Concrete jungle to urban oasis: evaluating scale, vegetation cover, and aggregation of urban greenspaces on wildlife

Urban greenspaces are a haven for wildlife in densely populated cities. Wildlife use greenspaces for resource acquisition, shelter, and travel across urbanized landscapes. Greenspace metrics such as herbaceous or woody landcover, size, patchiness, and human land use influence species richness. Considering these metrics in urban greenspace design could influence valuable resources for wildlife, the goals of this study were to: 1) determine wildlife communities in different greenspace types, and 2) identify and quantify greenspace metrics to determine relationships with wildlife at various spatial scales. To monitor wildlife, twenty‐six camera traps were set in eastern Los Angeles County, California. Greenspace metrics were gathered using 3 m landcover supervised classification and FRAGSTATS. Non‐metric multidimensional scaling was used to determine wildlife community composition and a generalized linear mixed model was selected to determine the influence of greenspace metrics on richness at four scales (200 m, 500 m, 1 km, and 2 km). Urban dweller species like the Northern mockingbird, Virginia opossum, and desert cottontail were commonly found in suburban yards and urban open modified greenspaces such as a commercial plant nursery. Species like the band‐tailed pigeon, gray fox, and black bear had increased presence in natural greenspaces. Large‐scale greenspaces 1 km and 2 km in size, with high herbaceous cover (either as increasing aggregated patches or increased patchiness), and moderate levels of woody cover, positively influence species richness. At smaller scales, 200 m and 500 m, low and high levels of herbaceous cover and high levels of woody cover strongly and positively influence richness. These results suggest that fragmented greenspaces with varying levels of herbaceous and woody cover contribute to increasing wildlife richness in urban regions. From the perspective of urban planning, developing greenspaces from an ecological scale is important to ensure they function as stepping stones in the urban matrix. Understanding these patterns can improve greenspaces that support wildlife and ecological functions.