Investigating Conservation Management Interventions for the Benefit of Farmland Breeding Waders of Marginal Agricultural Grasslands in the UK

• Main Author: Sheard, Emma J
• Other Authors: Park, Kirsty J, Wilson, Jerry D, Thompson, Des B A, Funding awarded by NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage - SNH) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Thesis supported and supervised by the University of Stirling, NatureScot and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Stirling 2021
• Subjects: Farmland breeding waders; Agriculture; Agri-environment schemes; Woodland; Earthworms; Lime use; Agroecology; Woodland edge effect; Lapwing; Curlew; Climate change mitigation; Soil pH; Agriculture United Kingdom; Grasslands; Agricultural economics; Agricultural conservation; Biodiversity; Conservation biology; Vanellus vanellus; Curlews; Numenius arquata
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/33981; http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/33981/1/PhD.eThesis_EmmaJaneSheard_2021_FV.pdf

Agriculture is the principal land use throughout Europe and agricultural intensification has been implicated in large reductions in biodiversity, with the negative effects on birds particularly well documented. The Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) and the (Numenius arquata) are farmland breeding wader species where changes in farming practices has reduced the suitability and quality of breeding habitat, as well as the availability of large, soft-bodied soil prey which these birds depend upon leading to severe declines in population size that warrants them both listed on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern in the UK. Lowland areas, where agricultural intensification has generally been most pronounced, have been worst affected. However, more recently declines in marginal upland areas, previously considered refuges for breeding wader populations, have been identified. In this thesis I investigate conservation management interventions for the benefit of farmland breeding waders of marginal agricultural grasslands in the UK. Upland areas receive high levels of rainfall and are characterised by typically peaty soils with a low buffer capacity and a high organic matter content that results in these areas being particularly prone to localised acidification over time. I use field-scale trials to experimentally test the use of lime as a potential novel conservation tool to amend acidic soil pH, thus increasing earthworms (Annelida), an important prey item of Lapwing and Curlew. I show that lime use increases soil pH, although the effect varies with time, and that earthworm numbers increased following lime with the largest effect size observed two years after liming. Above ground, I show that there was no effect of liming on the vegetation of grazed grasslands, and no effect on beetles (Coleoptera) or spiders (Aranea). Additionally, I show that wader densities were 50% higher on lime treatment plots, and that wader intake rate of large prey items was greater on lime treatment than control three years ...