UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Living for the city: Using community science and historical data to understand avian response to urbanization Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36z733nf Author Cooper, Daniel Steven Publication Date 2020 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Living for the city: Using community science and historicAl datA to understAnd aviAn response to urbanizAtion A dissertAtion submitted in partiAl sAtisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Biology by DAniel Steven Cooper 2020 © Copyright by DAniel Steven Cooper 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Living for the city: Using community science and historicAl datA to understAnd aviAn response to urbanizAtion by DAniel Steven Cooper Doctor of Philosophy in Biology University of CaliforniA, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor DAniel T. Blumstein, Co-Chair Professor PAmelA J. Yeh, Co-Chair As the world urbanizes, wildlife species will be forced to adapt to changed environments to survive. Despite the variety of development patterns and urban design of cities, species must overcome the loss of open space And transformAtion of natural vegetAtion to survive. I investigated spatiotemporal patterns of bird distribution to reveAl wAys urban wildlife communities Assemble And persist. I first explored five decAdes of changes in nest sites relAtive to ornamentAl tree usAge and urban lAnd cover in a raptor community neAr Los Angeles. I showed that nest site re-use varied by species over time, And that nest substrate choice has shifted from lArgely native to strongly non-native. The amount of urban cover around most species’ nest sites has increAsed, but Cooper’s HAwk nest sites have become more urban than expected. I then expanded the study areA to include the entire Los Angeles Basin, assembling occurrence datA for ii more than 50 species from the 1990s to present. Using phylogeneticAlly-informed models, I identified two ecologicAl traits that were significAntly associAted with occurrence in urban areAs then and now: the tendency to nest on artificiAl structures (positively), and the tendency to use natural cAvities (negatively). Phylogenetic relAtedness wAs uncorrelAted with urban occurrence, suggesting that a variety of birds – not just those in a few families or genera –persist or reinvade As the lAndscApe urbanizes. Finally, I expanded my analysis to the world’s hawks (Accipitridae), using community-science records from 62 cities. Modeling three urban occurrence indices with life history traits, I found eAch index negatively AssociAted with body mAss, And found positive AssociAtions with both nest substrate and habitAt breAth. Again, I found no evidence of phylogenetic signal in the models, which suggests that Although urban hawks tend to be smaller- bodied generalists, multiple lineAges mAy succeed in cities. All three analyses provide examples of the potentiAl of community science datA, including historicAl datAsets, to reveAl patterns that might not be apparent from single studies in particulAr geographicAl areAs. They also illustrate the persistence of ecologicAl traits associAted with urbanizAtion, even as natural communities vary around the world And change over time. iii The dissertAtion of DAniel Steven Cooper is approved. ThomAs W. Gillespie ThomAs B. Smith DAniel T. Blumstein, Committee Co-Chair PAmelA J. Yeh, Committee Co-Chair University of CaliforniA, Los Angeles 2020 iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... vi Vita ................................................................................................................................................ vii Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2. Tolerance and avoidance of urban cover in a southern CaliforniA suburban raptor community over five decAdes. ....................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3. Temporally separated datA sets reveAl similAr traits of birds persisting in a United StAtes Megacity ............................................................................................................................. 28 Chapter 4. Is there a “global urban raptor”? Using community science datA to identify traits AssociAted with urban occurrence in Accipiteridae ....................................................................... 40 TAble 1. Three urban index variAbles used to cAlculAte raptor occurrence in urban areAs. ....... 47 Figure 1. The relAtionship between three urban occurrence variAbles (urban abundance, species proportion, and urban preference) using 90 focAl raptor species across 62 cities. ....... 