Soil conservation techniques in vineyards increase passerine diversity and crop use by insectivorous birds

Abstract

Capsule Bird communities are better conserved in vineyards with mechanically managed herbaceous cover corridors.Aims To determine the advantages of herbaceous cover corridors for the conservation of farmland birds.Methods We studied birds in three vineyards subjected to different crop management schemes. Two vineyards had a herbaceous cover planted between crop rows to prevent soil erosion. In one vineyard these herbaceous cover corridors were chemically managed to prevent competition between the herb cover and the crop, whereas in a second the herbaceous cover was subject to mechanical management through some clearing, crop coverage, and height checks. A third vineyard was under conventional management (bare soil and soil tillage) and served as a control. We compared landscape structure and metrics, and passerine species richness, abundance, and diversity between the three vineyards.Results Overall bird species richness and diversity, as well as abundance of insectivorous passerine birds were highest in the mechanically managed vineyard. The chemically managed vineyard had lower species richness and abundance in comparison to the mechanically managed vineyard. In contrast, the conventionally managed plot had the lowest bird diversity, abundance, and species richness of all three plots. Landscape diversity was similar across the three vineyards.Conclusion Although our findings are preliminary and more research and replications are needed, we demonstrate that mechanically managed herbaceous cover corridors in vineyards, have positive impacts on the resident bird communities. © 2014 British Trust for Ornithology.