10.5061/DRYAD.WPZGMSBM8
Kelly, Leah
0000-0002-3939-4567
University of Sheffield
Douglas, David
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Shurmer, Mike
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Evans, Karl
University of Sheffield
Data from: Upland rush management advocated by agri-environment schemes
increases predation of artificial wader nests
Dryad
dataset
2021
agri-environment scheme
common snipe
Eurasian curlew
mesopredator
rush pasture
2021-02-09T00:00:00Z
2021-02-09T00:00:00Z
en
107973 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Farmland birds, including breeding waders, have declined across Europe.
One frequently advocated strategy to facilitate population recovery is
using agri-environment schemes (AES) to improve vegetation structure. A
key example is cutting dense rush Juncus to open the sward which aims to
increase the abundance of wading birds, for example by improving foraging
conditions. Effects on breeding success are, however, unknown. This is a
critical knowledge gap as high nest and chick predation rates are a key
driver of wader declines. For wader species that nest across a range of
sward structures, e.g. Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata and common snipe
Gallinago gallinago, converting denser swards to more open ones may reduce
opportunities for nest concealment and thus increase predation risk. Due
to the difficulties of locating large numbers of wader nests, we assess
rush management impacts on nest predation risk using artificial wader
nests (n = 184) in two upland areas of England, using fields in which rush
is managed according to AES prescriptions (treatment; n = 21) or
un-managed (control; n = 22) fields. Daily nest predation rates (DPRs)
were twice as high in treatment (0.064 day-1) than control fields (0.027
day-1). Within treatment fields, DPRs were twice as high for nests in cut
rush patches (0.108 day-1) than in uncut rush (0.055 day-1). Modelling
links higher DPRs associated with rush cutting to the resultant shorter
and less dense vegetation. Our results highlight the need to assess how
AES prescriptions that alter vegetation structure impact all aspects of
the target species’ fitness and thus determine population recovery.
Studies using real wader nests should test whether AES rush management
inadvertently creates an ecological trap by altering vegetation structure,
and identify the sward structure and configuration that optimises
trade-offs between foraging conditions and nest predation risk.
Artificial wader nest data ArtificialNestData.xlsx Dataset for analyses of
daily nest predation rates of artificial waders nests in treatment fields
with rush management and control fields without rush management. Each row
is an individual nest. Metadata is available in a second sheet in the
ArtificialNestData.xlsx file. The mean number of corvids and the mean
number of avian predators were calculated from the AvianPredData.xlsx
file. Avian predator survey data AvianPredData.xlsx Dataset for analyses
of avian predator abundance. Each row is an individual visit to a field
with the number of avian predators observed. The sum of the number of
corvids and the sum of the number of avian predators are provided.
Metadata is available in a second sheet in the AvianPredData.xlsx file.