Impact of recent changes in agricultural land use on farmland bird trends

Jerrentrup, Jana Sabrina; Dauber, Jens; Strohbach, Michael W.; Mecke, Stefan; Mitschke, Alexander; Ludwig, Jürgen; Klimek, Sebastian

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2017.01.041

Cited by 42 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This indicates that the increase in silage maize production subsequently replaces other crops originally grown in these landscapes to a higher degree, which contributes to a loss of crop diversity and a depletion of landscape diversity. These results fit to the work of Jerrentrup et al [70].…”

Section: Land Cover Diversity Changes In the Bioenergy Impact Zonessupporting

confidence: 92%

Density of Biogas Power Plants as An Indicator of Bioenergy Generated Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes

et al. 2019

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The increasing use of biogas, produced from energy crops like silage maize, is supposed to noticeably change the structures and patterns of agricultural landscapes in Europe. The main objective of our study is to quantify this assumed impact of intensive biogas production with the example of an agrarian landscape in Northern Germany. Therefore, we used three different datasets; Corine Land Cover (CLC), local agricultural statistics (Agrar-Struktur-Erhebung, ASE), and data on biogas power plants. Via kernel density analysis, we delineated impact zones which represent different levels of bioenergy-generated transformations of agrarian landscapes. We cross-checked the results by the analyses of the land cover and landscape pattern changes from 2000 to 2012 inside the impact zones. We found significant correlations between the installed electrical capacity (IC) and land cover changes. According to our findings, the landscape pattern of cropland—expressed via landscape metrics (mean patch size (MPS), total edge (TE), mean shape index (MSI), mean fractal dimension index (MFRACT)—increased and that of pastures decreased since the beginning of biogas production. Moreover, our study indicates that the increasing number of biogas power plants in certain areas is accompanied with a continuous reduction in crop diversity and a homogenization of land use in the same areas. We found maximum degrees of land use homogenisation in areas with highest IC. Our results show that a Kernel density map of the IC of biogas power plants might offer a suitable first indicator for monitoring and quantifying landscape change induced by biogas production.

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Section: Land Cover Diversity Changes In the Bioenergy Impact Zonessupporting

confidence: 92%

Density of Biogas Power Plants as An Indicator of Bioenergy Generated Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes

et al. 2019

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“…Especially in light of the obligation of farmers to collect all those measures at field and/or farm level (BVL 2014), it is unsatisfactory that such data are not available for the assessments presented here and similar studies like e.g. Jerrentrup et al (2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A comprehensive assessment of factors influencing farmland bird populations in Germany at the national scale is however currently missing. For the German federal state of Lower Saxony, landscape homogenisation due to decreases in crop diversity and increasing cultivation of maize was identified to be negatively related to farmland bird population abundance (Jerrentrup et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the shift from winter to spring cereals restricting winter food supply for seed eaters, the reduction of marginal habitats limiting breeding habitat for tree and shrub species, and increasing livestock numbers and mowing frequency on grasslands which destroys nesting sites (Newton 2004, Reif 2013. Also, ground-breeding farmland birds nesting on arable fields show the strongest declines among the species group in several studies (Heldbjerg et al 2018, Jerrentrup et al 2017 and generally species associated with arable land seem to suffer stronger declines than species associated with grassland and pasture (Reif andHanzelka 2016, Heldbjerg et al 2018). Additionally, changes in the availability of fallow land, largely determined by EU subsidised set-aside, have been identified to have strong effects on farmland bird populations Evans 2000, Traba andMorales 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On farmland, abiotic conditions trigger the type of crop cultivated, field and pasture size and farming practice at regional level (Hendriks et al 2000). Key factors causing population changes may therefore also differ regionally (Jerrentrup et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drivers of population change in common farmland birds in Germany

Busch¹,

Katzenberger²,

Trautmann³

et al. 2020

Bird Conservation International

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Summary Farmland bird populations in Germany are declining at a higher speed than species inhabiting other habitats. We studied potential causes for bird population changes based on data from standardised German breeding bird monitoring schemes. We related population trends to covariates describing the changes in the agricultural landscape in Germany, weather conditions during the breeding season and for some migratory species, conditions at stopover and wintering sites. Linear mixed effect models were used to analyse effect strength at species level and conclusions are drawn for the overall group of farmland bird species. The area of grassland and fallow land was shown to have the strongest positive effects and the area of maize and rapeseed the strongest negative effects on farmland bird population trends. The results obtained also indicate that despite the consistent influence of weather conditions during the breeding season, land-use changes had a stronger impact on bird populations than weather. Conditions at Sahel wintering sites did not show a consistent effect on population trends. Based on these findings the study quantitatively underpins and ranks key factors shaping farmland bird populations in Germany.

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Response of endangered bird species to land-use changes in an agricultural landscape in Germany

et al. 2022

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Land-use intensification in agroecosystems has led to population declines in many taxonomic groups, especially farmland birds. Two contrasting conservation strategies have therefore been proposed: land sharing (the integration of biodiversity conservation in low-intensity agriculture) and land sparing (the spatial separation of high-yielding agriculture and areas for conservation). Despite the large academic interest in this field, only few studies have taken into account stakeholders’ perspectives of these strategies when assessing conservation implications. We modeled the effects of three land-use scenarios (a business-as-usual, a land-sharing, and a land-sparing scenario), developed together with regional stakeholders, on the habitat area of 13 regionally endangered bird species in the Middle Mulde River Basin (Saxony, Germany). We used random forest models based on environmental variables relating to land-use/cover, climate and soil characteristics, occurrence of linear landscape elements (hedges and tree rows), and distance to water and major roads. Responses to the three land-use scenarios were species-specific, but extensively managed permanent grassland and the density of forest edges were positively associated with the occurrence of most bird species. Overall, the land-sharing scenario provided the largest breeding habitat area: 76% of the species had a significant (p < 0.05) increase in breeding habitat, and none showed a significant decrease. Our findings confirm that balancing the different, often contrasting habitat requirements of multiple species is a key challenge in conservation and landscape management. Land sharing, which local stakeholders identified as the most desirable scenario, is a promising strategy for the conservation of endangered birds in agricultural landscapes like our study region.

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Impact of recent changes in agricultural land use on farmland bird trends

Cited by 42 publications

References 37 publications

Density of Biogas Power Plants as An Indicator of Bioenergy Generated Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes

Density of Biogas Power Plants as An Indicator of Bioenergy Generated Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes

Drivers of population change in common farmland birds in Germany

Response of endangered bird species to land-use changes in an agricultural landscape in Germany

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