Journal articles on the topic 'Agri-environment scheme (AES)'
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1
Mennig, Philipp, and Johannes Sauer. "The impact of agri-environment schemes on farm productivity: a DID-matching approach." European Review of Agricultural Economics 47, no. 3 (March 29, 2019): 1045–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbz006.
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Abstract According to WTO standards, agri-environmental schemes (AES) payments should distort neither trade nor production but instead only compensate for income forgone and costs incurred. At the same time, contract design shall give farmers enough flexibility to react to changing market and production conditions. We apply a difference-in-difference propensity score matching estimator to test if AES have an unintended effect on farm productivity. Our results suggest that schemes designed for arable land overcompensate farmers and thus do fail to comply with WTO rules. For dairy farms, we find that AES participation reduces farm productivity, implying that action-based scheme design not considering changing market and production situations might be too restrictive, potentially preventing farmers from participating.
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Ujhegyi, Nikolett, Norbert Keller, László Patkó, Zsolt Biró, Bálint Tóth, and László Szemethy. "Agri-environment schemes do not support Brown Hare populations due to inadequate scheme application." Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 67, no. 3 (August 16, 2021): 263–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.17109/azh.67.3.263.2021.
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The goal of many agri-environment schemes (AES) is to increase biodiversity in agroecosystems. AES effects are often measured on invertebrates and birds; mammals as indicator species are infrequently targets of such researches. Our goal was to evaluate the local-scale effects of the Hungarian Agri-Environmental Measures (AEM) on the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus), which shows decreasing population trends across Europe. We compared hare abundances and their dropping numbers in AEM and control agricultural arable and grassland fields of 17 game management units in two seasons. We also examined the quality of arable fields based on their margin width and vegetation cover. We found that margin quality was higher in AEM than in the control fields. Control grasslands had higher vegetation quality than the AEM grasslands. We found a significant difference in hare counts between AEM and control arable fields in spring but no difference in autumn. The dropping densities did not differ in any season, treatment category or agroecosystem type. We conclude that the AEM program (2009-2014) in Hungary was not effective for the hare, and this might have been caused by the inadequate or weak application of AEM practices. We provide recommendations for future AEM programs to enhance biodiversity.
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Dallimer, Martin, Kevin J. Gaston, Andrew M. J. Skinner, Nick Hanley, Szvetlana Acs, and Paul R. Armsworth. "Field-level bird abundances are enhanced by landscape-scale agri-environment scheme uptake." Biology Letters 6, no. 5 (April 21, 2010): 643–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0228.
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Despite two decades of agri-environment schemes (AESs) aimed at mitigating farmland biodiversity losses, the evidence that such programmes actually benefit biodiversity remains limited. Using field-level surveys, we assess the effectiveness of AESs in enhancing bird abundances in an upland area of England, where schemes have been operating for over 20 years. In such a region, the effects of AESs should be readily apparent, and we predict that bird abundances will co-vary with both field- and landscape-scale measures of implementation. Using an information theoretic approach, we found that, for abundances of species of conservation concern and upland specialists, measures of AES implementation and habitat type at both scales appear in the most parsimonious models. Field-level bird abundances are higher where more of the surrounding landscape is included in an AES. While habitat remains a more influential predictor, we suggest that landscape-scale implementation results in enhanced bird abundances. Hence, measures of the success of AESs should consider landscape-wide benefits as well as localized impacts.
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Folly, Arran J., Hauke Koch, Iain W. Farrell, Philip C. Stevenson, and Mark J. F. Brown. "Agri-environment scheme nectar chemistry can suppress the social epidemiology of parasites in an important pollinator." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288, no. 1951 (May 26, 2021): 20210363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0363.
