Suitability of patches and in‐field strips for Sky Larks<i>Alauda arvensis</i>in a small‐parcelled mixed farming area

Fischer, Judith; Jenny, Markus; Jenni, Lukas

doi:10.1080/00063650802648127

Cited by 22 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…Fischer et al 2009;Morris 2007;Morris et al 2004;Stoate & Moorcroft 2007), particularly if these structures are situated within fields, and are perceived largely as rather transitory, historic features (but see Schläpfer 1988Schläpfer , 2001also: Buckingham 2001).…”

Section: Preservation Of Vanishing Historic Habitat Features?mentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Fischer et al 2009;Henderson & Coombes 2007;; Morris et al 2004;Stoate & Moorcroft 2007;Stöckli et al 2006;Wilson et al 2009). Several experimental studies reported that within-field measures with stunted growth of the vegetation may be advantageous for this species, mainly later in the season when the cereals have grown too high for nesting, or foraging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The microhabitat structures in arable land may fulfill the different demands of a species to a different degree; microhabitats being suboptimal for nesting may be valuable for foraging (Fischer et al 2009;Morris et al 2004), or preening. Moreover, the mostly annual artificially created (rotational) structures, and the spontaneously occurring structures existing for long periods at the same site (non-rotational, semi-permanent) may differ in their relevance to wildlife species.…”

Section: Are Long-lived Structures Different?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…they were rotational (e.g. Fischer et al 2009;Morris 2007;Morris et al 2004;Odderskaer et al 1997). However, it has apparently been largely neglected in recent considerations that similar naturally forming microhabitat structures with stunted vegetation may exist, and have strong beneficial effects on arable ecosystems, at least regionally.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Long-lived sustainable microhabitat structures in arable ecosystems, and Skylarks (Alauda arvensis)

Schön

2011

Journal for Nature Conservation

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Section: Preservation Of Vanishing Historic Habitat Features?mentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Are Long-lived Structures Different?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Long-lived sustainable microhabitat structures in arable ecosystems, and Skylarks (Alauda arvensis)

Schön

2011

Journal for Nature Conservation

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“…This is due to the fact that some of the species behavioral activities depend on the season and underestimation of abundances is possible when a specific behavior is not displayed. This information can be useful for crop management schemes aimed at protecting and supporting specific farmland bird species and can be applied to both individual crops and the spatial arrangement of land use types (see Morris et al, 2004;Wilson et al, 2005;Fischer et al, 2009). HM-analysis demonstrated here using the example of the Whinchat, allows the identification of the preferred field crops and other habitats and their spatial proportions by the breeding bird species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of habitat requirements of farmland birds based on a hierarchical structured monitoring scheme

Hoffmann¹,

Wittchen²,

Stachow³

et al. 2013

CHINESE BIRDS

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Agricultural landscapes are essential for the conservation of biodiversity. Nevertheless, a negative trend continues to be observed in many rural areas for the most prominent indicator species group, the farmland birds. However, clear cause-effect relationships are rarely reported and sometimes difficult to deduce, especially from monitoring data which are based only on the detection of species and counts of the numbers of individuals. Because the identification of habitat preferences is a precondition for farmland bird biodiversity conservation efforts, a monitoring scheme for the simultaneous collection and analysis of bird and land use data was developed and tested. In order to assign the occurrence of bird species to land characteristics at various spatial scales and different land use and crop types, we applied a hierarchical structured sampling design. The spatial scales were 'agricultural landscape' , 'agricultural landscape types' , 'field crops and other habitats' and 'vegetation structures' . These scales were integrated with a novel concept, the 'habitat matrix' (HM). This method was applied to farmland breeding bird abundances on 29 plots, each 1 km² in size, by the use of the territory mapping method. The same plots were enlarged by a 100 m buffer and the sizes and location of habitats documented. Vegetation height, coverage and density were also recorded for all crop fields in the study area. We propose that this monitoring method facilitates the identification of scale dependent relationships between farmland bird habitat characteristics and bird abundance. This is demonstrated by the farmland bird species Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra), Skylark (Alauda arvensis), and Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra). The breeding territories of these species reveal large differences within the various spatial scales 'agricultural landscape' , 'agricultural landscape types' and 'field crops' . Throughout the breeding season the abundances varied, dependent on the field crop and the development of vegetation structures (height, coverage, and density). HM-analysis led to the identification of specific habitat configurations preferred by individual bird species within the agricultural landscape. These findings indicate that the methodology has the potential to design monitoring schemes for the identification of cause-and-effects of landscape configuration, land use and land use changes on the habitat suitability and abundance of farmland birds.

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Moving window growth—A method to characterize the dynamic growth of crops in the context of bird abundance dynamics with the example of Skylark (Alauda arvensis)

Hoffmann

Wittchen

Berger

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Agricultural field crops differ in their vegetation height, coverage, and temporal development, affecting the abundances of bird species, which are often used as bioindicators. Although this relationship has been observed, no significant methodology exists to describe the dynamics of field crop growth on a landscape scale in connection with the abundance of indicator bird species that allows meaningful interpretation of bird abundance data with respect to crop vegetation parameters during the breeding season. In a field observation program, we monitored 2,900 ha of agricultural landscape to represent both the crop growth processes and the bird abundances. We measured these two parameters in the study area, dominated by winter wheat, winter rapeseed, maize, and fallow fields, and adapted the moving window approach to a new method of “moving window growth” to describe the dynamic development of height and coverage of the crops over time. Simultaneously, Skylarks (Alauda arvensis) territorial behavior was measured concurrently on the same fields and crops. Their dynamic abundance was documented over the breeding season. To test the relationship between crop growth and development and bird abundance, we applied a generalized linear model (GLM) in two ways: (a) without differentiation of crop species and (b) with differentiation of crop species. We found significant relationships between bird abundance and vegetation height and coverage with respect to both individual parameters and their interactions, even without differentiation of the agricultural crops. In general, increasing vegetation height and coverage, especially the interaction, led to decreasing bird abundance values. The model quality increased significantly by including differentiation of specific crops as an explanatory variable indicating a non‐homogenous situation between crops. Separate models for individual crop species revealed larger differences in model quality with best and least goodness of fit values for fallow fields and winter rapeseed, respectively. Because of the clear interactions between bird abundance, type of field crop, and vegetation height and coverage, it follows that both habitat suitability assessments of arable fields and the definition of favorable vegetation structures for farmland birds should be crop species‐specific.

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Suitability of patches and in‐field strips for Sky LarksAlauda arvensisin a small‐parcelled mixed farming area

Cited by 22 publications

References 9 publications

Long-lived sustainable microhabitat structures in arable ecosystems, and Skylarks (Alauda arvensis)

Long-lived sustainable microhabitat structures in arable ecosystems, and Skylarks (Alauda arvensis)

Identification of habitat requirements of farmland birds based on a hierarchical structured monitoring scheme

Moving window growth—A method to characterize the dynamic growth of crops in the context of bird abundance dynamics with the example of Skylark (Alauda arvensis)

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