Local and Landscape Scale Effects of Heterogeneity in Shaping Bird Communities and Population Dynamics

• Main Authors: Bretagnolle, Vincent, Siriwardena, Gavin, Miguet, Paul, Henckel, Laura, Kleijn, David
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Terrestrial Ecology, British Trust for Ornithology, Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology Group, Wageningen University and Research Wageningen (WUR)
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Krebs; Sutherland; Alauda arvensis
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03134701; https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-811050-8.00014-5

International audience Farmland landscapes support very highbiodiversity (Pimentel et al., 1992), includingfunctional species that provide ecosystem services(Tscharntke et al., 2005) and flagship speciesfor wider ecosystems. However, over thepast 50 years, biodiversity has strongly declinedin agricultural areas, with major losses in plants,amphibians, reptiles, arthropods, mammals,and birds, and these losses have been attributedto agricultural intensification (Robinson andSutherland, 2002; Inger et al., 2015). Agricultureintensification refers to the combination of rapidland use changes with, e.g., the replacement ofnatural habitats by crops, and more intensiveuse of existing farmland (Krebs et al., 1999;Robinson and Sutherland, 2002; Stoate et al.,2001). About 50% of all European bird specieslive in rural landscapes (Tucker, 1997), butfarmland birds have declined in Europe muchfaster (57% on the European Union farmlandbird indicator between 1980 and 2013, EBCC,2017) than in other ecosystems, i.e., birds weremore or less stable in forests during the sameperiod (EBCC, 2017). Farmland bird specialistspecies, even extremely common species suchas the skylark Alauda arvensis, have declinedby more than 50% in the past 30 years (Gregoryet al., 2005, Vorísek et al., 2010). Although themain service expected in farmland is obviouslyfood production, species and habitat conservationin agroecosystems are important issues,since farmland species provide other ecosystem services and are often the elements of biodiversitythat are most accessible to humans closeto urban areas (Power, 2010). Biodiversityloss has therefore additional consequences forecosystem function and, ultimately, societalrepercussions.