Abstract

It has been suggested that an increase in the area of low-intensity land-use on arable land (e.g. set-aside fields and short-rotation coppice), and high or increased farmland habitat heterogeneity, may halt or reverse the observed population decline of farmland birds. We tested these hypotheses by undertaking farmland bird censuses during two contrasting periods of agricultural policies and land-use (i.e. 1994 and 2004) in a farmland region covering a gradient of forest- to farmland-dominated landscapes in Sweden. Local species richness (i.e. at 3 hectare sites) declined significantly between 1994 and 2004. Local species richness was positively related to habitat heterogeneity in both years of study whereas temporal change in species richness was not. Local change in species richness was positively associated with a change in the proportion of non-rotational set aside and short-rotation coppice (i.e. low-intensity land-use forms), but also to changes in the amount of spring-sown crops. However, the effect of low-intensity land-Use was significantly dependent on the amount of forest in the surrounding landscape. An increase in low-intensity land-use was linked to an increase (or less marked decrease) in species richness at sites located in open farmland surroundings but to a decrease in richness at sites located in forest surroundings. This interaction between amount of forest and low-intensity land-use could be interpreted as a "rare habitat effect", where an increase in a farmland habitat only positively affects biodiversity when it was originally uncommon (i.e. open farmland areas). Our results suggest that conservation measures of farmland biodiversity have to be put in a landscape context. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Species richness; Agricultural intensification; Farmland birds; Population decline; Set-aside fields; Short-rotation coppice; Low-intensity land-use; Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Published in

Biological Conservation
2010, Volume: 143, number: 2, pages: 375-381
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Pärt, Tomas

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Berg, Åke

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

SLU Swedish Biodiversity Centre


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2009.11.001

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/60616