Title:

What's in a name?: How we define "urbanization" has strong implications for its effects on mammal abundance

It is now well-recognized that urbanization strongly impacts wildlife communities and populations. However, urbanization is a complex concept encompassing many features that likely elicit different responses from wildlife. Yet we typically do not know which feature(s) affect individual species most strongly, and this lack of understanding impedes conservation and management actions and theory development. In this study, we used data from 112 camera traps deployed for two years across a gradient of urbanization in New Hampshire, USA to evaluate how the abundance of ten mammal species responded to six different features of urbanization quantified at five different spatial scales. We fit Bayesian hierarchical models to measure response to each feature and scale. There was no singular urban feature or spatial scale in the best model for all species. Rather, the study species responded uniquely to features across scales. The Wildland-Urban Interface was in the best model for four species, the Human Footprint Index for two species, housing density for two species, and impervious surface, building density, and road density for one species each. The scale of urban features in the best model also varied. Within a species, the magnitude and direction of response varied across features and scales, with only black bear (Ursus americanus), gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) exhibiting a consistently significant unidirectional relationship with a single feature across all scales. Species respond to specific urban features, and a failure to include certain features can cause misleading inference about wildlife response to broad conceptualizations of “urbanization”. Thus, researchers must carefully justify the choice of urban feature and the spatial scale at which it is represented for each species of interest. An expanded inclusion of multiple urban features in wildlife research will inform management decisions and improve conservation goals for species impacted by urbanization.

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