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Emergent infectious diseases are one of the main drivers of species loss. Emergent infection with the microsporidian Nosema bombi has been implicated in the population and range declines of a suite of North American bumblebees, a group of important pollinators. Previous work has shown that phytochemicals found in pollen and nectar can negatively impact parasites in individuals, but how this relates to social epidemiology and by extension whether plants can be effectively used as pollinator disease management strategies remains unexplored. Here, we undertook a comprehensive screen of UK agri-environment scheme (AES) plants, a programme designed to benefit pollinators and wider biodiversity in agricultural settings, for phytochemicals in pollen and nectar using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Caffeine, which occurs across a range of plant families, was identified in the nectar of sainfoin ( Onobrychis viciifolia ), a component of UK AES and a major global crop. We showed that caffeine significantly reduces N. bombi infection intensity, both prophylactically and therapeutically, in individual bumblebees ( Bombus terrestris ), and, for the first time, that such effects impact social epidemiology, with colonies reared from wild-caught queens having both lower prevalence and intensity of infection. Furthermore, infection prevalence was lower in foraging bumblebees from caffeine-treated colonies, suggesting a likely reduction in population-level transmission. Combined, these results show that N. bombi is less likely to be transmitted intracolonially when bumblebees consume naturally available caffeine, and that this may in turn reduce environmental prevalence. Consequently, our results demonstrate that floral phytochemicals at ecologically relevant concentrations can impact pollinator disease epidemiology and that planting strategies that increase floral abundance to support biodiversity could be co-opted as disease management tools.
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Sutton, Peter. "Operation Pollinator: Positive Action for Pollinators and Improved Biodiversity on Farm." Outlooks on Pest Management 31, no. 3 (June 1, 2020): 121–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1564/v31_jun_07.
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Operation Pollinator is an industry led initiative. This biodiversity enhancement programme has enabled better engagement and training of farmers in the delivery of high quality wildlife habitats as part of their national agri-environment schemes (AES). This overview presents findings from farm-scale studies that have shown the type and scale of effects required to deliver such benefits on farm and across the landscape. Significant efforts have already been made to promote biodiversity on farmland, but these results show that to improve the agricultural landscape really, we need to implement more of the best options so as to achieve the scale required to underpin the delivery of ecosystem services. The UK is still transitioning from the old Agricultural Policy Scheme (CAP) scheme, and so it will still be possible to use this type of off-crop mitigation to protect wildlife and ecosystem services in future AES, and this strategy has been described as using "public money for public goods" or "payment for ecosystem services. The EU has proposed that farmers manage 5–7% of the landscape in this way and field margins are a critical mechanism for such farmland biodiversity programmes. The results presented are from a selection of farm scale studies (i.e. with plots of 40 ha – 100 ha) that were large enough to provide indications of the scale of implementation required as targeted AES measures to benefit both farmland birds and pollinators. This review is based on an earlier paper that was presented at a conference on "Sustainable Intensification" organised by the Association of Applied Biologists in 2016. Ref: Aspects of Applied Biology 136, 2017 Sustainable Intensification p120–129 Operation Pollinator: Positive action for pollinators and improved biodiversity in arable landscapes, Peter Sutton, Geoff Coates, Belinda Bailey, Marek Nowakowski, Mike Edwards, Robin Blake, Ben Woodcock, Claire Carvell & Richard Pywell.
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Poláková, Jana, Josef Holec, Jaroslava Janků, Mansoor Maitah, and Josef Soukup. "Effects of Agri-Environment Schemes in Terms of the Results for Soil, Water and Soil Organic Matter in Central and Eastern Europe." Agronomy 12, no. 7 (June 30, 2022): 1585. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12071585.
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Building on the agri-environment framework in Central and Eastern Europe, the article emphasizes the role and the use of the agri-environment in provision of different ecosystem services. It shows that relevant conservation measures with regard to ameliorating soil degradation contribute to the existence of sustainable land systems. In our study, we (i) identified what the soil water aggregate means, (ii) reviewed how agri-environment schemes (AES) function to support soil water requirements, and (iii) how appropriate soils are identified with regard to the implementation of soil conservation under the agri-environment. Empirical data were surveyed to assess AES as the pivotal subsidy in four countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Quantitative data were assessed to contribute to evidence on and the expenditure effect of the measures. This review found that AES schemes in arable land systems implement several approaches such as cover crops and the reversion of arable land systems to grassland. The costs of AE measures reflect the costs of the particular agri-environmental practice and its constraints on commercial performance by the farmer. The AES budget analysis showed that subsidization moderately increased over the 2000–2020 time frame. However, the magnitude of the AES budget is still largely overshadowed by generic subsidies at farm level.
