4. Farmland Conservation

Expert assessors Lynn V. Dicks, University of Cambridge, UK Ian Hodge, University of Cambridge, UK Clunie Keenleyside, Institute for European Environmental Policy, UK Will Peach, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK Nicola Randall, Harper Adams University, UK Jörn Scharlemann, United Nations Environment Programme — World Conservation Monitoring Centre, UK Gavin Siriwardena, British Trust for Ornithology, UK Henrik Smith, Lund University, Sweden Rebecca K. Smith, University of Cambrid..

The interplay of landscape composition and configuration: new pathways to manage functional biodiversity and agroecosystem services across Europe

Managing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity and ecosystem services is a key aim of a sustainable agriculture. However, how the spatial arrangement of crop fields and other habitats in landscapes impacts arthropods and their functions is poorly known. Synthesising data from 49 studies (1515 landscapes) across Europe, we examined effects of landscape composition (% habitats) and configuration (edge density) on arthropods in fields and their margins, pest control, pollination and yields. Configuration effects interacted with the proportions of crop and non‐crop habitats, and species’ dietary, dispersal and overwintering traits led to contrasting responses to landscape variables. Overall, however, in landscapes with high edge density, 70% of pollinator and 44% of natural enemy species reached highest abundances and pollination and pest control improved 1.7‐ and 1.4‐fold respectively. Arable‐dominated landscapes with high edge densities achieved high yields. This suggests that enhancing edge density in European agroecosystems can promote functional biodiversity and yield‐enhancing ecosystem services

What Works in Conservation 2018

This book provides an assessment of the effectiveness of 1277 conservation interventions based on summarized scientific evidence. The 2018 edition contains new chapters covering practical global conservation of primates, peatlands, shrublands and heathlands, management of captive animals as well as an extended chapter on control of freshwater invasive species. Other chapters cover global conservation of amphibians, bats, birds and forests, conservation of European farmland biodiversity and some aspects of enhancing natural pest control, enhancing soil fertility and control of freshwater invasive species. It contains key results from the summarized evidence for each conservation intervention and an assessment of the effectiveness of each by international expert panels. The accompanying website www.conservationevidence.com describes each of the studies individually, and provides full references

On the importance of farmland as stopover habitat for migrating birds

Agricultural intensification has led to dramatic population declines among many farmland bird species. Negative effects of intensive farming in terms of decreased local habitat quality or structural simplification of farmland landscapes have reduced both reproductive outcome and winter survival of many species. Studies investigating agricultural effects on migrating birds using farmland as stopover habitat are scarce and done only on a limited number of species, despite the fact that stopover conditions not only affect the rest of the migratory journey but due to carry-over effects often also the future fitness of the birds. In this thesis, I used a quantitative and a qualitative approach to assess the importance of farmland as stopover habitat for avian migrants. The quantitative approach showed that an impressive number of birds use farmland as stopover habitat, and that some species occur in large proportions of their flyway populations. I also found that organic farming can enhance both abundance and species richness of migrants. However, its effects are both trait- and landscape-dependent indicating differential benefits for different species. For the qualitative approach, I studied the stopover ecology of Golden Plovers, a tundra breeding wader that during migration occurs in large flocks in intensively farmed areas. Using observations, ringing data and radio-telemetry, I found that individual plovers stay for up to several months to finish flight feather moult and put on fuel before further migration. The birds prefer large open fields with short vegetation both for diurnal roosting and for nocturnal feeding. Grasslands, in previous studies often associated with feeding plovers, are avoided. Although staging Golden Plovers respond to spatial and temporal variation in food availability, these results indicate that the species seem to manage well in intensively farmed arable landscapes. In conclusion, this thesis shows that farmland is an important stopover habitat for a significant number of avian migrants. Thus, changes in farming conditions that may affect habitat quality, e.g. agricultural intensification, may have profound impacts on whole bird populations. Although nothing can be said about the qualitative importance of farmland for other species than the Golden Plover, my studies show that organic farming and landscape complexity can influence numbers and species richness of migrants. However, the effects of these two factors are trait-dependent and may interact with each other, which should be considered when developing and evaluating agri-environment schemes. Overall, a varied agricultural landscape at all spatial scales is likely to have the most beneficial effect on migrating birds and biodiversity in general

Optimal departure decisions of songbirds from an experimental stopover site and the significance of weather

