Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland
Abstract Reduced food availability during chick raising is a major driver of farmland bird declines. For the Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), food availability is determined by various factors (i.e., arthropod abundance/diversity, accessibility of the vegetation, distance to foraging sites). In m...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c06cb8edfa62491aaa8c6b0305766304 2023-05-15T13:10:03+02:00 Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland Manuel Püttmanns Laura Böttges Tim Filla Franziska Lehmann Annika Sophie Martens Friederike Siegel Anna Sippel Marlene von Bassi Niko Balkenhol Matthias Waltert Eckhard Gottschalk 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8461 https://doaj.org/article/c06cb8edfa62491aaa8c6b0305766304 EN eng Wiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8461 https://doaj.org/toc/2045-7758 2045-7758 doi:10.1002/ece3.8461 https://doaj.org/article/c06cb8edfa62491aaa8c6b0305766304 Ecology and Evolution, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp n/a-n/a (2022) Alauda arvensis conservation crop diversity feeding frequency habitat selection synergetic effects Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8461 2023-02-19T01:45:47Z Abstract Reduced food availability during chick raising is a major driver of farmland bird declines. For the Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), food availability is determined by various factors (i.e., arthropod abundance/diversity, accessibility of the vegetation, distance to foraging sites). In modern farmland, it is supposed to decrease over the breeding season due to less penetrable vegetation. We explored foraging habitat selection by chick‐raising Skylarks with a focus on the seasonal dynamics of habitat use and food availability. We investigated (i) habitat selection concerning prey biomass/diversity, vegetation cover, and distance to foraging sites, (ii) the overall and seasonal habitat use, and (iii) seasonal developments of foraging parameters (e.g., the feeding frequency) as indicators of food availability. We collected data on foraging habitats and foraging parameters of chick‐raising Skylark pairs at 51 nests from a Central European population in 2018 and 2019. Prey biomass/diversity and vegetation cover were measured for all habitats around 42 of these nests. As revealed by multivariate and compositional analyses, Skylarks mainly selected foraging habitats based on the proximity to nests. The most frequent habitats within home ranges could not be ranked according to an overall importance for foraging and their use partially changed over time. The feeding frequency increased throughout the breeding season, while other foraging parameters did not show significant changes. In contrast to our expectations, our data indicated therefore an increase, not a decrease in food availability in the late breeding season. This also implies that the way in which Skylarks used habitats was constantly suitable to raise offspring. We interpret this to be a consequence of the heterogeneous farmland composition of the study area that enabled Skylarks to establish a diverse home range and to benefit from the synergetic effects of neighboring habitat types. Thus, our findings provide support for the high importance of ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Alauda arvensis Eurasian Skylark Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ecology and Evolution 12 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Alauda arvensis conservation crop diversity feeding frequency habitat selection synergetic effects Ecology QH540-549.5 |
spellingShingle |
Alauda arvensis conservation crop diversity feeding frequency habitat selection synergetic effects Ecology QH540-549.5 Manuel Püttmanns Laura Böttges Tim Filla Franziska Lehmann Annika Sophie Martens Friederike Siegel Anna Sippel Marlene von Bassi Niko Balkenhol Matthias Waltert Eckhard Gottschalk Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland |
topic_facet |
Alauda arvensis conservation crop diversity feeding frequency habitat selection synergetic effects Ecology QH540-549.5 |
description |
Abstract Reduced food availability during chick raising is a major driver of farmland bird declines. For the Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), food availability is determined by various factors (i.e., arthropod abundance/diversity, accessibility of the vegetation, distance to foraging sites). In modern farmland, it is supposed to decrease over the breeding season due to less penetrable vegetation. We explored foraging habitat selection by chick‐raising Skylarks with a focus on the seasonal dynamics of habitat use and food availability. We investigated (i) habitat selection concerning prey biomass/diversity, vegetation cover, and distance to foraging sites, (ii) the overall and seasonal habitat use, and (iii) seasonal developments of foraging parameters (e.g., the feeding frequency) as indicators of food availability. We collected data on foraging habitats and foraging parameters of chick‐raising Skylark pairs at 51 nests from a Central European population in 2018 and 2019. Prey biomass/diversity and vegetation cover were measured for all habitats around 42 of these nests. As revealed by multivariate and compositional analyses, Skylarks mainly selected foraging habitats based on the proximity to nests. The most frequent habitats within home ranges could not be ranked according to an overall importance for foraging and their use partially changed over time. The feeding frequency increased throughout the breeding season, while other foraging parameters did not show significant changes. In contrast to our expectations, our data indicated therefore an increase, not a decrease in food availability in the late breeding season. This also implies that the way in which Skylarks used habitats was constantly suitable to raise offspring. We interpret this to be a consequence of the heterogeneous farmland composition of the study area that enabled Skylarks to establish a diverse home range and to benefit from the synergetic effects of neighboring habitat types. Thus, our findings provide support for the high importance of ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Manuel Püttmanns Laura Böttges Tim Filla Franziska Lehmann Annika Sophie Martens Friederike Siegel Anna Sippel Marlene von Bassi Niko Balkenhol Matthias Waltert Eckhard Gottschalk |
author_facet |
Manuel Püttmanns Laura Böttges Tim Filla Franziska Lehmann Annika Sophie Martens Friederike Siegel Anna Sippel Marlene von Bassi Niko Balkenhol Matthias Waltert Eckhard Gottschalk |
author_sort |
Manuel Püttmanns |
title |
Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland |
title_short |
Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland |
title_full |
Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland |
title_fullStr |
Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding Skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland |
title_sort |
habitat use and foraging parameters of breeding skylarks indicate no seasonal decrease in food availability in heterogeneous farmland |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8461 https://doaj.org/article/c06cb8edfa62491aaa8c6b0305766304 |
genre |
Alauda arvensis Eurasian Skylark |
genre_facet |
Alauda arvensis Eurasian Skylark |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp n/a-n/a (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8461 https://doaj.org/toc/2045-7758 2045-7758 doi:10.1002/ece3.8461 https://doaj.org/article/c06cb8edfa62491aaa8c6b0305766304 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8461 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766212484139581440 |