Multidecadal legacy effects of uneven urbanization drive divergent prospects for bird biodiversity

Urbanization constitutes a primary driver of the ongoing global biodiversity crisis, yet how historical urban legacy effects shape contemporary biodiversity remains unclear. Neglecting lagged ecological consequences such as extinction debts and colonization credits could obscure both the risks of future urban biodiversity loss and the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Here, by integrating equilibrium and nonequilibrium models, we quantified the legacy effects of urbanization on bird communities and species in China over the past 31 years.

城市化是当前全球生物多样性危机的主要驱动因素之一，但历史城市化遗留效应如何塑造当代生物多样性，目前仍不明确。若忽视灭绝债务、定植信贷等滞后生态效应，可能会掩盖未来城市生物多样性丧失的风险以及保护工作的实际成效。本研究通过整合平衡模型与非平衡模型，量化了过去31年间中国城市化对鸟类群落及物种的遗留效应。