The decline of the Starling Sturnus vulgaris in Denmark is related to changes in grassland extent and intensity of cattle grazing

Fox, Anthony D.; Levin, Gregor; Nyegaard, Timme

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.05.025

Cited by 29 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Although some European starling females make longer foraging trips (up to 1600 m), many forage much closer to, or even just below, their nest boxes (<50 m). Thus, flight is only a small component of daily activity (18%), leaving most of the time (77%) available for foraging or other activities (these numbers agree very well with other studies of European starling activity budgets and foraging distances: Heldbjerg et al, 2016;Tinbergen, 1981). This result should not actually be that surprising because many early studies reported low percentage flight activity during parental care in birds (13%, n=7 passerine species; data in Pelletier et al, 2008).…”

Section: Cost Of Reproductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Physiology, activity and costs of parental care in birds

Williams

2018

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Parental care is assumed to be costly in that it requires sustained, high-intensity activity sufficient to cause costs of reproduction (decreased survival and future fecundity of parents). Costs of reproduction are, in turn, thought to have a physiological basis where intense activity causes a decrease in parental condition. However, attempts to identify the physiological basis of costs of reproduction have produced mixed results. Here, I argue that in birds, the central idea that parental care represents sustained, high-intensity work might be incorrect. Specifically: (a) the duration of intense activity associated with chick-rearing might be quite limited; (b) flight, the most obvious sustained, high-intensity activity, might only represent a small component of an individual's overall activity budget; (c) some (high-quality) individuals might be able to tolerate costs of intense activity, either owing to their physiological state or because they have access to more resources, without perturbation of physiological homeostasis; and (d) individuals might utilise other mechanisms to modulate costs of activity, for example, mass loss, again avoiding more substantial physiological costs. Furthermore, I highlight the important fact that life-history theory predicts that reproductive trade-offs should only be expected under food stress. Most birds breed in spring and early summer precisely because of seasonal increases in food abundance, and so it is unclear how often parents are food stressed. Consequently, I argue that there are many reasons why costs of reproduction, and any physiological signature of these costs, might be quite rare, both temporally (in different years) and among individuals.

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Section: Cost Of Reproductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Physiology, activity and costs of parental care in birds

Williams

2018

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…These management changes have resulted in shifts in nutrient loading amount and frequency. Loss of outdoor grazing dairy cows is associated with a 60% decrease in starling populations (Heldbjerg et al, 2016), most likely due to a loss of insects as a food source due to shifts in nutrient loading with consequences for insect diversity and abundance (Plantureux, Peeters & McCracken, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting impacts of urban and farmland cover on flying insect biomass

Svenningsen

Bowler

Hecker

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Recent studies report declines in biomass, abundance and diversity of terrestrial insect groups. While anthropogenic land use is one likely contributor to this decline, studies assessing land cover as a driver of insect dynamics are rare and mostly restricted in spatial scale and types of land cover. In this study, we used rooftop-mounted car nets in a citizen science project (‘InsectMobile’) to allow for large-scale geographic sampling of flying insects across Denmark and parts of Germany. Citizen scientists sampled insects along 278 10 km routes in urban, farmland and semi-natural (grassland, wetland and forest) landscapes in the summer of 2018. We assessed the importance of local to landscape-scale effects and land use intensity by relating insect biomass to land cover in buffers of 50, 250, 500 and 1000 m along the routes. We found a negative association of urban cover and a positive association of farmland on insect biomass at a landscape-scale (1000 m buffer) in both countries. In Denmark, we also found positive effects of all semi-natural land covers, i.e. grassland (largest at the landscape-scale, 1000 m), forests (largest at intermediate scales, 250 m), and wetlands (largest at the local-scale, 50 m). The negative association of insect biomass with urban land cover and positive association with farmland were not clearly modified by any variable associated with land use intensity. Our results show that land cover has an impact on flying insect biomass with the magnitude of this effect varying across spatial scales. Since we consistently found negative effects of urban land cover, our findings highlight the need for the conservation of semi-natural areas, such as wetlands, grasslands and forests, in Europe.

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“…The most important habitat use affecting the changes in species’ abundances appeared to be meadow use and probably relates to grassland management. Dry grasslands are grazed less, as more livestock are kept indoors, and instead reseeded swards are intensively managed to maximize silage production, which reduces suitability for species such as the Starling, Sturnus vulgaris (Heldbjerg et al., ). In addition, many wet marginal grasslands that are important for more specialized breeding bird species have been abandoned for grazing (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, many wet marginal grasslands that are important for more specialized breeding bird species have been abandoned for grazing (e.g. Lapwing Vanellus vanellus , Redshank Tringa totanus and Curlew Numenius arquata ) (Heldbjerg et al., ). The slight positive effect of arable‐land use was unexpected, although few species were specialists of arable land (Larsen et al., ), and the effect may be due to temporary positive effects of set‐aside schemes on species such as the Corn Bunting, Miliaria calandra that showed a high association with arable land.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the effects of multiple environmental drivers on population changes within communities

Bowler

Fox

O’Hara

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

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The effects of different environmental drivers on the changes in species' population abundances can be difficult to disentangle as they often act simultaneously. Researchers have built statistical models that include environmental variables (such as annual temperature) or species attributes (such as a species' temperature preference), which are assumed to detect the impacts of specific drivers (such as climate change). However, these approaches are often applied separately or, if combined, not explicitly compared. We show the complementary insights gained by applying both these approaches to a community dataset on Danish terrestrial birds. We use our analysis to compare the relative importance of climate change and agricultural land-use change for the abundance changes within the community between 1983 and 2013. Population models were fitted to the community data of species' annual abundances with predictors comprising: species attributes (species' temperature and habitat preferences), environmental variables (climatic and agricultural land-use change variables) or both. Relationships between species' abundances and environmental variables were used to identify the drivers associated with average abundance changes of species in the community. Relationships between species' abundances and their attributes were used to understand the drivers causing interspecific variation in abundance changes. Warmer winters were positively associated with community-level abundances, and warm-adapted species had more positive abundance changes than cold-adapted ones. Agricultural land-use area was negatively associated with community-level abundances, and birds using a high proportion of meadow and habitat specialists had more negative abundance changes than birds using other habitats and habitat generalists. Effect sizes of environmental variables were larger for agricultural land-use change while those of species attributes were larger for climate change. The environmental data approach suggested that agricultural land-use change has decreased the average abundances of species in the community, affecting total community size while the species attribute-based approach suggested that climate change has caused variation in abundance among species, affecting community composition. Environmental variables and species attributes that are hypothesized to link to specific drivers can be used together to provide complementary information on the impacts of different drivers on communities.

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The decline of the Starling Sturnus vulgaris in Denmark is related to changes in grassland extent and intensity of cattle grazing

Cited by 29 publications

References 12 publications

Physiology, activity and costs of parental care in birds

Physiology, activity and costs of parental care in birds

Contrasting impacts of urban and farmland cover on flying insect biomass

Disentangling the effects of multiple environmental drivers on population changes within communities

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