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Sprague, Rowan, Stéphane Boyer, Georgia M. Stevenson, and Steve D. Wratten. "Assessing pollinators’ use of floral resource subsidies in agri-environment schemes: An illustration usingPhacelia tanacetifoliaand honeybees." PeerJ 4 (November 15, 2016): e2677. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2677.
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BackgroundHoneybees (Apis melliferaL.) are frequently used in agriculture for pollination services because of their abundance, generalist floral preferences, ease of management and hive transport. However, their populations are declining in many countries. Agri-Environment Schemes (AES) are being implemented in agricultural systems to combat the decline in populations of pollinators and other insects. Despite AES being increasingly embedded in policy and budgets, scientific assessments of many of these schemes still are lacking, and only a few studies have examined the extent to which insect pollinators use the floral enhancements that are part of AES and on which floral components they feed (i.e., pollen and/or nectar).MethodsIn the present work, we used a combination of observations on honeybee foraging for nectar/pollen from the Californian annual plantPhacelia tanacetifoliain the field, collection of pollen pellets from hives, and pollen identification, to assess the value of adding phacelia to an agro-ecosystem to benefit honeybees.ResultsIt was found that phacelia pollen was almost never taken by honeybees. The work here demonstrates that honeybees may not use the floral enhancements added to a landscape as expected and points to the need for more careful assessments of what resources are used by honeybees in AES and understanding the role, if any, which AES play in enhancing pollinator fitness.DiscussionWe recommend using the methodology in this paper to explore the efficacy of AES before particular flowering species are adopted more widely to give a more complete illustration of the actual efficacy of AES.
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Arnóczkyné Jakab, Dóra, and Antal Nagy. "Data on the bumblebee assemblages (Apidae: Bombus spp.) lives in lands under agri-environment commitment." Acta Agraria Debreceniensis, no. 2 (December 15, 2019): 31–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.34101/actaagrar/2/3675.
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The goal of agri-environmental schemes (AES) and greening programs are protecting and increasing biodiversity in agricultural lands. The evaluation of effectiveness of AES needs further investigations. For the purpose of investigations, species and species groups should be selected which can indicate the effects of changes in landscape use on biodiversity. Bumblebees are good indicators for this purpose.
The role of bumblebees in pollination is well studied but in the case of different crops, much less detailed data are available. In 2018, bumblebee assemblages of 44 sites belonged to 8 different agricultural and semi-natural habitat types were studied in the surroundings of Sajószöged, Tiszaújváros and Derecske.
This study provides new distribution data of 8 bumblebee species in three 10×10 km UTM cells covering the sampling area. According to our results, the alfalfa and red clover fields and semi-natural grasslands has more species rich and abundant bumblebee assemblages than different crop fields (sunflower, oilseed radish and vegetable morrow) and can help protect bumblebee assemblages of agricultural lands. Based on the collected distribution and abundance data, the role of the bumblebees in pollination of the studied crops should be re-evaluated.
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Jitea, Mugurel I., Valentin C. Mihai, Felix H. Arion, Iulia C. Muresan, and Diana E. Dumitras. "Innovation Gaps and Barriers in Alternative Innovative Solutions for Sustainable High Nature Value Grasslands. Evidence from Romania." Agriculture 11, no. 3 (March 11, 2021): 235. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11030235.
