Weaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlands

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dc.contributor.advisorCumming, Graeme Sen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorOschadleus, Hans-Dieteren_ZA
dc.contributor.authorCalder, Jordan-Laineen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-05-18T14:21:43Z
dc.date.available2015-05-18T14:21:43Z
dc.date.issued2014en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractUrbanization, a fast growing and destructive human land use, causes local extinctions, biotic homogenization and fragmentation of natural habitats. Understanding how the nature of the urban matrix affects the species residing within a city’s fragmented habitats is an important founding component of urban conservation. This study investigated the influence that the urban matrix, as well as patch isolation, size and quality, had on weaver bird movement into and out of wetland sites in Cape Town, a growing city within a global biodiversity hotspot. Weaver bird movement data from 42 wetland sites were obtained through a long term mark - release - recapture project. Distance - based linear models revealed that site proximity was important as a predictor of weaver movement into and out of sites, while the site variables ( wetland size, bird abundance and weaver colony size) had limited and inconclusive influence. Once the variation explained by the proximity and site variables had been accounted for, the composition of the urban matrix and the presence of rivers as potential movement corridors (measured at three spatial scales) had little influence on weaver movement. The finding that proximity (or site isolation) influences weaver movement has important implications for maintaining current landscape connectivity. Habitat isolation, resulting from further habitat removal or destruction, could be expected to reduce movements of weavers, and potentially other species, among patches of favourable habitat. Weavers are robust, vagile birds that do well in the presence of humans and may not be highly sensitive to the nature of the urban matrix. Research into how other, less resilient and vagile species respond to the degree of urbanization in the matrix between wetlands would contribute further to our knowledge of urban biodiversity in this global biodiversity hotspot.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationCalder, J. (2014). <i>Weaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlands</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12816en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationCalder, Jordan-Laine. <i>"Weaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlands."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12816en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationCalder, J. 2014. Weaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlands. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Calder, Jordan-Laine AB - Urbanization, a fast growing and destructive human land use, causes local extinctions, biotic homogenization and fragmentation of natural habitats. Understanding how the nature of the urban matrix affects the species residing within a city’s fragmented habitats is an important founding component of urban conservation. This study investigated the influence that the urban matrix, as well as patch isolation, size and quality, had on weaver bird movement into and out of wetland sites in Cape Town, a growing city within a global biodiversity hotspot. Weaver bird movement data from 42 wetland sites were obtained through a long term mark - release - recapture project. Distance - based linear models revealed that site proximity was important as a predictor of weaver movement into and out of sites, while the site variables ( wetland size, bird abundance and weaver colony size) had limited and inconclusive influence. Once the variation explained by the proximity and site variables had been accounted for, the composition of the urban matrix and the presence of rivers as potential movement corridors (measured at three spatial scales) had little influence on weaver movement. The finding that proximity (or site isolation) influences weaver movement has important implications for maintaining current landscape connectivity. Habitat isolation, resulting from further habitat removal or destruction, could be expected to reduce movements of weavers, and potentially other species, among patches of favourable habitat. Weavers are robust, vagile birds that do well in the presence of humans and may not be highly sensitive to the nature of the urban matrix. Research into how other, less resilient and vagile species respond to the degree of urbanization in the matrix between wetlands would contribute further to our knowledge of urban biodiversity in this global biodiversity hotspot. DA - 2014 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2014 T1 - Weaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlands TI - Weaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlands UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12816 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/12816
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationCalder J. Weaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlands. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, 2014 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12816en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentPercy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherConservation Biologyen_ZA
dc.titleWeaving through the matrix: investigating the influence of urban land use on weaver bird movements into and out of Cape Town wetlandsen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMScen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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