Birds as Useful Indicators of High Nature Value Farmlands: Using Species Distribution Models as a Tool for Monitoring the Health of Agro-ecosystems

124 Pages·2017·4.58 MB·English

by  Federico Morelli

Federico Morelli
Piotr Tryjanowski
Editors
Birds as Useful
Indicators of High
Nature Value
Farmlands
Using Species Distribution Models
as a Tool for Monitoring
the Health of Agro-ecosystems
Birds as Useful Indicators of High Nature Value
Farmlands
Federico Morelli (cid:129) Piotr Tryjanowski
Editors
Birds as Useful Indicators
of High Nature Value
Farmlands
Using Species Distribution Models as a Tool
for Monitoring the Health of Agro-ecosystems
Editors
FedericoMorelli PiotrTryjanowski
FacultyofEnvironmentalSciences, InstituteofZoology
DepartmentofApplied Poznan´ UniversityofLifeSciences
GeoinformaticsandSpatial Poznan´,Poland
Planning
CzechUniversityofLifeSciences
Prague
Kamy´cka´129,CzechRepublic
ISBN978-3-319-50282-3 ISBN978-3-319-50284-7 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50284-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016963669
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2017
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Acknowledgments
We thank A. Wuczyn´ski, C. Korkosz, F. Pruscini for pictures and T. Hartel for
thegraphandfruitfuldiscussiononmanyaspectspresentedinthebook.Wewould
also thank our friends for help with data collection in the field: Z. Kwiecin´ski,
L. Jankowiak, M. Tobolka, M. Antczak and M. Hromada (Poland); F. Pruscini,
C.Rubolini,A.SuzziValliandF.Martinelli(Italy).
v
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
FedericoMorelli,YaninaBenedetti,andPiotrTryjanowski
2 SpreadoftheConceptofHNVFarmlandinEurope:
ASystematicReview. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 27
YaninaBenedetti
3 IdentifyingHNVAreasUsingGeographicInformation
SystemsandLandscapeMetrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
PetraSˇ´ımova´
4 SuitableMethodsforMonitoringHNVFarmlandUsing
BirdSpecies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
PiotrTryjanowskiandFedericoMorelli
PartI CaseStudies
5 CaseStudy1.BirdasIndicatorsofHNV:CaseStudy
inFarmlandsfromCentralItaly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
FedericoMorelli,LeszekJerzak,andPiotrTryjanowski
6 CaseStudy2.BirdsasIndicatorsofHNV:CaseStudy
inPortugueseCorkOakMontados. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Jo~aoE.Rabac¸a,Lu´ısaCatarino,PedroPereira,Anto´nioLu´ıs,
andCarlosGodinho
7 CaseStudy3.UsingIndicatorSpeciesAnalysisIndValtoIdentify
BirdIndicatorsofHNVinFarmlandsfromWesternPoland. . . . . . 107
PiotrTryjanowskiandFedericoMorelli
8 DiscussionandFinalConsiderations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
FedericoMorelliandPiotrTryjanowski
vii
About the Editors
Federico Morelli is a Quantitative Ecologist, currently working as Researcher at
the Czech University of Life Sciences (Prague, Czech Republic). He has been
involvedinseveralEuropeanprojectsmodellingtheimpactoflanduseandclimate
change on spatial distribution of biodiversity. The main focus of his research
interests is related to the response of species distribution models to multiscale
predictors, the effects of landscape metrics on biodiversity patterns, the develop-
mentandtestofseveralbioindicatorsandthegeneraltopicsofmacroecology.
Piotr Tryjanowski is a professor and director of the Institute of Zoology at
PoznanUniversityofLifeSciences.Hisresearchinterestincludesmainlyecology
ofvertebrates, withparticularattentiontotheeffect ofclimate andenvironmental
changesonbirdsandmammals.Forinstance,sincemorethan25yearshestudies
farmlandbirdpopulationsinPoland.
ix
Chapter 1
Introduction
FedericoMorelli,YaninaBenedetti,andPiotrTryjanowski
Abstract The decline of biodiversity in the agro-ecosystems: causes and conse-
quences.ThemaindifferencesbetweenWesternandEasternEuropeagriculture–
the role of history. The development of conservation tools in Europe: from the
network of protected areas and Nature2000 approach to the High Nature Value
areas identification. Theories for fragmented landscapes and the application of
ecological terminology for agricultural landscapes in Europe. Approaches useful
to identify and characterize HNV farming systems. The HNV as support for
biodiversityandpublicgoods.