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Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) proposes environmental policies developed around action-based conservation measures supported by agri-environment schemes (AES). High Nature Value (HNV) farming represents a combination of low-intensity and mosaic practices mostly developed in agricultural marginalized rural areas which sustain rich biodiversity. Being threatened by intensification and abandonment, such farming practices were supported in the last CAP periods by targeted AES. This study aims to identify the most important farming trends in a recognized HNV grasslands Romanian site, subject to public conservation actions. The content analysis of multi-actor focus groups transcripts identifies innovation needs for alternative sustainable HNV farming systems, assessing also the most important barriers for their local deployment. Results show that stakeholders have strong awareness about the existence of HNV farming practices in their territory and their negative trends (abandonment; intensification) that might irreversibly affect biodiversity and cultural values. Current AES could not compensate for the existing innovation gaps. Although local stakeholders have basic awareness about alternative innovative approaches, they failed in their deployment mainly due to the lack of collective actions. Access to adapted knowledge reservoirs and the promotion of local innovation catalyzers are essential for the future sustainability of HNV farming practices.
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Hultgren, Jan, Matthew Hiron, Anders Glimskär, Eddie A. M. Bokkers, and Linda J. Keeling. "Environmental Quality and Compliance with Animal Welfare Legislation at Swedish Cattle and Sheep Farms." Sustainability 14, no. 3 (January 18, 2022): 1095. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14031095.
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Conflicts between different goals can obstruct progress in sustainability, but interests may also coincide. We evaluated relationships between environmental quality and animal welfare on Swedish farms with grazing livestock, using publicly available databases. Data were collected from 8700 official animal welfare inspections on 5808 cattle farms and 2823 inspections on 2280 sheep farms in 2012–2017. Compliance with three animal-based checkpoints was modeled using logistic regression, including a random farm effect to account for repeated inspections. Compliance was regressed on semi-natural grassland area, participation in the National Meadow and Pasture Inventory, Agri-Environmental Scheme (AES) grassland payments, presence of indicator plant species, and the presence of Natura 2000 habitats. Cattle farms complied more often if they received AES payments for grasslands of special values compared with if they did not apply for them (OR = 1.55–1.65; p ≤ 0.0001) and there was a similar tendency for cattle farms that applied for but were denied such payments (OR = 1.29; p = 0.074). There was also a strong tendency for Natura 2000 habitats on cattle farms to be associated with higher compliance (OR = 1.36; p = 0.059). These results suggest a direct or indirect causal effect of biodiversity on cattle welfare. The same associations could not be shown in sheep.
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Nichols, Rachel N., Dave Goulson, and John M. Holland. "The best wildflowers for wild bees." Journal of Insect Conservation 23, no. 5-6 (September 28, 2019): 819–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10841-019-00180-8.
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Abstract Governmental agri-environment schemes (AES) aim to improve pollinator abundance and diversity on farmland by sowing wildflower seed mixes. These often contain high proportions of Fabaceae, particularly Trifolium (clovers), which are attractive to some bumblebee species, but not to most of the ~ 240 solitary bee species in the UK. Here we identify wildflowers that are attractive to a greater range of wild bee species. Forty-five wildflower species being farmed for commercial seed production on a single farm were surveyed for native bees. Bee walks were conducted through discrete wildflower areas from April until August in 2018. The results indicate that including a range of Apiaceae, Asteraceae, and Geraniaceae in seed mixes would cater for a wide diversity of bee species. A total of 14 wildflower species across nine families attracted 37 out of the 40 bee species recorded on the farm, and accounted for 99.7% of all visitations. Only two of these 14 species are included in current AES pollinator mixes. Unexpectedly, few visits were made by bumblebees to Trifolium spp. (0.5%), despite their being considered an important food source for bumblebees, while Anthyllis vulneraria and Geranium pratense were highly attractive. For solitary bees, Crepis capillaris, Sinapsis arvensis, Convolvulus arvensis and Chaerophyllum temulum were amongst the best performing species, none of which are usually included in sown flower mixes. We suggest that the standard ‘pollinator’ mixes used in AES might be updated to include some of these wildflower species, and trialled as seed mixes on farmland.
