Ecological engineering with high diversity vegetation patches enhances bird activity and ecosystem services in Philippine rice fields

Abstract

This study examines the potential for ecological engineering to enhance the beneficial ecosystem services provided by birds in tropical rice fields. Bird activities were monitored at six sites in the Philippines with high-diversity vegetation patches (HDVPs) established as an ecological engineering approach to restore ecosystem services. Adjacent plots of conventional rice were monitored as controls. Predatory birds (shrikes, Lanius spp., grassbirds, Megalurus palustris, and kingfishers, Halcyon spp.) were more active in the ecological engineering fields where they foraged for arthropods and snails among the rice plants. Pied trillers, Lalage nigra, and yellow vented bulbuls, Pycnonotus goiavier, foraged more in the HDVPs than in rice. These birds mainly responded to the availability of bamboo for perching in the HDVPs, although patch vegetation beneath the bamboo was also used for perching by some species. Aerial hunters such as swallows, Hirundo spp., avoided HDVPs likely because the tall vegetation and bamboo stakes represented an obstacle for their flight. Small changes in the design of HDVPs could avoid any negative effects on foraging by swallows and swifts. The results indicate that ecological engineering of rice paddies can have multiple benefits for farmers and the environment, including improved nutrition for farming communities, the creation of habitat for wildlife, and the enhancement of regulatory ecosystem services provided by insectivorous and snail-eating birds.

Artificial Aquatic Ecosystems

“…The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results. Bird habitat Open water salt marsh management and mosquito ditches USA [191] Integrated marsh management USA [192] Rice fields Philippines [193], Brazil [189], China, Japan [194], France [195] [197,198] Wetland/aquatic plant habitat Paddies and ditches China [199,200] USA [191] Hot springs swimming pools and baths Turkey [211] …”

“…Paddies / fields China [194,199], USA [212], Philippines [193], Brazil [189], Japan [194], France [195] …”

Artificial Perches for Ecological Restoration: Contributions of Brazilian Universities

“…There is a need to advance methodological techniques, such as estimating the optimum perch density in the landscape (SILVA et al, 2010), and type and ideal height of perches (DIAS et al, 2014). Greater efforts are needed to understand the capacity of perches to increase habitat complexity (MELO et al, 2000), because in addition to seed dispersal, perches can play a role in the reintroduction of fauna, inducing increases in the local richness of birds (HORGAN et al, 2016).…”

Integrated pest management for sustainable rice cultivation: a holistic approach

“…: Cucurbitaceae) grown on rice bunds is attractive to parasitoids and predatory wasps that feed from its large yellow flowers. Wild birds, including predatory species, use bamboo supports to scan the rice fields for insects and apple snails (see Horgan et al, 2017b). By growing plants of function such as these, farmers can increase the abundance and diversity of the natural enemies of stem borers and leaf folders in their rice fields and, at the same time, increase productivity on their farms.…”