Keywords Farmland bird decline (cid:129) Biodiversity conservation (cid:129) Farming
intensification (cid:129) Protected areas (cid:129) Natura2000 network (cid:129) High nature value
farming(cid:129)HNV
1.1 The Decline of Biodiversity in the Agro-ecosystems
The agriculture is a dominant form of land use on the world’s terrestrial surface,
accountingformorethan40%oflandusecoverage[1,2].InEurope,agricultural
landscapesareartificialmosaicsofdifferentlandusetypes,andrepresentoneofthe
mostcommonhabitat.Butduringthelastfewdecadestheagriculturallandscapes
havebeensubjecttoarapidandlarge-scalechange,causedmainlybytheintensi-
fication and mechanization of agricultural activities [3–8]. The agricultural inten-
sificationisdevotedtofeedthegrowingworldpopulation.However,thisprocessis
F.Morelli(*)
FacultyofEnvironmentalSciences,DepartmentofAppliedGeoinformaticsandSpatial
Planning,CzechUniversityofLifeSciencesPrague,Kamy´cka´129,CZ-16500Prague6,
CzechRepublic
e-mail:[email protected]
Y.Benedetti
CentroNaturalisticoSammarinese,viaValdesDeCarli21,47893BorgoMaggiore,San
Marino
P.Tryjanowski
InstituteofZoology,Poznan´ UniversityofLifeSciences,WojskaPolskiego71C,PL-60-625
Poznan´,Poland
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2017 1
F.Morelli,P.Tryjanowski(eds.),BirdsasUsefulIndicatorsofHighNatureValue
Farmlands,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50284-7_1
2 F.Morellietal.
consideredoneofthechiefdriversofworldwidebiodiversitydecline[4,9,10].Agri-
culturalintensificationoccursmainlyattwodifferentspatialscales:localscale-e.g.
increaseduseofagrochemicalsorpesticides[6]andlandscapescale-e.g.destruc-
tionofsemi-naturalandmarginalhabitats[11].Thelatteraffectsthemarginaland
unproductiveelementsoffarmlandremovingshrubs,hedgerows,isolatedtreesand
uncultivated patches. The marginal and unproductive elements of farmland land-
scapes,suchasshrubs,hedgerows,isolatedtreesanduncultivatedpatches,consti-
tutekeyhabitatsformanyspecies,fornesting,feedingandprotection[12–14],as
well as providing ecological corridors [15, 16] and to increase and maintain the
plantcommunitiesdiversity[17].
Scientists currently recognize how biodiversity loss can negatively impact on
humanityinmanydifferentways[18,19].Thethreatofbiodiversityisathreatfor
humans for the simple reason that biodiversity is the main driver of ecosystem
functioningwherehumansareliving[20].Then,theconservationofthebiodiver-
sity in the countryside is essential not only for intrinsic reasons, but also for very
pragmaticreasonsrelatedtohumanbenefits[21].Mankindbenefitsfromarangeof
services provided by nature [22]. From the many benefits that agriculture may
obtain,someofthemaredirectlyprovidedbywildorganismssuchaspollinatorsor
pestcontrolincroplandsprovidedbynaturalenemies[23–25].
However,thelossofbiodiversityinagriculturallandscapesisnotuniformacross
Europe, and need, then, more deep understandings. Because the diversity of rural
landscapes across the continent plus the inadequacy of existent datasets on biodi-
versity, can represent an impediment to the develop of a common strategy for all
Europeancountries[2].
