Are vineyards important habitats for birds at local or landscape scales?

• Published in: Basic and Applied Ecology
• Main Authors: Pithon, Joséphine, Beaujouan, Véronique, Daniel, Hervé, Pain, Guillaume, Vallet, Jeanne
• Other Authors: Unité Paysage et Ecologie (PAYSAGE), AGROCAMPUS OUEST-Ecole supérieure d'Agricultures d'Angers (ESA), Conservatoire Botanique National du Bassin Parisien (CBNBP), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Vineyard; Bird; selection; Landscape Habitat; Farmland; hist; archi; Alauda arvensis
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2015.12.004; https://hal-agrocampus-ouest.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01558166

In Europe, monitoring indicates that farmland bird populations are declining. Numerous studies at different spatial scales have considered bird ecology in farmland, but viticulture has received little attention. We carried out bird surveys at two spatial scales over two years in western France. We assessed the contribution of vineyards to bird diversity at landscape scale and undertook plot-scale analyses of habitat selection in vineyards and their associated semi-natural habitats. We detected a strong negative relationship between vineyard cover and both abundance and species richness of birds. Only two species responded positively to vineyards: Woodlark Lullula arborea and Skylark Alauda arvensis. Of the 93 species detected at landscape scale, only 16 were frequent users of vine plots. The majority of these species were found to select semi-natural habitats adjacent to grapevines, in particular areas with trees. Only Woodlarks positively selected vineyards as opposed to semi-natural habitats but no consistent selection criteria between different vineyard habitat variables could be detected. Our study shows that, although wine-growing landscapes may be species-rich, fewer species use vineyards themselves, and at low levels of abundance. Planting or maintaining semi-natural woody vegetation are popular management approaches, which our data suggest may encourage generalist species without improving vineyard habitats for open farmland specialists. Erfassungen von Vögeln der Agrarlandschaft zeigen, dass deren Populationen in Europa zurückgehen. Zahlreiche Untersuchungen haben sich mit der Ökologie der Vögel von landwirtschaftlichen Nutzflächen befasst, aber Weinbauflächen wurden wenig beachtet. Wir führten zwei Jahre lang Vogelerfassungen auf zwei räumlichen Ebenen in Westfrankreich durch. Wir bestimmten auf der Landschaftsebene den Einfluss von Weinbauflächen auf die Vogeldiversität und analysierten auf der Ebene von Probeflächen die Habitatwahl auf Weinbauflächen und in angegliederten halb-natürlichen Habitaten. ...