Responses of avian assemblages to spatiotemporal landscape dynamics in urban ecosystems

Context: Urbanization and its associated impacts on biodiversity are increasing globally. There is a need to enhance our understanding of species responses to inform strategies for sustainable urbanization. Objectives: Three extensive bird monitoring campaigns took place over the last three decades in the city of Naples, Italy, providing a comprehensive longitudinal dataset to analyse occurrence trends of urban birds. We aimed to assess both species-specific and assemblage-level changes in urban birds according to land cover dynamics. Methods: We extracted bird data for the periods 1990–95, 2000–05, and 2014–18, and explored the spatial and temporal relationships between bird presence/avian assemblage composition, and land cover variation. Results: The species richness of breeding birds remained stable over time, despite a notable species turnover, influenced by changes in the species’ key land cover classes. Species associated with forest and urban land cover tended to colonise the ar...