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Västilä, Kaisa, Sari Väisänen, Jari Koskiaho, Virpi Lehtoranta, Krister Karttunen, Mikko Kuussaari, Juha Järvelä, and Kauko Koikkalainen. "Agricultural Water Management Using Two-Stage Channels: Performance and Policy Recommendations Based on Northern European Experiences." Sustainability 13, no. 16 (August 20, 2021): 9349. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13169349.
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Conventional dredging of ditches and streams to ensure agricultural drainage and flood mitigation can have severe environmental impacts. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential benefits of an alternative, nature-based two-stage channel (TSC) design with floodplains excavated along the main channel. Through a literature survey, investigations at Finnish field sites and expert interviews, we assessed the performance, costs, and monetary environmental benefits of TSCs in comparison to conventional dredging, as well as the bottlenecks in their financing and governance. We found evidence supporting the expected longer-term functioning of drainage as well as larger plant and fish biodiversity in TSCs compared to conventional dredging. The TSC design likely improves water quality since the floodplains retain suspended sediment and phosphorus and remove nitrogen. In the investigated case, the additional value of phosphorus retention and conservation of protected species through the TSC design was 2.4 times higher than the total costs. We demonstrate how TSCs can be made eligible for the obligatory vegetated riparian buffer of the European Union agri-environmental subsidy scheme (CAP-AES) by optimising their spatial application with respect to other buffer measures, and recommend to publicly finance their additional costs compared to conventional dredging at priority sites. Further studies on biodiversity impacts and long-term performance of two-stage channels are required.
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Jeanneret, Philippe, Stefano Pozzi, and Carlos Martinez Nuñez. "Spiders indicate delivery of an agri-environment scheme at multiple diversity levels." Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10 (December 15, 2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.866947.
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Agri-environment schemes (AES) are expected to counteract the negative impacts of intensive agriculture on biodiversity. These schemes were specifically designed to target farmland biodiversity and included, for instance, ecological focus areas (EFAs). In Switzerland, in order to qualify for direct payments, farmers must manage 7% or more of their land as biodiversity promotion areas (BPAs). BPAs encompass extensively managed and low intensity hay meadows, fallows (wildflower strips), traditional orchards with high-stem trees and hedgerows. Evaluation of AES delivery for biodiversity is of crucial importance but must be performed across several years and considering the various components of species diversity to avoid incomplete or wrong conclusions. From a complex study design comprising 478 fields in three regions and sampling over 7 years with four sampling times, spider assemblages of BPA habitats were compared to corresponding conventionally managed fields. A battery of investigations was performed including alpha- and beta-diversity analysis, multivariate dispersion, indicator species and species specificity to understand what BPAs deliver for spiders in the habitat scale and farming landscape. Results showed that alpha-diversity (average number of species) was usually higher in BPA habitats than in conventionally managed fields but the species composition (beta-diversity) had more power to perceive AES impact. Furthermore, the various environmental conditions of BPAs in the farming landscape led to highly diverse spider assemblages (multivariate dispersion) emphasizing that not only the agricultural management plays a role in determining species diversity but the environmental heterogeneity. Indicator (and rare) species were mostly found in woody BPAs (hedges and high-stem tree orchards) revealing the high importance of these BPA habitats for spider conservation. At regional scale, BPA hedges contributed most to the regional diversity of spiders in grassland and mixed regions while BPA meadows and wildflower strip BPAs were first delivering in the region of arable crops. Recommendations highlight the role of the woody habitats and of the environmental heterogeneity in the farming landscape as well as of regional planning to make AES effective.
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Stetter, Christian, Philipp Mennig, and Johannes Sauer. "Using Machine Learning to Identify Heterogeneous Impacts of Agri-Environment Schemes in the EU: A Case Study." European Review of Agricultural Economics, March 10, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbab057.
