The efficiency of natural corridors in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia
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Habitat loss and fragmentation due to humans’ activities is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss; it decreases population and ecological niche and can lead to extinction. It is caused by the increase in the human population, therefore the need for physical space, the development of urban areas, and the exploitation of resources. To counter the loss of biodiversity, several methods have been put into place with relative efficiency differences, including repairing habitats by replanting natives, adding keystone species, increasing protected zones, and also an ecological network that can connect different habitats thanks to corridors. In this study, we will compare the efficiency of four natural strips of corridors to four artificial strips of corridors in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, by evaluating birds’ alpha diversity, species diversity, and functional diversity. This study aims to improve the understanding of corridors going through cities and possibly limit biodiversity loss. We hypothesize that birds will favor natural strips of vegetation rather than artificial corridors showing the efficiency of natural corridors. We did not find a significant difference in efficiency between natural and artificial corridors. However, we found that bird alpha and species diversity decrease with the increase of anthropogenic noise and also an increase in alpha diversity with the rise of trees’ functional diversity. We did not find significant evidence that functional diversity was significant with any of the explicative variables. This study reveals that natural corridors do not provide enough protection against urbanization but combined with artificial corridors inside the city, it helps to maintain functional diversity.