Effects of crop diversification and low pesticide inputs on bird populations on arable land
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- 作者：Ian G. Henderson ; Neil Ravenscroft ; Gail Smith ; Stephen Holloway
- 关键词：Farmland birds ; Landscape heterogeneity ; Crop rotations ; Bird densities ; Sustainable farming
- 刊名：Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
- 出版年：2009
- 出版时间：January 2009
- 年：2009
- 卷：129
- 期：1-3
- 页码：149-156
- 全文大小：487 K
文摘
This 6-year experimental study measured the response of bird populations and abundance to combinations of mixed cropping and low pesticide regimes associated with a commercial crop rotation. The results show a rapid and sustained population increase among a wide range of bird species, in contrast to local regional trends for the same species. Seventy percent of the increase occurred within the first 3 years of the experiment, with species of high conservation concern, and those monitored as environmental indicators on lowland farmland in the UK, increasing on average, by 30 % and 20 % respectively (reaching respective peaks of 44 % and 33 % after 4 years). For some individual species, the increase was higher still, i.e., 300 % (1–4 pairs) for grey partridge (Perdix perdix) and 46 % (13–19 pairs) for skylarks (Alauda arvensis) in peak years. The results demonstrate that bird species typical of lowland arable farmland in the UK are responsive to suitable farm-scale changes in habitat and food provision (roughly, manipulation within less than 1-km2). They show that the carrying capacity of modern, commercially viable, arable farmland can be increased significantly for birds, in this case, mainly by using crops mosaics to create habitats alongside the appropriate use of herbicides on non-cropped habitats.