effects of agricultural land use and landscape heterogeneity on farmland birds
Hiron, Matthew
(2013).
From fields to landscapes.
Diss. (sammanfattning/summary)
Uppsala :
Sveriges lantbruksuniv.,
Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae, 1652-6880
; 2013:89
ISBN 978-91-576-7916-1
eISBN 978-91-576-7917-8
[Doctoral thesis]
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Abstract
Farmland biodiversity has declined because of agricultural intensification. Agri-environment schemes (AESs) seem to have limited effect in stopping and reversing declines. Reasons for this lack of effect could be: (1) failure to target important habitats, (2) the effects of schemes are strongly context-dependent, and (3) the effects are measured at the wrong spatial scale. Evidently, we still need more information about the relationships between agricultural land use and biodiversity at local and landscape scale. I investigated how patterns in habitat-specific abundance and species richness of farmland birds related to land use in 37 arable field dominated landscapes (25 km²). The aim of the study was to establish if agricultural land uses, non-crop habitats and AESs are linked to high species diversity or abundance of birds in open plains of southern Sweden. First, I found a clear switch in crop-specific densities (from autumn- to spring-sown) of a farmland specialist species, the skylark (Alauda arvensis), during the breeding season and this temporal change depended on region. Second, I found that farmsteads had higher species richness and abundance of birds compared to semi-natural pastures and infield non-crop islands. The presence of farm animals increased bird diversity and abundance at farmsteads. Furthermore, densities of non-crop nesters at farmsteads increased with increased average field size of the landscape, showing that farmsteads are especially important bird habitats in arable plains. Third, I showed that payments for AESs target important habitats for birds in the region. AESs for cultivated grasslands, semi-natural pastures and management of landscape elements with nature-culture values related positively to species richness or abundance of birds. Landscape level uptake of organic farming did show effects on local species richness depending on the composition of the landscape. Fourth, I showed that heterogeneity of crop cover at the 25 km² scale did not relate to species richness (with the possible exception of field-nesters in the most simplified landscapes). Total species richness of field-nesting species declined in heterogeneous landscapes with more non-crop cover. Farmland plains are important for farmland birds, but variation in species richness there can be found at the beta and gamma levels rather than at the alpha level. My study shows that, biodiversity patterns need to be considered at different spatial scales when designing and evaluating conservation management in farmland.
Authors/Creators: | Hiron, Matthew | ||||||||||
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Title: | From fields to landscapes | ||||||||||
Subtitle: | effects of agricultural land use and landscape heterogeneity on farmland birds | ||||||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae | ||||||||||
Year of publishing : | 2013 | ||||||||||
Number: | 2013:89 | ||||||||||
Number of Pages: | 56 | ||||||||||
Papers/manuscripts: |
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Place of Publication: | Uppsala | ||||||||||
Publisher: | Dept. of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences | ||||||||||
ISBN for printed version: | 978-91-576-7916-1 | ||||||||||
ISBN for electronic version: | 978-91-576-7917-8 | ||||||||||
ISSN: | 1652-6880 | ||||||||||
Language: | English | ||||||||||
Publication Type: | Doctoral thesis | ||||||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||||||
Agris subject categories.: | L Animal production > L20 Animal ecology P Natural resources > P01 Nature conservation and land resources | ||||||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology | ||||||||||
Agrovoc terms: | birds, larks, habitats, agrobiodiversity, farmland, land use, intensive farming, agricultural landscape, winter crops, biodiversity conservation, sweden | ||||||||||
Keywords: | Agri-environment schemes, biodiversity, intensification, mixed-farming, conservation, farmsteads, autumn-sown crops, semi-natural pastures, diversity partitioning | ||||||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-e-1709 | ||||||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-e-1709 | ||||||||||
ID Code: | 10908 | ||||||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Ecology (S) > Dept. of Ecology | ||||||||||
External funders: | FORMAS | ||||||||||
Deposited By: | Mr Matthew Hiron | ||||||||||
Deposited On: | 21 Nov 2013 10:16 | ||||||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 14 Dec 2014 09:48 |
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