Parcel-scale development and landscaping actions affect vegetation, bird, and fungal communities on office developments

Abstract

Habitat loss and degradation are primary drivers of extinction and reduced ecosystem function in urban social-ecological systems. While creating local reserves and restoring degraded habitat are important, they are incomplete responses. The matrix, including the built environment, in which these preserves are located must also provide resources for local species. Urban ecosystems can be used to achieve conservation goals by altering human actions to support local species’ habitat needs. I ask what outcomes of development, landscaping, and maintenance actions taken at the parcel scale explained variation in vegetation, bird, and fungal community composition on office developments in Redmond and Bellevue, Washington, USA. These include measures of tree preservation, planting choices, and resource inputs. I compared these with neighborhood and site scale socio-economic variables and neighborhood scale land cover variables found significant in previous urban ecology studies (Heezik et al., 2013; Lerman and Warren, 2011; Loss et al., 2009; Munyenyembe et al.,1989). I found that variables describing the outcome of development and landscaping actions were associated with tree community composition and explained variation in shrub, winter passerine, and fungal community composition. Other variables, including those found significant in previous research, were not significant. Additionally, I observed a wide variety of vegetation communities on office developments, suggesting significant habitat variation within one land use type. My results provide insight into two pieces of social-ecological urban ecosystems. First, the outcomes of human development and landscaping action are related to differences in vegetation communities, and second, that these differences in vegetation community composition—and particularly tree community structure—are related to differences in winter passerine and fungal community composition. My results suggest that there is the potential to alter human actions in the built environment matrix to support local species, including native bird and fungal taxa in the Puget Trough. Important next steps include cultivating landscapes with native trees and revising land use code. The variation in vegetation I observed also suggests that future urban ecology research design must account for within and between land use variability.