Bird richness and Ecosystems Services across an urban to natural gradient in south-eastern Brazil: implications for landscape planning and future scenarios

In natural and altered environments, the Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by the presence of vegetation, especially regulating ES such as climate regulation and air pollutant removal, are essential to improve human health and well-being. In this study, we focused on a tropical-subtropical river basin which covers urban, peri-urban and rural landscape types of a Brazilian municipality located in the ecotone between the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado (Brazilian savannah). The research aimed to assess the current state of ES and bird richness (as a biodiversity indicator) and their relationships across an urban-rural-natural gradient. We assessed the cooling effect (as microclimate regulation indicator), air pollutant removal (PM10), nature-based recreation opportunities and bird richness and analysed the variations associated with a shift in the prevailing land- cover types along a gradient of urbaniszation. The results indicated a higher bird richness in peri-urban and rural landscapes, as well as greater pollutant removal and cooling effect provided by vegetation. However, recreation opportunities provided mainly by human infrastructure were higher inside the urban zone and in some peri-urban areas. The landscape type significantly influenced the availability and intensity of these four variables (p < 0.001). Bird richness, air pollutant removal, and cooling effect were positively correlated (r > 0.539; p ≤ 0.048);, however, a trade-off between them and recreation opportunities (r = -0.59, R2 = 0.348, p < 0.001) was found. We simulated possible scenarios of reforestation actions in urban areas to predict the ES values when vegetation cover area is increased. According to the results, the urban planning and efforts to improve nNature-based solutions in the studied river basin should consider the observed trade-off to promote sustainable nature-based recreation opportunities in places with higher values of ES (cooling effect, air pollutant removal, and bird richness) and/or to increase the ES values in urban landscape through environmental policies, such as reforestation.