Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage

Copyright © 2013 BirdLife International. We studied foraging habitat selection by Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni throughout the breeding period in south-west Spain by means of transects on which foraging observations were recorded. We focused on the effects of habitat and crop type, but also on the e...

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Autores: Rodríguez, Carlos, Tapia, Luis, Ribeiro, Emanuel, Bustamante, Javier
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/108760
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/108760
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Farmlands
Management
Lesser Kestrel
Agro-environmental schemes
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spelling Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forageRodríguez, CarlosTapia, LuisRibeiro, EmanuelBustamante, JavierFarmlandsManagementLesser KestrelAgro-environmental schemesCopyright © 2013 BirdLife International. We studied foraging habitat selection by Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni throughout the breeding period in south-west Spain by means of transects on which foraging observations were recorded. We focused on the effects of habitat and crop type, but also on the effect of vegetation structure and the presence of agricultural activities in the field on Lesser Kestrel use. We considered both the accumulated use of the foraging area during the breeding season and the instantaneous foraging habitat selection by kestrels. Foraging habitat selection was highly dynamic following crop development and agricultural activities. Almost all major arable crop types showed positive selection during some part of the breeding cycle. Accumulated use by kestrels demonstrated positive associations with wheat and cotton fields and negative selection of permanent habitat types, such as forested areas, woody crops and built-up areas that have no prey or are not used by the species due to unfavourable structure. Vegetation structure appears to play a major role in instantaneous foraging selection. Lesser Kestrels select fields with short vegetation and intermediate cover. They also forage on field margins and where agricultural activities such as ploughing or harvesting that facilitate access to prey are being conducted. Our results help to clarify apparent controversies among previous studies on the subject, highlighting the importance of the heterogeneity of agricultural landscapes around colonies (crops at different growth stages which provide variable vegetation height and cover during the breeding cycle) and the effect that agricultural activities have on facilitating access to prey. Beyond the species-specific approach, our work encourages further studies on habitat selection by farmland birds to account not only for human-based categorisation of habitats (e.g. crop type) but also on objective measures such as vegetation height and cover that influence access to prey and better reflect the high dynamism of agricultural landscapes.Peer ReviewedCambridge University Press2014201420142014info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501http://hdl.handle.net/10261/108760reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1087602026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
title Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
spellingShingle Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
Rodríguez, Carlos
Farmlands
Management
Lesser Kestrel
Agro-environmental schemes
title_short Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
title_full Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
title_fullStr Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
title_full_unstemmed Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
title_sort Crop vegetation structure is more important than crop type in determining where Lesser Kestrels forage
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Rodríguez, Carlos
Tapia, Luis
Ribeiro, Emanuel
Bustamante, Javier
author Rodríguez, Carlos
author_facet Rodríguez, Carlos
Tapia, Luis
Ribeiro, Emanuel
Bustamante, Javier
author_role author
author2 Tapia, Luis
Ribeiro, Emanuel
Bustamante, Javier
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Farmlands
Management
Lesser Kestrel
Agro-environmental schemes
topic Farmlands
Management
Lesser Kestrel
Agro-environmental schemes
description Copyright © 2013 BirdLife International. We studied foraging habitat selection by Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni throughout the breeding period in south-west Spain by means of transects on which foraging observations were recorded. We focused on the effects of habitat and crop type, but also on the effect of vegetation structure and the presence of agricultural activities in the field on Lesser Kestrel use. We considered both the accumulated use of the foraging area during the breeding season and the instantaneous foraging habitat selection by kestrels. Foraging habitat selection was highly dynamic following crop development and agricultural activities. Almost all major arable crop types showed positive selection during some part of the breeding cycle. Accumulated use by kestrels demonstrated positive associations with wheat and cotton fields and negative selection of permanent habitat types, such as forested areas, woody crops and built-up areas that have no prey or are not used by the species due to unfavourable structure. Vegetation structure appears to play a major role in instantaneous foraging selection. Lesser Kestrels select fields with short vegetation and intermediate cover. They also forage on field margins and where agricultural activities such as ploughing or harvesting that facilitate access to prey are being conducted. Our results help to clarify apparent controversies among previous studies on the subject, highlighting the importance of the heterogeneity of agricultural landscapes around colonies (crops at different growth stages which provide variable vegetation height and cover during the breeding cycle) and the effect that agricultural activities have on facilitating access to prey. Beyond the species-specific approach, our work encourages further studies on habitat selection by farmland birds to account not only for human-based categorisation of habitats (e.g. crop type) but also on objective measures such as vegetation height and cover that influence access to prey and better reflect the high dynamism of agricultural landscapes.
publishDate 2014
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2014
2014
2014
2014
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/108760
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/108760
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Cambridge University Press
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Cambridge University Press
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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