Recent models have worked with the assumption that birds try to minimize either time, energy or predation risk during migration, or some combination of these. The few empirical studies available have suggested that time minimization may be the most common strategy. One way of distinguishing between strategies is to study the departure decisions of migrating birds. We supplied migrating European robins, Erithacus rubecula, with food ad libitum in the field and monitored their changes in body mass prior to departure. The overall mass gain rate (k(tot), the ratio of daily mass increase to lean mass) of 10 birds using the feeding station was on average 0.05 (range 0.03-0.09). Departure fuel loads (f(dep), the ratio of fuel mass to lean mass) were on average 0.53 (range 0.35-0.66). There was no significant correlation between f(dep) and k(tot), which indicates a strategy of minimizing the energy cost of transport, rather than minimizing time but other aspects of the fuel deposition pattern suggest that time minimization may also be important. Whereas the behaviour of the robins was difficult to interpret in the light of optimal migration strategies, the importance of weather was striking. The robins selected the best weather conditions (tail wind, high air pressure and no precipitation) within the likely period of departure. (C) 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour

Ecological interventions in agricultural landscapes - scale matters!

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) affects about half of the land area of the EU and allocates close to 40% of the EU’s budget. Consequently, CAP has great potential to guide land management decisions towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes supporting both commodity production and biodiversity. The 2015 “greening” reform was an attempt to increase the multifunctionality of agricultural landscapes, but has been heavily criticized as a failure. Among other things, there are complaints that interventions proposed to benefit public goods are of inadequate quality and the rules for their implementation lack a landscape perspective. The research done in MULTAGRI investigated how a landscape perspective could be used to develop more cost-efficient interventions and Agricultural policies

Landskapsperspektivet

Ett landskapsperspektiv krävs för att effektivt bevara biologisk mångfald och gynna ekosystemtjänster, eftersom de bakomliggande ekologiska processerna sker på rumsliga skalor som är större än enskilda fält och gårdar. Genom att förstå dessa processer bidrar forskningsmiljön SAPES och associerade forskningsprojekt till att visa värdet av att lantbrukare samarbetar för att gemensamt gynna ekosystemtjänster, liksom hur samhället kan rikta åtgärder för olika typer av landskap för att bäst gynna biologisk mångfald och ekosystemtjänster. Vi föreslår att naturliga habitat bör bevaras på flera rumsliga skalor, från småbiotoper på små skalor till reservat på stora skalor, så att både arter viktiga för ekosystemtjänster och sällsynta arter gynnas

Population specific annual cycles and migration strategies in a leap-frog migrant

A common migratory pattern in birds is that northerly breeding populations migrate to more southerly non-breeding sites compared to southerly breeding populations (leap-frog migration). Not only do populations experience differences in migration distances, but also different environmental conditions, which may vary spatiotemporally within their annual cycles, creating distinctive selective pressures and migratory strategies. Information about such adaptations is important to understand migratory drivers and evolution of migration patterns. We use light-level geolocators and citizen science data on regional spring arrivals to compare two populations of common ringed plover Charadrius hiaticula breeding at different latitudes. We (1) describe and characterize the annual cycles and (2) test predictions regarding speed and timing of migration. The northern breeding population (NBP) wintered in Africa and the southern (SBP) mainly in Europe. The annual cycles were shifted temporally so that the NBP was always later in all stages. The SBP spent more than twice as long time in the breeding area, but there was no difference in winter. The NBP spent more time on migration in general. Spring migration speed was lower in the SBP compared to autumn speed of both populations, and there was no difference in autumn and spring speed in the NBP. We also found a larger variation in spring arrival times across years in the SBP. This suggests that a complex interaction of population specific timing and variation of breeding onset, length of breeding season, and proximity to the breeding area shape the annual cycle and migratory strategies. Significance statement: Migration distance, climate, and the resulting composition of the annual cycle are expected to influence migration strategies and timing in birds. Testing theories regarding migration behaviours are challenging, and intraspecific comparisons over the full annual cycle are still rare. Here we compare the spatiotemporal distributions of two latitudinally separated populations of common ringed plovers using light-level geolocators. We found that there was a larger long-term variation in first arrival dates and that migration speed was slower only in spring in a temperate, short-distance migratory population, compared to an Arctic, long-distance migratory population. This suggests that a complex interaction of population specific timing and variation of breeding onset, length of breeding season and proximity to the breeding area shape the annual cycle and migratory behaviours