10.5061/DRYAD.RJDFN2Z62
Smith, Olivia
0000-0002-9404-0243
Washington State University
Kennedy, Christina
The Nature Conservancy
Owen, Jeb
Washington State University
Northfield, Tobin
Washington State University
Latimer, Christopher
0000-0003-0063-7506
The Nature Conservancy
Snyder, William
Washington State University
Data from: Highly diversified crop-livestock farming systems reshape wild
bird communities
Dryad
dataset
2019
Crops
bird conservation
agricultural intensification
livestock production
United States Department of Agriculture
https://ror.org/01na82s61
2015-51300-24155
Washington State University
https://ror.org/05dk0ce17
Carl H. Elling Endowment in the Washington State University School of
Biological Sciences
2019-10-15T00:00:00Z
2019-10-15T00:00:00Z
en
189586 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Agricultural intensification is a leading threat to bird conservation.
Highly diversified farming systems that integrate livestock and crop
production might promote a diversity of habitats useful to native birds
foraging across otherwise-simplified landscapes. At the same time, these
features might be attractive to non-native birds linked to a broad range
of disservices to both crop and livestock production. We evaluated the
influence of crop-livestock integration on wild bird richness and density
along a north-south transect spanning the U.S. west coast. We surveyed
birds on 52 farms that grew primarily mixed vegetables and fruits alone or
integrated livestock into production. Crop-livestock systems harbored
higher native bird density and richness relative to crop only farms, a
benefit more pronounced on farms embedded in non-natural landscapes.
Crop-livestock systems bolstered native insectivores linked to the
suppression of agricultural pest insects but did not bolster native
granivores that may be more likely to damage crops. Crop-livestock systems
also significantly increased the density of non-native birds, primarily
European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and house sparrows (Passer
domesticus) that may compete with native birds for resources. Models
supported a small, positive correlation between non-native density and
overall native bird density as well as between non-native density and
native granivore density.Relative to crop-only farms, on average
crop-livestock systems exhibited 1.5 times higher patch richness, 2.4
times higher density of farm structures, 7.3 times smaller field sizes,
2.4 times greater integration of woody crops, and 5.3 times greater
integration of pasture/hay habitat on farm. Wild birds may have responded
to this habitat diversity and/or associated food resources. Individual
farm factors had significantly lower predictive power than farming system
alone (ΔCIC = 80.2), suggesting crop-livestock systems may impact wild
birds through a suite of factors that change with system conversion.
Collectively, our findings suggest that farms that integrate livestock and
crop production can attract robust native bird communities, especially
within landscapes devoted to intensified food production. However,
additional work is needed to demonstrate persistent farm bird communities
through time, eco-physiological benefits to birds foraging on these farms,
and net effects of both native and non-native wild birds in
agroecosystems.
Data Keys are included in second tab of each spreadsheet.