Experimental evidence that novel land management interventions inspired by history enhance biodiversity

Hawkes, Robert W.; Brown, Andy; Jones, Helen; Lane, Steve A.; Lucas, Colin; McGill, James; Owens, Nick W.; Backes, Amanda Ratier; Webb, Jon; Wells, D. A.; Dolman, Paul M.

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13827

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Similar harvest patterns are being advocated in systems of ecology forestry that mimic natural disturbance regimes in temperate European forests, such as windfall, naturally occurring pests and diseases or disturbances associated with fauna species. Studies show positive results of restoring historical management or novel approaches inspired by history on the recruitment of shade‐intolerant species and on the biodiversity related to sun‐exposed habitat patches (Douda et al., 2017; Hawkes et al., 2021). From a pollinator point of view, forest management systems that benefit the herb layer vegetation such as traditional coppice systems, shelterwood or gap cutting are preferred to single tree selection systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the 'N time bomb' hypothesis states that due to global changes and herbivory, the desired or expected herb vegetation or composition after these shifts might not even prevail (Segar et al, 2022). Management Hawkes et al, 2021). From a pollinator point of view, forest management systems that benefit the herb layer vegetation such as traditional coppice systems, shelterwood or gap cutting are preferred to single tree selection systems.…”

Section: Change In Pnp Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

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Declining potential nectar production of the herb layer in temperate forests under global change

De Schuyter,

De Lombaerde,

Depauw

et al. 2024

Journal of Ecology

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Wild pollinators are crucial for ecosystem functioning and human food production and often rely on floral resources provided by different (semi‐) natural ecosystems for survival. Yet, the role of European forests, and especially the European forest herb layer, as a potential provider of floral resources for pollinators has scarcely been quantified. In this study, we measured the potential nectar production (PNP) of the forest herb layer using resurvey data across 3326 plots in temperate forests in Europe, with an average time interval of 41 years between both surveys in order to assess (i) the importance of the forest herb layer in providing nectar for wild pollinators, (ii) the intra‐annual variation of PNP, (iii) the overall change in PNP between survey periods and (iv) the change in intra‐annual variation of PNP between survey periods. The PNP estimates nectar availability based on the relative cover of different plant species in the forest herb layer. Although PNP overestimates actual nectar production, relative differences amongst plots provide a valid and informative way to analyse differences across time and space. Our results show that the forest herb layer has a large potential for providing nectar for wild pollinator communities, which is greatest in spring, with an average PNP of almost 16 g sugar/m2/year. However, this potential has drastically declined (mean plot‐level decline >24%). Change in light availability, associated with shifts in canopy structure and canopy composition, is the key driver of temporal PNP changes. Synthesis. Our study shows that if management activities are carefully planned to sustain nectar‐producing plant species for wild pollinators, European forest herb layers and European forests as a whole can play key roles in sustaining wild pollinator populations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Change In Pnp Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Declining potential nectar production of the herb layer in temperate forests under global change

De Schuyter,

De Lombaerde,

Depauw

et al. 2024

Journal of Ecology

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“…Previous studies, conducted as an integral part of the same experiment, have demonstrated that disturbed‐grassland also benefits Woodlark Lullula arborea (Hawkes et al ., 2019 a ), Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata (Zielonka et al ., 2019) and priority (rare, scarce or threatened) dry‐grassland invertebrates (Hawkes et al ., 2019 b , 2021). Similar interventions may benefit other disturbance associated grassland waders, such as North American breeding populations of Mountain Plovers Charadrius montanus (Augustine & Skagen, 2014) and Upland Sandpipers Bartramia longicauda (Sandercock et al ., 2015), or Sociable Lapwings Vanellus gregarius in Central Asia (Kamp et al ., 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of experimental land management on habitat use by Eurasian Stone‐curlews

Hawkes

Brown²,

Green

et al. 2021

Animal Conservation

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Effective conservation is often informed by focal species studies to identify beneficial land management interventions. For nocturnal or cryptic species, quantifying habitat use across individually marked animals can allow unbiased assessment of intervention efficacy and identify other important habitats. Here, using a landscape-scale experiment, we examine whether interventions intended to create nesting habitat for the largely nocturnal Eurasian Stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus within semi-natural grassland also provide foraging habitat. GPS loggers were fitted to five adult Stonecurlews during the breeding season within an extensive area of semi-natural grassland (3850 ha, hereafter 'grassland'), surrounded by a mosaic of arable cropland (total study area 118 600 ha). The largely closed-sward grassland was diversified by experimental ground-disturbance plots (the intervention) prior to this study. We used the GPS fixes to identify 1881 foraging locations (510 during nesting and 1371 postbreeding) across the grassland and surrounding landscape. Most foraging locations were close to the nest-site during the nesting period (90% within 1 km) or day-roost during post-breeding (90% within 5 km), but birds travelled up to 4.1 km from these sites during nesting and 13 km post-breeding. Stone-curlews were two-(by night) or three-times (by day) more likely to select disturbed-grassland over unmodified grassland for foraging during nesting, and c. 15 times more likely to do so post-breeding. Spring-sown crops and pig fields or manure heaps were also selected over grassland for nocturnal foraging. Given that central place foraging occurs in this species, conservation efforts that promote breeding attempts through ground-disturbance should ensure suitable foraging habitat is near the nest (<1 km). Creating multiple areas of disturbed-ground close to the edge of large grassland blocks can provide a network of nesting and foraging habitats, while allowing access to foraging habitats on the surrounding arable farmland. Similar interventions may benefit other disturbance associated grassland waders.

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“…Specifically, we assumed that "Targeted" conservation actions achieve high growth rates for single species, while "Landscape" actions achieve limited growth rates for multiple species. However, we acknowledge that this assumption is a simplification and that there can be high variability in the impact of targeted and landscape actions, for instance due to the types of actions implemented and the shared ecological requirements of species (Hawkes et al, 2019(Hawkes et al, , 2021. Therefore, for targeted species, we applied growth rates of 0%-30%reflecting a range in the success of the species-specific actions.…”

Section: Case-study Informed Target-achievability Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

An evidence‐base for developing ambitious yet realistic national biodiversity targets

Bane

Cooke

Boyd

et al. 2022

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Biodiversity targets are a key tool, used at a global and national policy level, to align biodiversity goals, promote conservation action, and recover nature. Yet most biodiversity targets are not met. In England, the government has committed to legally‐binding targets to halt and recover the decline in species abundance by 2030 and 2042. We present evidence from recent population trends of 670 terrestrial animal species (for which abundance time series are available) as a species abundance indicator, together with a synthesis of case studies on species recovery, to assess the degree to which these targets are achievable. The case studies demonstrate that recovery is possible through a range of approaches. The indicator demonstrates that theoretically targets can be achieved by addressing severe declines in a relatively small number of species, as well as creating smaller benefits for many species through landscape‐scale interventions. The fact that multiple pathways exist to achieve the species abundance targets in England presents choices but also raises the possibility that targets might be reached with perverse consequences. We demonstrate that evidence on achievability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for determining what is required to deliver conservation outcomes and restore biodiversity.

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Experimental evidence that novel land management interventions inspired by history enhance biodiversity

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 6 publications

References 64 publications

Declining potential nectar production of the herb layer in temperate forests under global change

Declining potential nectar production of the herb layer in temperate forests under global change

Effects of experimental land management on habitat use by Eurasian Stone‐curlews

An evidence‐base for developing ambitious yet realistic national biodiversity targets

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