No overall effect of urbanization on nest-dwelling arthropods of great tits (Parus major).

摘要: Urbanization has been shown to strongly affect community composition of various taxa with potentially strong shifts in ecological interactions, including those between hosts and parasites. We investigated the effect urbanization on arthropods nests great tits Flanders, Belgium. These contain taxonomically functionally diverse arthropod communities parasites, predators, detritivores accidental commensals. Using a standardized hierarchical sampling design subplots (200 m × 200 m) nested plots (3 km × 3 km) varying levels, we collected from resident after young had fledged. Arthropods were extracted, identified Primary Taxonomical Groups (PTG) counted. generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) found diverging effects PTG occurrences abundances at but did not find an overall signal diversity or richness. Also, visual inspection non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) reveal any differences levels plot subplot scales. Land use environmental variables different distances around nestboxes contribute much variation communities. Our results indicate that nestbox are generally adversely affected by urbanization, even city gardens parks harbor comparable forests suburban areas. thus no evidence for parasite release due nor increased risk parasitism human-dominated environments.