The impact of agriculture and some solutions for arthropods and birds.

Abstract

Since the 1950s, many forms of wildlife associated with agricultural ecosystems, and particularly cereals, have declined throughout Europe. This has coincided with the intensification of agriculture driven by the EU policy for European self-sufficiency in food production, food security, and maintenance of farm incomes. Most affected have been the birds (Tucker & Heath, 1994), especially the grey partridge (Perdix perdix) (Potts, 1986), butterflies (Pollard & Yates, 1993), beneficial insects (Aebischer, 1991), and annual arable wildflowers (Schumacher, 1987). Many of these organisms are connected through the food chain, and therefore declines at the base of the chain have implications for the higher organisms. The most intensively studied relationship has been between invertebrates and the grey partridge, where chick survival is closely dependent on invertebrate abundance (Potts, 1986). However, arthropods are also essential for the survival of many other farmland birds (Campbell et aI., 1997), and this is examined in this volume by Moreby (2003) and Barker (2003). This review will consider the evidence for these declines and the way in which agricultural practices may be changed to encourage beneficial arthropods, and thereby the birds which are dependent on them.