Fauna of the big city-Estimating species richness and abundance in Warsaw Poland

Abstract

While we know much about the diversity of some animal groups in cities-e.g. birds of European cities [Kelcey & Rheinwald 2005], Lepidoptera of London (Plant 1987, 1993), bats of Vienna (Spitzenberger 1990), insects of Rome (Zapparoli 1997), nowhere has there been made an integrated assessment of all wild, multicellular animals living within the administrative boundaries of a city. Therefore, I summarize here the extensive work carried out by the Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw to document the urban fauna of Warsaw, Poland. Warsaw is a city of 1.7 million people covering an area of 517km2 in central Poland. Vegetated habitats (vegetation in housing estates, parks, allotment gardens, cemeteries, periphery forest parks, green open areas) comprise ∼28% of this area, and there are still (rapidly decreasing) wide patches of farmland. The river Vistula, with its 28 km-long green belt, crosses the city. The fauna of Warsaw has been studied extensively (Czechowski 1990, Luniak & Pisarski 1994). From 1974-1990 a research project was carried out by the Institute of Zoology into terrestrial invertebrates of Warsaw and the invertebrate fauna of the Warsaw region (specifically Mazowsze, Central Poland).More than 90 families and orders of animals were studied by about 36 specialists. Invertebrate communities were studied in tree canopies, shrubs, herbaceous ground cover, and in the soil of urban and seminatural green habitats using standard methods (Czechowski & Pisarski 1981). Major results were summarized by Pisarski (1982, 1990) and in five volumes: "Species composition and origin of the fauna of Warsaw"-Part 1 (Czechowski & Pisarski 1981), Parts 2 and 3 (Czechowski et al. 1982a, 1982b), and "Structure of the fauna of Warsaw; effects of the urban pressure on animal communities" (Czechowski & Pisarski 1986, 1987). In addition to these invertebrate surveys, Luniak et al. (2001) and Nowicki (2001) developed an atlas of Warsaw's birds based on field studies carried out by their team of 50 observers in 1986-1990 and 1999-2000. Mammals of Warsaw were described in the review by Luniak & Nowicki (1990), as were bats (Lesinski & Fuszera, 2001), and amphibians (Mazgajska, 1996, 1998). © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.