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Impacts of agri-environmental schemes on farmland birds in Central and Eastern Europe
Žid, Jeroným ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Szarvas, Filip (referee)
Farmland birds have been decreasing for decades as a result of agricultural intensification. The EU tools for biodiversity protection are agri-environmental schemes (AES), the effectiveness of which has not been sufficiently studied in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. To achieve high efficiency of AES and successfully protect farmland birds, it is necessary to collect the available information in this part of Europe. Among the most effective general measures are buffer strips of permanent vegetation (seed-rich strips, wildflower strips, hedgerows) but also the reduction of pesticides or fertilizers. Another type are targeted measures that are most appropriate for endangered species. When using an AES, it is necessary to consider both the territory of bird species and the impact of the given measure on individual species, as they often differ. Since the most used measures without targeting specific species have been effective, it would be appropriate to combine these measures to have the best possible effect on the birds. Newly, payments to farmers for applying AES are result-based, which is more efficient but it needs to be more attractive to farmers. To improve the Europe-wide farmland bird trend, it is important that many farmers get involved in the AES. Beside to the height of...
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Population trends of forest birds in Czechia
Szarvas, Filip ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Hofmeister, Jan (referee)
Currently, most scientific attention focused on bird population trends is centred on birds in the agricultural landscape. Forest bird research, on the other hand, is given far less space, despite the fact that forests in Europe often form a substantial part of the landscape in some parts. Moreover, it is undergoing drastic changes throughout Europe, and especially in the Czech Republic. In the second half of the 20th century, their quality deteriorated due to air pollution, later regenerated, but other additional challenges have emerged, such as global climate change and epidemics of wood-destroying insects. It is therefore possible to assume their fundamental influence on forest bird populations. However, most of the work examining the effects of the forest environment and forest management on bird populations is only very local, limited to ecologically valuable, and therefore quite specific, habitats, or covering only a small number of bird species. However, data on the evolution of forest birds vary across Europe. In Finland, for example, forest birds are declining, while in neighbouring Sweden the trend is the opposite. In this study, I aim to better map what characteristics of forests affect specific species of birds, in research conducted throughout the Czech Republic. I decided to explore...
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Bird population changes from a historical perspective: a case study from the Czech Republic
Szarvas, Filip ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Koleček, Jaroslav (referee)
Numerous studies focused on the changes in breeding bird populations in the Czech Republic exist, however, these studies are based on data from 1980s onwards. Such studies investigate the effects of environmental changes on various bird groups defined by their ecological traits. Although these studies provided important insights into bird population drivers, considering the start of 1980s as a baseline for comparisons with the current conditions is questionable since the underlying drivers most likely acted for longer time. To bridge this knowledge gap, the goal of my study is to create a comprehensive dataset covering changes in bird populations over three time periods: 1950s/60s, 1980s and recent time (2014-2018) based on the memories of ornithologists who witnessed these times. The next goal is to establish whether the decrease of some species dates from the last 40 years, or whether it predates this period. The results of my study show that certain groups of birds according to their ecological requirements disappear from the Czech landscape faster than other groups. In the groups of species classified by their environmental requirements, the most rapidly disappearing are species bonded to agricultural landscape and urban species. According to the food requirements, the fastest decreasing are...
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