| Lean birds in the city: body size and condition of house sparrows along the urbanization gradient. | |
| | |
MedLine Citation:
|
PMID: 18479344 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
|
1. Urbanized habitats differ from natural ones in several ecological features, including climate, food availability, strength of predation and competition. Although the effects of urbanization on avian community composition are well known, there is much less information about how individual birds are affected by these human-generated habitat differences. 2. In this study we investigated the relationships between the morphological characteristics and the degree of habitat urbanization in house sparrows, Passer domesticus (Linne 1758) . We collected data for more than 1000 non-breeding adult birds in Hungary between 1997 and 2006, from seven sites including farmlands, suburban areas and city centres. 3. We found that the body mass, tarsus length and body condition of free-living sparrows differed among the sites: birds in more urbanized habitats were consistently smaller and in worse condition than birds in more rural habitats. A composite measure of habitat urbanization (based on building density, road density and vegetation cover) explained over 75% of variance between sites in the studied traits, after we controlled for the effects of sex, year, season and time of capture. 4. The difference in body mass between rural and urban sparrows was significant when birds were kept in aviaries under identical conditions, with constant ad libitum food availability. It is therefore unlikely that the reduced body size and condition of urban sparrows are a consequence of reduced access to food for adults (e.g. due to strong competition), or their short-term responses to high food predictability (e.g. by strategic mass regulation). 5. We suggest that habitat differences in nestling development or adaptive divergence of sparrow populations due to distinct environmental conditions (such as differing predation pressure) may account for the differences along the urbanization gradient. |
| | |
Authors:
|
A Liker; Z Papp; V Bókony; A Z Lendvai |
Related Documents
:
|
20456334 - Biology of the sauropod dinosaurs: the evolution of gigantism. 16634304 - Why do most tropical animals reproduce seasonally? testing hypotheses on an australian ... 2810444 - Can ciguatera be a sexually transmitted disease? 17195674 - Laboratory evaluation of flight performance of the plum curculio (coleoptera: curculion... 20887754 - Dipeptidyl peptidase iv (dpp4)-deficiency attenuates diet-induced obesity in rats: poss... 22821834 - American journal of medical genetics part a: volume 158a, number 8, august 2012. |
Publication Detail:
|
Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Date: 2008-05-08 |
Journal Detail:
|
Title: The Journal of animal ecology Volume: 77 ISSN: 1365-2656 ISO Abbreviation: J Anim Ecol Publication Date: 2008 Jul |
Date Detail:
|
Created Date: 2008-06-25 Completed Date: 2008-08-18 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
|
Nlm Unique ID: 0376574 Medline TA: J Anim Ecol Country: England |
Other Details:
|
Languages: eng Pagination: 789-95 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
|
Department of Limnology, University of Pannonia, Pf. 158, H-8201 Veszprém, Hungary. aliker@almos.uni-pannon.hu |
Export Citation:
|
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
|
Animals Body Composition / physiology Body Constitution / physiology Body Weight / physiology* Ecosystem* Female Male Rural Population Sparrows / anatomy & histology*, physiology* Urban Population Urbanization* |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: Ecological separation in a polymorphic terrestrial salamander.
Next Document: Cloning and expression of Bacillus phytase gene (phy) in Escherichia coli and recovery of active enz...