Large changes in the avifauna in an extant hotspot of farmland biodiversity in the Alps

Abstract

SummaryLarge declines of farmland bird species have been observed in the lowlands of Western Europe, whereas important populations of some of these species have survived in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe and in small areas within Western Europe, e.g. in parts of the Alps. However, such extant hotspots of farmland biodiversity are at risk: The economic and technical developments threaten to erode biodiversity in existing hotspots, potentially repeating the collapse previously observed in Western Europe. We here present changes in the abundance of farmland birds in the Engadin in the Swiss Alps. Farmland birds such as WhinchatSaxicola rubetraand SkylarkAlauda arvensiswere still numerous in 1987/1988 when we first censused the area. During our second census period in 2009/2010, we noticed strong declines of such open country species, while several hedge and tree breeders as well as some species preferring warmer climate increased. We observed a good correlation between the change in the vegetation and in the birds. Both these changes were especially pronounced in areas with a recent agricultural improvement project. Thus, we believe that the change in farmland practices, which affected our mountainous study area much later than the lowlands, and possibly climate change, have led to a profound change in the regional avifauna. Using our data as a case study, we argue that similar, and similarly fast, changes may be on-going or imminent in many other areas with extant important populations of farmland species such as Whinchat and Skylark. Thus, our data add to the repeatedly declared urgency to adjust the advancement of agricultural subsidy systems to better accommodate biodiversity considerations, both in depauperated areas as well as in extant hotspots.

Toward the next Common Agricultural Policy reform: Determinants of avian communities in hay meadows reveal current policy's inadequacy for biodiversity conservation in grassland ecosystems

“…A study in the French Alps showed that this is still true for farmland generalists, but that farmland specialists (which match quite well with our meadow specialists) also declined at elevations higher than 1,000 m (Archaux, ). Coherent patterns had been reported from the Swiss Alps (Korner, Graf, & Jenni, ) and suggest that recent agricultural transformations are also impacting these species in mountain “refuges”, which are rapidly losing their conservation potential for farmland birds.…”

Habitat, climate, topography and management differently affect occurrence in declining avian species: Implications for conservation in changing environments

“…Mountain species are among the most threatened ones (Dirnböck et al, 2011), and in particular mountain birds are highly threatened because of both climate change (Brambilla et al, 2018b;Imperio et al, 2013;Lehikoinen et al, 2019;Revermann et al, 2012;Scridel et al, 2018;Sekercioglu et al, 2008) and land-cover change (Chamberlain et al, 2016), and the species inhabiting mountain grassland are particularly at risk (Brambilla et al, 2010;Chamberlain et al, 2013;Korner et al, 2018). The effects of climate and land-cover characteristics, and the impact of the relative changes, often come in the form of intermixed, overlapping effects, with interactions often hard to disentangle (de Chazal and Rounsevell, 2009).…”

“…Brambilla et al, 2018a). In fact, in a large part of Europe, seminatural grasslands underwent a dramatic decline in recent decades (Pe'er et al, 2014) and, especially in the southern part of the continent, they are often confined to mountain regions (Korner et al, 2018), thus in climates colder than in the adjacent regions. Several species tied to this habitat are now largely restricted to mountains (Assandri et al, 2019a), but this could be linked either to habitat tracking or climate tracking under a changing temperature in these regions.…”

Anthropogenic‐driven transformations of dragonfly (Insecta: Odonata) communities of low elevation mountain wetlands during the last century

“…Recent evidence from other groups (e.g. birds) suggest that mountain ranges (including the Alps) are no more considerable mountain refugia for lowland species impacted by global change (Archaux, 2007; Korner et al ., 2017; Assandri et al ., 2019b; Fourcade et al ., 2019), and this is likely to be true also for dragonflies. In the last 30 years, the legal protection accorded to all sites investigated probably allowed to slow down species loss, but, based on this study, it is clear that the impacts of human activity on dragonfly communities are much more deeply rooted in time.…”