.; Wang, Y.; Beller, E. E.; Spotswood, E. 2024. Patterns in bird and pollinator occupancy and richness in a mosaic of urban office parks across scales and seasons. Ecology and Evolution 14 (3).

Urbanization is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, yet cities can provide resources required by many species throughout the year. In recognition of this, cities around the world are adopting strategies to increase biodiversity. These efforts would benefit from a robust understanding of how natural and enhanced features in urbanized areas influence various taxa. We explored seasonal and spatial patterns in occupancy and taxonomic richness of birds and pollinators among office parks in Santa Clara County, California, USA, where natural features and commercial landscaping have generated variation in conditions across scales. We surveyed birds and insect pollinators, estimated multi-species occupancy and species richness, and found that spatial scale (local, neighborhood, and landscape scale), season, and urban sensitivity were all important for understanding how communities occupied sites. Features at the landscape (distance to streams or baylands) and local scale (tree canopy, shrub, or impervious cover) were the strongest predictors of avian occupancy in all seasons. Pollinator richness was influenced by local tree canopy and impervious cover in spring, and distance to baylands in early and late summer. We then predicted the relative contributions of different spatial scales to annual bird species richness by simulating ?good? and ?poor? quality sites based on influential covariates returned by the previous models. Shifting from poor to good quality conditions locally increased annual avian richness by up to 6.8 species with no predicted effect on the quality of the neighborhood. Conversely, sites of poor local and neighborhood scale quality in good-quality landscapes were predicted to harbor 11.5 more species than sites of good local- and neighborhood-scale quality in poor-quality landscapes. Finally, more urban-sensitive bird species were gained at good quality sites relative to urban tolerant species, suggesting that urban natural features at the local and landscape scales disproportionately benefited them.

Baumgarten, S. A.; Stoneburner, L.; Symonds, J.; Iknayan, K.; Benjamin, M.; Ndayishimiye, E.; Lee, V.; Grossinger, R. M.; Stanford, B. 2023. Reconnecting Riverside with its River: Integrating Historical and Urban Ecology for a Healthier Future.  SFEI Contribution No. 1133. San Francisco Estuary Institute: Richmond, Ca.

Plane, E.; Braud, A.; Lowe, J.; Iknayan, K.; Foley, M. 2023. Regional Analysis of Potential Beneficial Use Locations. Conducted for the San Francisco Bay Regional Dredged Material Management Plan. Prepared by the San Francisco Estuary Institute for the US Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District.  SFEI Contribution No. 1178. San Francisco Estuary Institute: Richmond, CA.

Iknayan, K.; Wheeler, M.; Safran, S. M.; Young, J. S.; Spotswood, E. 2021. What makes urban parks good for California quail? Evaluating park suitability, species persistence, and the potential for reintroduction into a large urban national park. Journal of Applied Ecology.
<li>Preserving and restoring wildlife in urban areas benefits both urban ecosystems and the well-being of urban residents. While urban wildlife conservation is a rapidly developing field, the majority of conservation research has been performed in wildland areas. Understanding the applicability of wildland science to urban populations and the relative importance of factors limiting species persistence are of critical importance to identifying prescriptive management strategies for restoring wildlife to urban parks.</li><li>We evaluated how habitat fragmentation, habitat quality and mortality threats influence species occupancy and persistence in urban parks. We chose California quail Callipepla californica as a representative species with potential to respond to urban conservation. We used publicly available eBird data to construct occupancy models of quail in urban parks across their native range, and present an application using focal parks interested in exploring quail reintroduction.</li><li>Urban parks had a 0.23 ± 0.02 probability of quail occupancy, with greater occupancy in larger parks that were less isolated from potential source populations, had higher shrub cover and had lower impervious cover. Less isolated parks had higher colonization rates, while larger parks had lower extinction rates. These results align with findings across urban ecology showing greater biodiversity in larger and more highly connected habitat patches.</li><li>A case study highlighted that interventions to increase effective park size and improve connectivity would be most influential for two highly urban focal parks, while changes to internal land cover would have a relatively small impact. Low joint extinction probability in the parks (0.010 ± 0.013) indicated reintroduced populations could persist for some time.</li><li>Synthesis and applications. We show how eBird data can be harnessed to evaluate the responsiveness of wildlife to urban parks of variable size, connectivity and habitat quality, highlighting what management actions are most needed. Using California quail as an example, we found park size, park isolation and presence of coyotes are all important drivers of whether quail can colonize and persist in parks. Our results suggest reintroducing quail to parks could be successful provided parks are large enough to support quail, and management actions are taken to enhance regional connectivity or periodic assisted colonization is used to supplement local populations.</li>

Iknayan, K.; Bazo, M.; Ndayishimiye, E.; Benjamin, M.; Grossinger, R. M. 2020. Moffett Park Specific Plan Urban Ecology Technical Report.  SFEI Contribution No. 985.