Breeding in the city: different reproductive choices in urban areas in Blue and Great Tits?

Hoks, Jeroen (2023) Breeding in the city: different reproductive choices in urban areas in Blue and Great Tits? Bachelor's Research Project (period 2b), Biology.

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Abstract

The phenomenon of urbanization is an increasingly large biodiversity threat. Urban ecosystems have been exposed to fast environmental changes causing many species to go locally extinct or adapt. Two bird species that are doing really well in urban areas are Blue and Great Tits. The effect of urbanization on these bird species has been extensively studied. However, most of these studies were comparative studies where the definition of urbanization is not very clear. Therefore, more replicate studies are needed that study the relationships between breeding characteristics and urbanization based on quantified urbanization gradients. In this study, we developed a method for quantifying urbanization into four different components; light pollution, habitat structure, vehicle disturbance and human disturbance. During five weeks of nest box monitoring, data on nest box occupation and laying date of an urban Blue and Great Tits population was acquired. The study site had variation in the degree of urbanization. These data were then analyzed in relation to the four urbanization components. We found that Blue Tits start laying eggs later in habitats with a high ecological value. Additionally, both Blue and Great Tits had a preference for nest boxes with high levels of vehicle disturbance. All other urbanization components were not sufficient to induce significant variation in occupation and laying date. My results suggest that differences in urbanization between nest box within one urba

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Research Project (period 2b))
Supervisor name:	Nicolaus, M.
Degree programme:	Biology
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Research Project (period 2b)
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	07 Jun 2023 09:51
Last Modified:	07 Jun 2023 09:51
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/29894

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