1.2 Differences Between Western and Eastern Europe
Agriculture – The Role of History
HNVareasarenotequallydistributedoverEurope,butevenintensityofstudieson
HNV farmland on birds strongly differs between areas, both in local as well as
broadcontinentalscale.Differencesareconnectedmainlywithlow-intensityagri-
culturallanduseinEuropewithhascreatedmanyuniqueandspecies-richassem-
blages [26, 27]. Paradoxically a large proportion of European species are now
dependentovermuchoftheirrangesonthisformofhumandisturbance[28].How-
ever, the industrialization of agriculture has, directly and indirectly, caused a
dramatic impoverishment of the avifauna and flora compared to the situation a
centuryago[29].Thishascontributednotonlytothecurrentbiodiversitycrisisin
Europe as a whole, but also to the decline in ecosystem services such as crop
pollination and biological pest control [29]. Among suggested solutions to save
farmlandbirdbiodiversityareespeciallydedicatedconservationschemes,withidea
to mitigate the impacts of intensive farming, and to the support of low-intensity
practicesonexistinghighnaturevalue(HNV)farmland.HNVfarmlandispresent
1 Introduction 3
throughoutEurope,althoughitisoftenrestrictedtouplandorotherareasdifficultto
farm, particularly in Northern and Western Europe (EEA, 2004). Eastern and
Southern Europe, in contrast, generally have lower average levels of land use
intensity,andhealthypopulations ofmanyspecies decliningorendangered inthe
north-west persist here [26, 27]. Similarly, the farmland environment in Central-
Eastern Europe is generally still more extensive than in Western Europe and a
larger proportion of people still live in rural areas [26] what in consequences
generating different conditions for both, organisms living in agricultural areas, as
well as human societies and economy. Therefore to protect declining populations
living in farmland, detailed knowledge on both species and communities level is
necessary[26].Itseemsnearlyobvioussincelastfewyears[26,30],however,due
toscientifictraditionandavailabilityoffunding,thedefinitelymajorityofstudies
have been carried out in Western Europe [27]. In consequence this provokes a
question: are findings obtained in western conditions useful to identify the fate of
farmlandbirdbiodiversityinCentral-EasternEurope?Orevenmoregeneral:how
resultsobtainedinparticularlocalconditionscanbegeneralizedforunderstanding
farmlandfunctioningoverthewholecontinent?Tryjanowskietal.[26]inareview
argued that is not necessary. On the other hand is easy to say that we need more
detailedstudies,buttheintentionisalsotoshowpotentialbenefits(eveneconom-
ical)fromdevelopofthiskindofstudy.Tryjanowskietal.[26]providedstatistical
evidencesthatagriculturediffersbetweenwestern(WE)andcentral-eastern(CEE)
Europeintermsofitsroleinsocietyandlevelofintensification.Ingeneral,inCEE
nationalagriculturalproductionplaysamuchmoreimportantroleineconomyand
societycomparedtoWE.Alsotheproportionofthehumanpopulationemployedin
agriculture is several times larger in CEE compared to WE. Majority of these
results are the effect of political dividing of the continent after the Second World
War, what made a situation called “an iron curtain” [31]. At the same time, CEE
countriesdifferintheoutcomesofpastagriculturalintensification:insomestates,
such as the Czech Republic and much of Slovakia, the communist “collectivist”
agriculture created large monoculture fields, not unlike those in Northwestern
Europe [31]. In many CEE countries though, small family farms have retained
smaller field sizes and farming methods remain as they were decades ago. In
Poland, nearly half of the > 2.5 million farms are still smaller than 2 ha, and this
field mosaic is enriched by a dense network of seminatural field margins [32]. In
some others, such as Hungary or Romania, mixed systems with intensive agricul-
ture exist side-by-side with traditional farming in remote areas. Generally, small
farms(<5ha)aremuchmoreabundantinCEEthaninWE,forexample,thereare
over50timesmoresuchfarmsinRomaniathanintheUKandnearly20timesmore
inPolandthaninGermany.
TheEUhassofarfailedtostopbiodiversitylossinfarmland[33,34].Although
theactionplanstartedfewdecadesago,theresultsarefarawayfromthesatisfac-
tory situation. Currently published papers (a reviewed by ( [27]) suggests that the
managementsolutionsdevelopedmainlyinWesternEuropeshouldnotbeusedasa
blanket prescription for the whole continent. The concept HNV farmland was not