2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

How urban greenways should be designed and managed to increase biodiversity in urban areas?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23580035
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Horticulture/Landscape architecture
Research Institution	The University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	KAZUHIRO Katoh 東京大学, 農学生命科学研究科, 准教授 (60242161)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	景観形成・保全 / 都市の生物多様性 / 緑道 / 植生構造 / 鳥類
Research Abstract	Relationship between avian species composition and environmental factors such as vegetation structure and land use was studied in eleven greenways located in and around Tokyo Metropolis. Spatial variation of avian fauna could be explained considering vegetation structure (especially, vegetation coverage in tree layers) in and around the greenways studied. However, observation frequency of the bird species that prefer to forage in understory vegetation such as Horornis diphone, Emberiza spodocephala and Turdus pallidus tended to decrease where vegetation coverage in shrub and herb layers was low. Though the urbanization around the greenways also influenced the avian fauna in the greenways, the influence of vegetation structure seemed to be more important. The observed birds show significant tendency to fly along (not across) the greenways. These results indicate that well vegetated greenways could be good pathways and habitats for some forest dwelling birds.