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Abstract Legislators in the European Union have long been concerned with the environmental impact of farming activities and introduced so-called agri-environment schemes (AES) to mitigate adverse environmental effects and foster desirable ecosystem services in agriculture. This study combines economic theory with a novel machine learning method to identify the environmental effectiveness of AES at the farm level. We develop a set of more than 130 contextual predictors to assess the individual impact of participating in AES. Results from our empirical application for Southeast Germany suggest the existence of heterogeneous, but limited effects of agri-environment measures in several environmental dimensions such as climate change mitigation, clean water and soil health. By making use of Shapley values, we demonstrate the importance of considering the individual farming context in agricultural policy evaluation and provide important insights into the improved targeting of AES along several domains.
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Lunn, Katherine, Tobias Frøslev, Madeleine Rhodes, Leah Taylor, Hernani F. M. Oliveira, Catherine E. A. Gresty, and Elizabeth L. Clare. "Non-target effects of agri-environmental schemes on solitary bees and fungi in the United Kingdom." Bulletin of Entomological Research, September 9, 2022, 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0007485322000414.
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Abstract Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are used to enhance pollinator diversity on agricultural farms within the UK. Though the impacts of these schemes on archetypal pollinator species such as the bumblebee (Bombus) and honeybee (Apis) are well-studied, the effects on non-target bee species like solitary bees, in the same environment, are generally lacking. One goal of AES is to alter floral provision and taxonomic composition of plant communities to provide better forage for pollinators, however, this may potentially impact other ecological communities such as fungal diversity associated with plant-bee communities. Fungi are integral in these bee communities as they can impact bee species both beneficially and detrimentally. We test the hypothesis that alteration of the environment through provision of novel plant communities has non-target effects on the fungi associated with solitary bee communities. We analyse fungal diversity and ecological networks formed between fungi and solitary bees present on 15 agricultural farms in the UK using samples from brood cells. The farms were allocated to two categories, low and high management, which differ in the number of agri-environmental measures implemented. Using internal transcribed spacer metabarcoding, we identified 456 fungal taxa that interact with solitary bees. Of these, 202 (approximately 44%) could be assigned to functional groups, the majority being pathotrophic and saprotrophic species. A large proportion was Ascosphaeraceae, a family of bee-specialist fungi. We considered the connectance, nestedness, modularity, nestedness overlap and decreasing fill, linkage density and fungal generality of the farms' bee–fungi ecological networks. We found no difference in the structure of bee–fungi ecological networks between low and high management farms, suggesting floral provision by AES has no significant impact on interactions between these two taxonomic groups. However, bee emergence was lower on the low management farms compared to high management, suggesting some limited non-target effects of AES. This study characterizes the fungal community associated with solitary bees and provides evidence that floral provision through AES does not impact fungal interactions.
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Kelly, Leah A., David J. T. Douglas, Mike P. Shurmer, and Karl L. Evans. "Inter-Specific Variation in the Potential for Upland Rush Management Advocated by Agri-Environment Schemes to Increase Breeding Wader Densities." Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9 (December 10, 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.660513.
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Encroachment of rush Juncus spp. in the United Kingdom uplands poses a threat to declining wader populations due to taller, denser swards that can limit foraging and breeding habitat quality for some species. Rush management via cutting, implemented through agri-environment schemes (AESs), could thus increase wader abundance, but there is insufficient assessment and understanding of how rush management influences upland waders. Across two upland regions of England [South West Peak (SWP) and Geltsdale nature reserve, Cumbria], we surveyed waders over four visits in fields where rush was managed according to AES prescriptions (treatment; n = 21) and fields without rush management that were otherwise ecologically similar (control; n = 22) to assess how the densities of breeding wader pairs respond to rush management in the short-term. We find evidence for regional variation in the response of waders to rush management, with densities of Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago significantly higher in treatment than control fields in the SWP, but not Geltsdale. There were no statistically significant responses to treatment on densities of Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata or Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus. The 95% confidence intervals for the treatment parameter estimates suggest that this may be due to limited statistical power in the case of Lapwing. For Curlew, however, any potential increases in densities are negligible. There was no evidence that variation in rush cover, which ranged from 10 to 70%, influenced densities of any of our three focal species. Our results suggest that rush management through AES prescriptions delivered in isolation of other interventions may not lead to general increases in breeding wader densities in the short-term, but benefits may arise in some situations due to regional and inter-specific variation in effectiveness. Rush management supported with interventions that improve soil conditions and thus food availability, or reduce predation pressure, may enable AES rush management to generate benefits. Additional research is required to maximise the potential benefits of rush management for each species through the development of prescriptions that tailor to individual species’ optimum sward structure.
