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Common pastures are important refuges for a declining passerine bird in a pre-alpine agricultural landscape

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Abstract

Agricultural landscapes play an important role in biodiversity conservation. The Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis) was once a widespread breeding bird in European farmlands. Today, however, its numbers are sharply declining in most European countries. The aim of our study was to compare territory densities of Tree Pipits in common pastures and control plots in the surrounding pre-alpine agricultural landscape in southern Bavaria (Germany). Additionally, we determined the drivers of territory and home-range establishment in Tree Pipits. Habitat composition in common pastures and control plots reflected distinct differences in land-use intensity. Common pastures had larger areas of nutrient-poor habitats and higher landscape diversity compared to control plots. In line with this, we detected a clear response of Tree Pipits to differences in habitat composition. Territories were nearly exclusively found in common pastures. Within the common pastures, Tree Pipits preferred those parts that had higher landscape diversity and, additionally, at the territory scale, larger areas of groups of trees. The common pastures are important refuges for the threatened Tree Pipit in the pre-alpine agricultural landscape of the study area. In contrast to the control plots, the common pastures provided (i) sufficient suitable song posts and (ii) heterogeneous vegetation with appropriate nesting sites and a high availability of arthropod food resources. Our study corroborates findings from other studies across Europe highlighting the prime importance of traditionally used wood pastures for the Tree Pipit, and for biodiversity in general.

Zusammenfassung

Allmendweiden sind wichtige Refugien für eine gefährdete Singvogelart in der prä-alpinen Agrarlandschaff.

Agrarlandschaften spielen eine wichtige Rolle für den Schutz der Biodiversität. Der Baumpieper (Anthus trivialis) war früher ein häufiger Brutvogel in europäischen Agrarlandschaften. Das Ziel unserer Studie war der Vergleich der Revierdichte des Baumpiepers in Allmendweiden und in Kontrollflächen der umgebenden prä-alpinen Agrarlandschaft in Südbayern (Deutschland). Zudem haben wir die Umweltfaktoren ermittelt, die für die Reviergründung und die Nutzung des Aktionsraums entscheidend waren. Die Habitattypenzusammensetzung in den Allmendweiden und Kontrollflächen spiegelt deutliche Unterschiede in der Landnutzungsintensität wider. Allmendweiden wiesen größere Flächen an nährstoffarmen Habitaten und eine höhere Landschaftsdiversität als die Kontrollflächen auf. Baumpieper zeigten eine deutliche Reaktion auf diese Unterschiede in der Habitattypenzusammensetzung. Reviere wurden nahezu ausschließlich in den Allmendweiden festgestellt. Innerhalb der Allmendweiden wurden die Teile präferiert, die eine hohe Landschaftsdiversität aufwiesen und auf der Revierebene zusätzlich durch eine größere Fläche an Baumgruppen gekennzeichnet waren. Allmendweiden sind wichtige Refugien für den gefährdeten Baumpieper in der prä-alpinen Agrarlandschaft des Untersuchungsgebiets. Im Gegensatz zu den Kontrollflächen wiesen Allmendweiden erstens ausreichend geeignete Singwarten und zweitens eine heterogene Vegetation mit Nistplätzen und einer hohen Verfügbarkeit an Arthropoden als Nahrung auf. Unsere Studie bestätigt die Befunde anderer Arbeiten aus Europa, die traditionell genutzten Waldweiden eine herausragende Bedeutung für den Baumpieper und für den Erhalt der Biodiversität generell zusprechen.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Wolfgang Kraus (Landratsamt Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Sabine Kraus and Annette Saitner (Landratsamt Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen), Dieter Frisch (Landratsamt Ostallgäu) and Johannes Wölfl (Landratsamt Weilheim-Schongau) for providing contact data for the members of the grazing associations. Additionally, we would like to thank the members of the grazing associations for allowing access to their commons. Tereza Petrusková, Jörg Rietze, Florian Straub and an anonymous reviewer made valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Osnabrück University, Barbarastraße 11, 49076, Osnabrück, Germany

    Cinja Schwarz & Thomas Fartmann

  2. Working Group for Animal Ecology and Planning, Johann-Strauß-Straße 22, 70794, Filderstadt, Germany

    Jürgen Trautner

  3. Institute of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology (IBL), Hafenweg 31, 48155, Münster, Germany

    Thomas Fartmann

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  1. Cinja Schwarz
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Communicated by T. Gottschalk.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 Top-ranked models (GLMM): relationship between the territory occupancy of Tree Pipits (Nterritories = 33, NControl = 30; binomial response variable) and environmental parameters at the territory (a) and home-range scale (b)
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Schwarz, C., Trautner, J. & Fartmann, T. Common pastures are important refuges for a declining passerine bird in a pre-alpine agricultural landscape. J Ornithol 159, 945–954 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-018-1561-0

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