Melbourne bird survey supports
research suggesting native species thrive better if planning includes
environmental reserves, rather than backyards
Thu 31 May
2018 09.12 BST
Last modified on Thu 31 May
2018 22.56 BST
The outskirts of Melbourne are
a maze of newly-paved culs-de-sac. Freestanding homes twist in on each other,
filling the footprint of their small street blocks.
On the other side of the road,
short wooden stakes have been tied with fluorescent tape to mark out the next
development.
It is a seemingly never ending
process to house Melbourne’s rapidly expanding population, which grew 2.3% to
4.85 million people in 2016-17.
But environmental scientists say
that unless planners change the way they provide for this growth it will come
at the cost of biodiversity.
A new study published
online in the British Ecological Society journal this week found
that development models based on a “land sharing” approach, where native
species are provided with habitat in the form of the inter-connected backyards
and tree-lined streets of a low-density suburb, performed poorly compared to a
model of medium-density housing alongside continuous tracts of environmental
reserve, known as a “land sparing” model.
A survey of bird species in 28 parcels
of land throughout Melbourne’s northern and eastern suburbs, including four
reserves, found that half of the native species observed decreased
significantly in proportion to the density of human occupation, and 13 species
were only found in reserves.
Some species, such as rainbow
lorikeets, magpies and red wattlebirds were abundant throughout the suburbs.
But to maximise the diversity of
native bird species, the study concluded, large tracts of native vegetation
must be included alongside urban areas.
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