Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe (2023)

I reference this paper in almost every science-communication talk I give as an ecologist.<p>It was not a new result by any means, we&#x27;ve had a whole range of other studies showing the same over the last three decades [1]. But it was still a very important study, simply for the sheer amount of data they collated: analysing 170 species trends across four decades across Europe is quite a feat!<p>Taken together, it really drives home the message that modern agricultural practices are shredding the environment, but also that there is a lot of nuance behind biodiversity declines that we need to look into further, and that offer hope for improvement.<p>[1] e.g. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1017&#x2F;S0959270919000480" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1017&#x2F;S0959270919000480</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1038&#x2F;s41598-019-45854-0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1038&#x2F;s41598-019-45854-0</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;conl.12585,https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;cobi.13307" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;conl.12585,https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;c...</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;j.agee.2011.05.006" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;j.agee.2011.05.006</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;j.1474-919X.2004.00375.x" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;j.1474-919X.2004.00375.x</a>

Putting the entirety of Europe into one basket of &quot;farmland practices&quot; is really not a correct way to approach this. There are countries that have lots of tiny farmers, there are countries that have small number of huge farms. Practices between the two are hugely different. Also in the east where cost of living is much lower many farmers don&#x27;t do farming (like my neighbours) but they &quot;keep land culture&quot; for which they are paid by the EU. This means essentially mowing the hay twice a year and doing nothing else. One of my farmer neighbours plants his fields every year, for his bees to make hone from a particular plant he wants honey from. He doesn&#x27;t even collect the results, he just mows it back into the earth. Then there is the amount of woodland area. Compare my country Poland that has over 30% of its area as woodlands and growing with Netherlands(not picking on Netherlands, it is better in other ways). You can&#x27;t. And their map really shows it.<p>So making a statement like &quot;overall decline of bird species due to farming practices across Europe&quot; is just untrue.<p>I&#x27;d love to see some sort of comparison of which farming practices specifically cause which bird populations to decline. Perhaps then we can adapt these tgat work better.

It would be interesting, to also compare the output of farmland practices. If higher input leads to higher output, demand can be met with less land.<p>Here is one example of that tradeoff: &quot;Scale-dependent effectiveness of on-field vs. off-field agri-environmental measures for wild bees&quot; - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;article&#x2F;pii&#x2F;S1439179122000408" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;article&#x2F;pii&#x2F;S143917912...</a><p>Different species and crops may yield different results.

None of these will matter once Ukraine joins the EU. Their soil is the richest and has the greatest depth.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chernozem" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chernozem</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2023&#x2F;12&#x2F;15&#x2F;ukraine-membership-european-union-explained&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2023&#x2F;12&#x2F;15&#x2F;ukraine-memb...</a><p>They will incapacitate the EU&#x27;s ability to farm without subsidies, something they already do heavily.<p>&gt; E.U. farmers currently receive subsidies of more than $200 per hectare farmed. Given its vast arable land, Ukraine would be eligible for billions in payments.<p>&gt;Even with membership many years away, the issue of Ukrainian exports entering the E.U. market has spurred protest, with farmers in neighboring countries lashing out over a glut of grain.

Is it because of the lack of trees at farms that is causing the decline of birds?<p>A side query brought to attention the following research paper: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.extension.iastate.edu&#x2F;news&#x2F;iowa-state-university-research-finds-wind-farms-positively-impact-crops" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.extension.iastate.edu&#x2F;news&#x2F;iowa-state-university...</a> (Iowa State University Research Finds Wind Farms Positively Impact Crops).<p>It seems wind farms hinder winds causing positive effects on farms. By a small stretch of the imagination, trees should do the same thing, which will help with bird populations. And bird sticks on wind towers should also help bird populations.<p>We are a &quot;best practice&quot; away from helping farms, trees, and birds all in one go!

It would be interesting to correlate the decline with the presence of wind-turbines and wind farms not mentioned in these studies.

I think what the article meant to say. “Farmland practices keep Europeans alive”

Hopefully we don&#x27;t see similar outcomes to the smash sparrows campaign: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Four_Pests_campaign" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Four_Pests_campaign</a>

Curiously, nobody seems to be very interested in studying the impact of renewable energy projects for bird populations.<p>Probably hard as hell to get grants for that.