49 TAble 2. Traits used in analysis. ................................................................................................ 51 TAble 3. Comparison of phylogeneticAlly signal of eAch of the urban indices using three modes of evolution (BrowniAn, OU, PAgel’s lAmbda) and one non-phylogeneticAlly informed model. ................................................................................................................................................... 54 TAble 4. Comparison of AIC scores of four models used to test three urban indices against six traits. .......................................................................................................................................... 55 TAble 5. Results from the best model for eAch urban index using Generalized LeAst Squares tests, fitted to explAin variAtion based on six traits analyzed. ................................................... 56 SupplementAl InformAtion ......................................................................................................... 63 v Acknowledgments I wish to thank my family for supporting my “side job” as a UCLA grad student, and my graduate committee (Dr. DAniel Blumstein, Dr. PAmelA Yeh, Dr. ThomAs Smith and Dr. ThomAs Gillespie) for their encouragement and support through this process. Dr. DAniel T. Blumstein and the members of the Blumstein lAb were particulArly helpful, at every stAge from orientAtion until now. I also wish to thank two UCLA faculty members, Drs. H. Bradley Shaffer and Ryan J. HArrigan, And TessA VillAseñor, Graduate Student AffAirs Officer, for their support and AssistAnce throughout. PleAse refer to the Acknowledgments in Chapters 2 and 3 (reprints of published Articles). This reseArch wAs conducted and published at the direction of my Committee Co-Chair, DAniel T. Blumstein. For Chapter 4, I wish to acknowledge DAniel T. Blumstein, Allison J. Shultz, and Cagan Sekerciglou for their assistAnce. Rachel BlAkey and Adam Pingatore assisted with datA analysis, And ThomAs B. Smith provided helpful comments on an eArlier draft. Funding for my Ph.D. work at UCLA wAs provided in part by the SustAinable Los Angeles Grand Challenge grant from UCLA, and I am particulArly grateful to MArk Gold for seeing the value of this reseArch. vi Vita EDUCATION University of California, Los Angeles, PhD cAndidate (Biology) University of California, Riverside, MSc 1999 (Biogeography) Harvard University, AB 1995 (Biology) SELECTED RESEARCH GRANTS University of California, Los Angeles, “Grand Challenge”. Management tools to promote the coexistence of L.A.’s nesting raptors and herons. (2017-2019. $56,000). Co-PI with Dr. DAniel Blumstein and Dr. PAmelA Yeh, UCLA. California Department of Parks and Recreation, Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division. An assessment of the current and historic breeding status of the Golden Eagle and other raptors within the Jawbone-Butterbredt Area of Critical Environmental Concern. $65,000; 2018/2019 An assessment of the breeding status of the Golden Eagle and other raptors on BLM lands within a portion of the southern Sierra Mountains with additional emphasis on determination of the distribution of the LeConte’s Thrasher at lower elevations within the study area. $196,000. Co-PI with Bill HAAs, PAcific Coast Conservation AlliAnce. TEACHING/RESEARCH POSITIONS Research Associate, NAtural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Department of Ornithology, 2020-present. Visiting Researcher; HArvard Forest, Petersham, MA. Breeding bird survey of forest property in 2011 and 2013; butterfly surveys in 2015 and 2016. Thesis Advisor; MAster’s Students at CaliforniA StAte University, Los Angeles, and Oregon StAte University (2015-present). Teaching Assistant; University of CaliforniA, Los Angeles and Univ. of CaliforniA, Riverside. EEB 114 (Ornithology) and Geography 113 (Humid Tropics), 2019; courses in Geomorphology, NAtural DisAsters, and Astronomy, 1998-1999. Fellow; Center for Urban Resilience, LoyolA MArymount Univ., Westchester, CA. Co-tAught BIO 398, a field biology course (with Dr. Eric Strauss); informAlly advised graduate students, 2012-2015. Instructor; UCLA Extension School, Los Angeles, CA. Developed and tAught courses on conservation biology and bird monitoring, organized overnight field trips, 2001 - 2003. WORK HISTORY Cooper Ecological Monitoring, Inc. Los Angeles, CA. 2005 - present President. An independent ecologicAl consulting firm speciAlizing in lAnd use, wildlife and biodiversity issues, we provide expertise in study design & analysis, ecologicAl assessment, and mAnagement