Assessing the landscape-dependent restoration potential of abandoned farmland using a hierarchical model of bird communities

Abstract

Expansion and intensification of agriculture have led to an immense decrease in biodiversity. However, the area of abandoned farmland has been increasing globally in recent years and is expected to provide novel habitats for various organisms. Despite the promising potential for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, few studies have compared biodiversity among multiple land use types, including abandoned farmland. We examined the effects of major land use types (wetland, grassland, forest, farmland, abandoned farmland) and the surrounding landscape openness (proportion of wetland/grassland in the surrounding area) on the abundance and species richness of bird communities and four functional groups (wetland, grassland, farmland, and forest species) in the agricultural landscape of central Hokkaido in northern Japan. The abundance of wetland/grassland species in abandoned farmland tended to be intermediate between those of their original habitats (wetland and grassland) and other land uses (forest and farmland), and to be positively associated with the landscape openness. The abundance of forest species tended to be higher in forest areas than in areas with other land use types and was not associated with the landscape openness. The abundance and species richness of the bird community were predicted to be high in large abandoned farmland areas surrounded by open land. For wetland species, whereas total abundance was predicted to be primarily mediated by landscape openness, species richness was predicted to be primarily mediated by the farmland abandonment area. The abandoned farmland in our study area would not currently have a high conservation value for forest birds. However, the-3-/ 36 abandonment of farmland surrounded by open land would significantly improve the conservation of wetland/grassland birds in the agricultural landscape. Given the decline in the area of grassland, wetland, and low-intensity farmland, farmland abandonment provides an opportunity to conserve and restore the declining populations of wetland and grassland birds.

Drivers of land-use changes in societies with decreasing populations: A comparison of the factors affecting farmland abandonment in a food production area in Japan

“…It may be difficult to restore forest ecosystems to a composition resembling that of natural forests if there are no seed sources in the surrounding areas [82,83]. However, open-land vegetation (e.g., grassland and wetland) can be restored due to the high seed dispersal ability of grass species [84][85][86][87][88].…”

“…On Sado island, abandoned paddies function as foraging habitats of the reintroduced Crested Ibis, Nipponia nippon [89], and in the Lake Inbanuma watershed, abandoned paddies on small valley bottoms have potential for multipurpose usages such as flood control, water purification, and wetland biodiversity [90]. In Hokkaido, the abandoned farmlands could be used to harbor organisms of wetland ecosystems [84][85][86][87] and provide wetland green infrastructure [91]. Natural recovery of vegetation in abandoned farmlands will proceed in the future, although the government would prefer to maintain the present farmlands through subsidies and land management policies.…”

Direct and indirect effects of noise pollution alter biological communities in and near noise-exposed environments

“…A single surveyor walked slowly (1 km h −1 ) on the survey route between sunrise and 08.00 and counted abundance of seen or heard individuals within 40 m width from the survey route. We assumed that this sampling range (less than 40 m from the observer) ensured high detection probabilities of birds across forests and grassland sites [39][40][41]. Flying individuals were not recorded.…”

Passive rewilding may (also) restore phylogenetically rich and functionally resilient forest plant communities

“…So, recent researches shown that ecosystem de‐domestication may benefit for several taxa, such as birds (Hanioka et al. ), ground beetles (Yamanaka et al. ), moths (Miranda et al.…”