Turner, Jessica;
Freeman, Robin;
Carbone, Chris;
(2021)
Using citizen science to understand and map habitat suitability for a synurbic mammal in an urban landscape: the hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus.
Mammal Review
, 52
(2)
pp. 291-303.
10.1111/mam.12278.
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Abstract
Urban environments are important for west European hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus. The species has been recorded in 73% of large urban areas throughout its geographic range. However, the environmental relationships determining hedgehog distribution within these landscapes are not well understood. Taking a city-wide perspective, this study identifies hedgehogs’ habitat relationships with urban environmental characteristics and predicts habitat suitability in a major urban centre, Greater London, UK. We use a collated citizen science dataset of 3012 hedgehog occurrence records from Greater London, and pseudoabsences inferred from other mammal taxa, to construct a multiscale generalised linear model identifying the influence of 10 variables representing urban greenspace, built infrastructure, and the presence of the European badger Meles meles (as a predator or competitor) on hedgehog distribution. We find a positive association of hedgehog presence with availability of gardens, parks, allotments, percentage of terraced housing, traffic, and intermediate impervious cover (roads and buildings, peaking at 31%). High impervious cover, woodland, water, human densities (above 2262 people km−2), and badger presence were negatively related to hedgehog presence. Predicted habitat suitability was high across much of Greater London but declined towards the centre and in some locations around the outskirts of the study region. Our results emphasise the importance of public and private greenspaces for urban hedgehogs, and suggest that loss of garden, park, and allotment habitats and disturbance associated with high human densities may restrict hedgehog distribution. Despite the inherent complexity of urban environments, this study shows that citizen science is useful for developing an understanding of large-scale species–habitat relationships in diverse urban landscapes.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Using citizen science to understand and map habitat suitability for a synurbic mammal in an urban landscape: the hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/mam.12278 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12278 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 The Authors. Mammal Review published by Mammal Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Ecology, Zoology, Environmental Sciences & Ecology, citizen science, city, Erinaceus europaeus, Greater London, habitat fragmentation, habitat suitability, urban, BIODIVERSITY, GARDENS, MODELS, IMPACT, AREAS, ROADS |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10146173 |
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