Urban areas are expanding globally as a consequence of human population increases, with overall negative effects on biodiversity. To prevent the further loss of biodiversity, it is urgent to understand the mechanisms behind this loss to develop evidence-based sustainable solutions to preserve biodiversity in urban landscapes. The two extreme urban development types along a continuum, land-sparing (large, continuous green areas and high-density housing) and land-sharing (small, fragmented green areas and low-density housing) have been the recent focus of debates regarding the pattern of urban development. However, in this context, there is no information on the mechanisms behind the observed biodiversity changes. One of the main mechanisms proposed to explain urban biodiversity loss is the alteration of predator-prey interactions. Using ground-nesting birds as a model system and data from nine European cities, we experimentally tested the effects of these two extreme urban development types on artificial ground nest survival and whether nest survival correlates with the local abundance of ground-nesting birds and their nest predators. Nest survival (n = 554) was lower in land-sharing than in land-sparing urban areas. Nest survival decreased with increasing numbers of local predators (cats and corvids) and with nest visibility. Correspondingly, relative abundance of ground-nesting birds was greater in land-sparing than in land-sharing urban areas, though overall bird species richness was unaffected by the pattern of urban development. We provide the first evidence that predator-prey interactions differ between the two extreme urban development types. Changing interactions may explain the higher proportion of ground-nesting birds in land-sparing areas, and suggest a limitation of the land-sharing model. Nest predator control and the provision of more green-covered urban habitats may also improve conservation of sensitive birds in cities. Our findings provide information on how to further expand our cities without severe loss of urban-sensitive species and give support for land-sparing over land-sharing urban development.

Behavioral and Physiological Ecology Group Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies University of Groningen 9700 CC Groningen The Netherlands

Department of Biogeography and Global Change Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales E 28006 Madrid Spain

Department of Biology Ludwig Maximilians University Munich Munich Germany

Department of Biology University of Turku FI 20014 Turku Finland

Department of Zoology University of Granada Granada Spain

Department of Zoology University of Granada Granada Spain Behavioral and Physiological Ecology Group Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies University of Groningen 9700 CC Groningen The Netherlands

Faculty of Environmental Sciences Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Spatial Planning Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 CZ 165 00 Prague 6 Czech Republic

Institute of Zoology Poznań University of Life Sciences Wojska Polskiego 71C PL 60 625 Poznań Poland

Nature Inventory and EIA services Arctic Centre University of Lapland P O Box 122 FI 96101 Rovaniemi Finland

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