Landscape‐scale conservation mitigates the biodiversity loss of grassland birds

Abstract

The decline of biodiversity from anthropogenic landscape modification is among the most pressing conservation problems worldwide. In North America, long-term population declines have elevated the recovery of the grassland avifauna to among the highest conservationpriorities. Because the vast majority of grasslands of the Great Plains are privately owned, the recovery of these ecosystems and bird populations within them depend on landscape-scale conservation strategies that integrate social, economic, and biodiversity objectives.The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary program for private agricultural producers administered by the United States Department of Agriculture that provides financial incentives to take cropland out of production and restore perennial grassland. We investigated spatial patterns of grassland availability and restoration to inform landscape-scale conservation for a comprehensive community of grassland birds in the Great Plains. The research objectives were to (1) determine how apparent habitat loss has affected spatial patterns of grassland bird biodiversity, (2) evaluate the effectiveness of CRP for offsetting the biodiversity declines of grassland birds, and (3) develop spatially explicit predictions to estimate the biodiversity benefit of adding CRP to landscapes impacted by habitat loss. We used the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions program to evaluate hypotheses for the effects of habitat loss and restoration on both the occupancy and species richness of grassland specialists within a continuum-modeling framework. We found the odds of community occupancy declined by 37% for every 1 SD decrease in grassland availability [log e (km 2 )] and increased by 20% for every 1 SD increase in CRP land cover [log e (km 2 )]. There was 17% turnover in species composition between intact grasslands and CRP landscapes, suggesting that grasslands restored by CRP retained considerable, but incomplete, representation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Spatially explicit predictions indicated that absolute conservation outcomes were greatest at high latitudes in regions with high biodiversity, whereas the relative outcomes were greater at low latitudes in highly modified landscapes. By evaluating community-wide responses to landscape modification and CRP restoration at bioregional scales, our study

Direct and indirect effects of agricultural land cover on avian biodiversity in eastern Canada

“…This result also suggests that landscape composition (amount of grassland/perennial forages) is a stronger driver of open country bird richness than landscape configuration (mean field size) in our region. This is opposite to results for open country birds elsewhere, such as grassland specialists in the Prairies, where mean field size has a stronger (positive) effect than landscape composition (Lockhart and Koper 2018), although, grassland composition remains important for grassland birds in the Prairies (McDonald and Koper 2022;Pavlacky et al 2022). We speculate that the amount of grassland may be the limiting factor for open country birds in our region, because most of the region was previously forested with few native grasslands.…”

Birds in Europe 4: the fourth assessment of Species of European Conservation Concern

“…Such schemes must now be implemented at scale and pace, alongside extensive landscape-scale restoration projects (e.g. Pavlacky et al 2022, Lengyel et al 2023). Such action is essential to halt and reverse the ongoing loss of Europe’s birds and meet regional and global restoration targets.…”

Review of Conservation Challenges and Possible Solutions for Grassland Birds of the North American Great Plains

“…From 2008 to 2012, 77% of all cropland conversion in the United States occurred on grasslands-amounting to roughly 23 067 km 2 in grassland habitat loss during this period-and corn and soybean together accounted for nearly half of this expansion ( Lark et al 2015 ). A second contributor to continued grassland conversion in the US Great Plains has been a decline in enrollment of lands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the United States' largest land set-aside program and one that has benefited many grassland birds ( Veech 2006 ;Herkert 2009 ;Niemuth et al 2017 ;Pavlacky et al 2022 ). Nationally, and in the Great Plains, enrollment in CRP has declined over the past decade ( Wright and Wimberly 2013 ;Stubbs 2014 ;Morefield et al 2016 ).…”

“…Despite the conservation challenges facing grassland birds of the Great Plains, there are mitigation strategies that can be employed by a diversity of stakeholders ( Drum et al 2015 ). At a national level, government-sponsored land set-aside programs have proven their efficacy in reducing grassland habitat loss and even slowing or reversing regional grassland bird declines (e.g., Herkert 2007 ;Pavlacky et al 2021Pavlacky et al , 2022. Pesticide use associated with agricultural intensification is another challenge that could be addressed at the national level through policy.…”