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Séchaud, Robin, Kim Schalcher, Ana Paula Machado, Bettina Almasi, Carolina Massa, Kamran Safi, and Alexandre Roulin. "Behaviour-specific habitat selection patterns of breeding barn owls." Movement Ecology 9, no. 1 (April 21, 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-021-00258-6.
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Abstract Background The intensification of agricultural practices over the twentieth century led to a cascade of detrimental effects on ecosystems. In Europe, agri-environment schemes (AES) have since been adopted to counter the decrease in farmland biodiversity, with the promotion of extensive habitats such as wildflower strips and extensive meadows. Despite having beneficial effects documented for multiple taxa, their profitability for top farmland predators, like raptors, is still debated. Such species with high movement capabilities have large home ranges with fluctuation in habitat use depending on specific needs. Methods Using GPS devices, we recorded positions for 134 barn owls (Tyto alba) breeding in Swiss farmland and distinguished three main behavioural modes with the Expectation-Maximization binary Clustering (EMbC) method: perching, hunting and commuting. We described barn owl habitat use at different levels during the breeding season by combining step and path selection functions. In particular, we examined the association between behavioural modes and habitat type, with special consideration for AES habitat structures. Results Despite a preference for the most common habitats at the home range level, behaviour-specific analyses revealed more specific habitat use depending on the behavioural mode. During the day, owls roosted almost exclusively in buildings, while pastures, meadows and forest edges were preferred as nocturnal perching sites. For hunting, barn owls preferentially used AES habitat structures though without neglecting more intensively exploited areas. For commuting, open habitats were preferred over wooded areas. Conclusions The behaviour-specific approach used here provides a comprehensive breakdown of barn owl habitat selection during the reproductive season and highlights its importance to understand complex animal habitat preferences. Our results highlight the importance of AES in restoring and maintaining functional trophic chains in farmland.
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DUNN, JENNY C., ANTONY J. MORRIS, PHILIP V. GRICE, and WILL J. PEACH. "Effects of seed-rich habitat provision on territory density, home range and breeding performance of European Turtle Doves Streptopelia turtur." Bird Conservation International, December 15, 2020, 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0959270920000635.
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Summary Conservation measures providing food-rich habitats through agri-environment schemes (AES) have the potential to affect the demography and local abundance of species limited by food availability. The European Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur is one of Europe’s fastest declining birds, with breeding season dietary changes coincident with a reduction in reproductive output suggesting food limitation during breeding. In this study we provided seed-rich habitats at six intervention sites over a 4-year period and tested for impacts of the intervention on breeding success, ranging behaviour and the local abundance of territorial turtle doves. Nesting success and chick biometrics were unrelated to the local availability of seed-rich habitat or to the proximity of intervention plots. Nestling weight was higher close to human habitation consistent with an influence of anthropogenic supplementary food provision. Small home ranges were associated with a high proportion of non-farmed habitats, while large home ranges were more likely to contain seed-rich habitat suggesting that breeding doves were willing to travel further to utilize such habitat where available. Extensively managed grassland and intervention plot fields were selected by foraging turtle doves. A slower temporal decline in the abundance of breeding males on intervention sites probably reflects enhanced habitat suitability during territory settlement. Refining techniques to deliver sources of sown, natural, and supplementary seed that are plentiful, accessible, and parasite-free is likely to be crucial for the conservation of turtle doves.