Temporarily closing roads to motorized vehicles may benefit some sensitive bird species in a peri-urban park

Abstract Roads and motorized vehicle traffic pose a significant threat to wildlife, contributing to population declines and global biodiversity loss. Temporary road closures are a potential tool that can mitigate traffic noise and road mortality, yet there is limited understanding of their effectiveness, especially for birds. In this study, we aimed to assess the outcomes of temporary road closures on community- and species-level bird diversity in Gatineau Park, Québec, Canada, using 30 autonomous recording units deployed throughout the 2023 and 2024 breeding seasons. We measured species richness, Shannon diversity, community composition, detection rates of traffic-sensitive indicator species, and occurrence of species at risk in forested habitat at varying distances to temporarily closed roads (closed 4 days a week), a permanently closed road, and roads with no traffic restrictions. We found significant effects of distance to roads and road closures on various indicator species, including 2 species of conservation concern, Contopus virens (Eastern Wood-pewee) and Hylocichla mustelina (Wood Thrush). Notably, H. mustelina occurrence was highest in areas with permanently and temporarily closed roads, regardless of distance to roads, with significantly lower occurrence closer to roads with no traffic restrictions. Contrary to our predictions, we found a lack of significant effects of roads and traffic on community-level species diversity and weak evidence for an effect on species composition. Temporary road closures likely support the use of surrounding habitat by traffic-sensitive species, providing an adaptable strategy for species-specific conservation. We recommend (1) implementing road closures where and when species are vulnerable, such as species at risk habitat during the breeding season; (2) increasing public transportation in parks to reduce traffic while supporting accessibility; and (3) increasing monitoring efforts to measure the efficacy of conservation interventions.