Seasonal changes in avian communities living in an extensively used farmland of Western Poland

Abstract

To study the seasonal changes in avian communities, we collected data in an extensively used farmland in Western Poland during [2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013]. Generalized additive mixed models were used in order to study the effects of seasonality and protected areas on the overall bird species richness. A similarity percentage analysis was also conducted in order to identify the species that contribute most strongly to dissimilarity among each bird according to the phenological season. Furthermore, the differences in bird communities were investigated applying the decomposition of the species richness in season, trend, and remainder components. Each season showed significant differences in bird species richness (seasonality effect). The effect of the protected areas was slightly positive on the overall species richness for all seasons. However, an overall negative trend was detected for the entire period of eight years. The bird community composition was different among seasons, showing differences in terms of dominant species. Greater differences were found between breeding and wintering seasons, in particular, the spatial pattern of sites with higher bird richness (hotspots) were different between breeding and wintering seasons. Our findings showed a negative trend in bird species richness verified in the Polish farmlands from 2006. This result mirrors the same negative trend already highlighted for Western Europe. The role of protected areas, even if slightly positive, was not enough to mitigate this decline process. Therefore, to effectively protect farmland birds, it is necessary to also consider inter-seasons variation, and for this, we suggest the use of medium-term temporal studies on bird communities' trends. INTRODUCTIONABSTRACT birds, farmland, seasonality, trend, dominant species, SIMPER, Poland KEYWORDS

Congruence between breeding and wintering biodiversity hotspots: A case study in farmlands of Western Poland

“…In this study, we incorporated the data on inter-seasonal changes, to assess the congruence, and then to compare the relative representation of the protected areas for protecting local hotspots of species richness, functional diversity, and evolutionary distinctiveness of bird communities. From this point of view, our findings provide complementary information to a study previously published (Kwieciński et al, 2017), but focused mainly on a long term trend of avian communities than on the spatial mismatch analysis between inter-seasonal hotspots of avian diversity.…”

“…In our study, wintering bird community consisted mainly of resident species, but we also included two overwintering migrants from northern Europe. The selection of the study area and sampling sites was based on the local knowledge of researchers involved in the project and trying to visit the same places visited during a previous study (Kwieciński et al, 2017).…”

Sexual differences in food preferences in the white stork: an experimental study

“…The white stork is an endangered, iconic species in Europe. Therefore, an important practice in white stork protection is to conserve and possibly supply habitats with valuable food such as small mammals and birds (Schulz 1998; Tryjanowski and Kuźniak 2002; Denac 2006; Djerdali et al 2008; Hušek et al 2013; Kwieciński et al 2016). …”

The diversity-area relationship for waterbird communities in small artificial reservoirs over winter

“…Immigration, one of the processes in the island biogeography equation, is well documented in Crimean avifauna (Prokopenko et al 2012, Tsvelykh & Kucherenko 2020), including aquatic species (Vergeles et al 2012, Kucherenko et al 2015, 2017b, 2018); however, such studies tend to concentrate on nesting species. Nevertheless, all phenological periods are important for monitoring bird activity, and data from all seasons are required to fully assess the significance of a locality for bird maintenance during winter (Kwieciński et al 2016, Morelli et al 2018). Data on the diversity of waterbirds in isolated reservoirs, especially in winter, are relatively rare in the literature, and studies of waterbirds tend to be more common from Ramsar wetlands and other hotspots than small ponds.…”