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The importance of woodlots and their ecological characteristics for birds in an intensively managed agricultural landscape
Rajmonová, Lenka ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Šálek, Martin (referee)
Various types of woody vegetation are a key biodiversity refugee in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. However, the role of woodlots, representing an important type of such a vegetation, remains overlooked so far. Whereas the previous studies focused on the effect of their area, shape and isolation, consequences of variation in their habitat quality for biodiversity were not assessed up to now. This thesis is thus one of the first studies focusing on woodlots as a specific habitat for birds in agricultural landscape. My goals were: (I) to find out what is the bird community composition of woodlots in a Czech landscape, (II) to find out, what are the key habitat predictors of bird species richness and abundance in woodlots, (III) to describe differences in habitat preferences among various guilds and (IV) to formulate recommendations for conservational practice. I surveyed birds in 82 woodlots in an intensively managed landscape in Central Bohemia, Czechia, and measured variables describing woodlots' habitat quality together with woodlots' area, shape, isolation and types of surrounding land-use. I recorded numerous forest and non-forest bird species (57 in total), including some endangered farmland birds. The habitat variables showing significant relationships to bird community...
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The importance of woodlots for birds in farmland
Rajmonová, Lenka ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Zasadil, Petr (referee)
One of the outcomes of agricultural intensification is landscape homogenization, particularly obvious in developed countries. Unproductive plots of woody vegetation may represent a refuge for many species within large blocks of open areas. Eventhough it is crucial to assess the importance of such plots for animals in farmland, surprisingly, no synthesis on this topic has been published up to now. Therefore, performance of such an assessment is the main task of this bachelor thesis which is focused on birds since they heavily suffer from agricultural intensification. It was found that marginal vegetation provides not only habitat for breeding and foraging but also ecological corridor for birds᾽ short-distance movement and stopover sites for long-distance migrants. The structure of avian community is affected by specific characteristics of vegetation itself considerably and also by characteristics of landscape in smaller measure. Both farmland and forest birds occur in marginal vegetation, each of these bird groups utilizes these plots in a different way based on its ecological needs, however. The understanding of these mechanisms will allow effective conservation of biodiversity and restoration of once devastated areas. The main goal of conservation should be to ensure heterogeneous landscape mosaic...
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