Organic and integrated agriculture: the effects on bird communities in orchard farms in northern Italy

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of different farming methods on bird communities. In particular, the study surveyed the frequency and number of bird species, the number of individuals and bird diversity (Shannon index) found in organic (o, non use of synthetic pesticides), integrated (i, reduced use of pesticides on the basis of the economic threshold) and conventional (c, conventional use of pesticides) orchards. A simplified version of the mapping method was applied, from May to June 1998, to 60 fruit farms (15o, 19 i, 26c), over a total of 483 ha. Twenty-six bird species were observed (19o, 17i, 18c). Granivorous species were the most abundant and unaffected by pesticide management. Insectivorous species were less abundant in general, but more frequent on o and i farms (chi-square test, p<0.05). Bird diversity was greater in o and i farm management than in c (Tukey test, respectively, p = 0.001 and 0.004). There was a non-significant trend for bird density to be higher in o/i than c orchards (ANOVA, F 2.57 = 2.76, p = 0.07). The results confirm the positive effects of (o) and (i) agriculture on bird communities, including some species of special interest for nature conservation. These effects could be attributed mostly to the different pest management and secondarily to some aspects of environmental differentiation (type of orchard, type of farm, age and height of trees, and increased presence of hedgerows and woodlots). Surprisingly no correlation was observed between hedgerows and woodlots and bird diversity (Pearson test, R = 0.0019).

Landscape-moderated biodiversity effects of agri-environmental management: a meta-analysis

“…The combinations of the following keywords were used: agri*, biodiversity, farming, integrated, intensity, management, organic and species. We included only those studies, which fulfilled the following criteria: (i) studies that compared the species richness (Shannon diversity in case of Genghini et al [26]) and/or the abundance of terrestrial taxa (invertebrates, vertebrates and plants) between farming systems managed at different intensity levels (hereafter, intensive versus extensive agricultural systems; for detailed classification see §2b). Set-aside studies were excluded, because set-aside is usually not an actively managed farming system [27]; (ii) studies that were carried out at the landscape scale and included at least two separate fields in each category, i.e.…”

Apple orchard pest control strategies affect bird communities in southeastern France

“…Even fewer studies exist on the effects of pesticide use on bird communities in apple orchards. To our knowledge, only one article specifically addressed this question and found significant differences in both the abundance and diversity of breeding bird communities between organic, IPM, and conventional apple orchard farms [19]. These results were due to a larger number of insectivorous birds in organic and IPM orchards than in conventional ones.…”

Effects of management intensity and orchard features on bird communities in winter

“…As a consequence, these new orchards are heavily sprayed with insecticides and have very few herbaceous plants or hedges. Studies on avifauna in intensive orchards are limited and authors mainly report on the influence of pesticides on the reproductive rate of passerines (e.g., Bouvier et al 2005) or, rarely, on bird diversity (Ro¨sler 2003;Genghini et al 2006;Wiącek and Polak 2008;Bouvier et al 2011;MacLeod et al 2012). Moreover, the relative effects of abandonment, traditional management as well as modern intensive management of orchards on bird and other organism communities is poorly recognized (Tryjanowski et al 2009(Tryjanowski et al , 2011.…”