دانلود رایگان مقاله بررسی تاکستان به عنوان زیستگاه مهم جهت پرندگان در مقیاس محلی یا افقی

Abstract

In Europe, monitoring indicates that farmland bird populations are declining. Numerous studies at different spatial scales have considered bird ecology in farmland, but viticulture has received little attention. We carried out bird surveys at two spatial scales over two years in western France. We assessed the contribution of vineyards to bird diversity at landscape scale and undertook plot-scale analyses of habitat selection in vineyards and their associated semi-natural habitats. We detected a strong negative relationship between vineyard cover and both abundance and species richness of birds. Only two species responded positively to vineyards: Woodlark Lullula arborea and Skylark Alauda arvensis. Of the 93 species detected at landscape scale, only 16 were frequent users of vine plots. The majority of these species were found to select semi-natural habitats adjacent to grapevines, in particular areas with trees. Only Woodlarks positively selected vineyards as opposed to semi-natural habitats but no consistent selection criteria between different vineyard habitat variables could be detected. Our study shows that, although wine-growing landscapes may be species-rich, fewer species use vineyards themselves, and at low levels of abundance. Planting or maintaining semi-natural woody vegetation are popular management approaches, which our data suggest may encourage generalist species without improving vineyard habitats for open farmland specialists.

Discussion

This study has shown that a landscape mosaic including vineyards can support a diverse avifauna. Landscape contexts with a proportion of woodland tended to bemore species-rich. The three species found only in landscape contexts with a high proportion of vineyard (Stone curlew, Corn bunting and Lapwing) were all very infrequent at the study site and are farmland specialists with declining populations at national and European levels. A more heterogeneous landscape context did not influence community composition in vineyard habitats and it seemed that local land cover types largely determined bird communities in vineyards while interactions with neighbouring types were limited. It should be noted, however, that the relatively smallsample size of 12 landscape units limited analysis at this scale. Woodland bird communities were very distinct from farmland communities of crops and vineyards, as were the bird communities of built-up areas. In terms of species richness, while overall community richness was relatively high at the landscape scale, vineyards themselves were regularly used by only a small proportion of the bird species. Five of the 16 species we found to be frequent users of vineyards are considered to be farmland specialists, two are associated with built-up areas, one with woodland or forest and the rest are generalists (Jiguet, 2010). Of the five farmland specialists, Skylark, Meadow pipit and Linnet are experiencing declines at national and European level, while the population trend of the Woodlark is uncertain, and only theCirlBunting is moderately increasing. Most of the species using vineyards were more abundant in adjacentsemi-natural habitats.This providesfurther evidence that vineyards do not generally support a high diversity of birdlife (Sierro & Arlettaz, 2003). However, the Woodlark and the Skylark responded positively to increasing vineyard cover in the landscape. The Skylark, in particular, is known to prefer open landscapes and to avoid tall, dense vegetation cover on field boundaries(Donald, Evans, Buckingham, Muirhead, & Wilson, 2001a). It is interesting to note that the species appeared to perceive vineyard cover as attractive open habitat at this scale, despite the presence of the rows of grapevine trees.