Urban thermal seasonality modulates avian community responses across contrasting green spaces

Climate change poses growing challenges for biodiversity in cities. Urban green spaces can modify local thermal conditions, but how seasonal thermal variation is associated with avian community responses remains insufficiently understood. Using year-round passive acoustic monitoring, we quantified acoustic-detection-based bird species richness across three focal green-space sites representing contrasting urbanization contexts in Shanghai, China. The fitted community-level thermal response was seasonally contingent. The urban case site showed patterns consistent with a potential winter thermal refuge, whereas elevated summer thermal conditions were associated with a broadly suppressive pattern in acoustic-detection-based richness across the sampled green spaces. Together, these results indicate that the ecological role of urban green space shifts with seasonal thermal conditions. Our findings underscore the need to move beyond static annual greening targets toward climate-adaptive urban green infrastructure management that integrates seasonal local thermal assessment to strengthen ecological resilience under intensifying thermal extremes.