Reduced diversity of farmland birds in homogenized agricultural landscape: A cross-border comparison over the former Iron Curtain

Šálek, Martin; Kalinová, Karolína; Daňková, Renata; Grill, Stanislav; Żmihorski, Michał

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2021.107628

Cited by 28 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The same was true when looking only at forest or open‐habitat species (Figures S2 and S3). These results suggest that although large‐scale farming reduced species richness (alpha‐diversity, see Marcacci et al, 2020), it did not homogenize bird communities in our study regions, contrary to other studies conducted in Europe (Batáry et al, 2017; Šálek et al, 2021). We must, however, interpret this finding with care as we only conducted two survey rounds and we might have occasionally missed some bird species that are more difficult to detect.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

High semi‐natural vegetation cover and heterogeneity of field sizes promote bird beta‐diversity at larger scales in Ethiopian Highlands

Marcacci

Gremion

Mazenauer³

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. The intensification of farming practices exerts detrimental effects on biodiversity. Most research has focused on declines in species richness at local scales (alpha-diversity) although species loss is exacerbated by biotic homogenization that operates at larger scales (i.e. affecting beta-diversity). The majority of studies have been conducted in temperate, industrialized countries while tropical areas remain poorly studied. Agricultural landscapes of sub-Saharan Africa are still largely dominated by small-scale subsistence farming, but strenuous efforts to intensify farming practices are currently spreading to meet a growing food demand. It is therefore crucial to understand how these intensified practices affect biodiversity to mitigate their negative impacts.2. We investigated how farming system (small-vs. large-scale farming) and landscape complexity (semi-natural vegetation cover) drive bird species composition, community turnover and beta-diversity patterns in Ethiopian Highlands' agroecosystems. We evaluated the following hypotheses: (1) large-scale farming homogenizes bird communities, (2) community turnover is higher in smallscale farms, (3) interactive effects between landscape complexity and farming systems shape avian communities and (4) heterogeneity of field sizes increases community turnover at larger scales.3. Bird communities underwent greater compositional changes along the landscape complexity than along the agricultural intensity gradient. Contrary to our expectations, beta-diversity was not significantly lower within large-scale farms (no biotic homogenization), and complex landscapes that still offer a high amount of semi-natural vegetation promoted community turnover in both farming systems.4. Semi-natural vegetation cover mediated how avian communities responded to agricultural intensification: the compositional differences between small-and

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

High semi‐natural vegetation cover and heterogeneity of field sizes promote bird beta‐diversity at larger scales in Ethiopian Highlands

Marcacci

Gremion

Mazenauer³

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Guerrero et al (2012) concluded that farmland bird densities in several European countries were higher in landscapes dominated by agriculture with small fields and a high crop diversity. A recent cross‐border study in Austria and the Czech Republic also found a positive association between farmland bird abundance and diversity and habitat heterogeneity (Šálek et al, 2021). In Finland, field edge density had strong positive effects on farmland bird assemblages and seemed to be even more important than crop diversity, grassland, or fallows (Ekroos et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Camera trap data suggest uneven predation risk across vegetation types in a mixed farmland landscape

Laux

Waltert

Gottschalk

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Field margins, along with other semi-natural habitats, have been described as biodiversity reservoirs in intensified agricultural landscapes, and their biodiversity value has been shown by many studies (Bianchi et al 2006;Vickery et al 2009;Holland et al 2017;Martin et al 2019;Šálek et al 2021). The concept of biodiversity-rich margins has been developed further with the idea of arable margins placed between field boundaries and the main crops (Meek et al 2002;Vickery et al 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The analysis by Martin et al (2019) connected edge density to higher functional biodiversity and to higher yield-enhancing ecosystem services in European landscapes. Reducing crop field sizes and thereby increasing the amount of margin and structural diversification instead of focusing on set-asides and organic farming is recommended as a solution to halting biodiversity loss in agricultural areas (Sirami et al 2019;Clough et al 2020;Šálek et al 2021). Considering these results, changes in agricultural policy toward favoring the biodiversity-boosting effects of margins and their surroundings should be obvious.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendations For Agricultural Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Margins matter: the importance of field margins as avian brood-rearing habitat in an intensive agricultural landscape

Krüger

Jaatinen²,

Holopainen

et al. 2022

J Ornithol

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Agricultural intensification has significantly impacted habitat structures in agricultural landscapes and is one of the main drivers of biodiversity decline, especially in farmland birds. Birds are considered to reflect well the trends in other biodiversity elements and are therefore often used as indicator species. We studied common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) brood habitat use in a small-grain-dominated farmland in southern Finland. The broods significantly preferred field margins compared to their availability. The importance of field margins was underlined, as 68% of pheasant brood observations in grain fields were within a 25-m-wide zone from the field edge, despite the availability being only 40% of the field area. Our results support the idea that field margins and their proximity act as possible biodiversity reservoirs even in intensive farming systems. Increasing the amount of field margins can be an effective management method when aiming to improve success of common pheasant broods while simultaneously benefitting farmland biodiversity. Identifying key habitats and landscape features that allow the co-existence of biodiversity and effective food production is crucial when aiming to halt the ongoing biodiversity collapse.

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Reduced diversity of farmland birds in homogenized agricultural landscape: A cross-border comparison over the former Iron Curtain

Cited by 28 publications

References 45 publications

High semi‐natural vegetation cover and heterogeneity of field sizes promote bird beta‐diversity at larger scales in Ethiopian Highlands

High semi‐natural vegetation cover and heterogeneity of field sizes promote bird beta‐diversity at larger scales in Ethiopian Highlands

Camera trap data suggest uneven predation risk across vegetation types in a mixed farmland landscape

Margins matter: the importance of field margins as avian brood-rearing habitat in an intensive agricultural landscape

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