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The influence of supplementary feeding of wildlife on disease transmission and its consequent impacts on population dynamics are underappreciated. In Great Britain, supplementary feeding is hypothesised to have enabled the spread of the protozoan parasite, Trichomonas gallinae, from columbids to finches, leading to epidemic finch trichomonosis and a rapid population decline of greenfinch (Chloris chloris). More recently, chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), has also declined markedly from the second to fifth commonest bird in Britain. Using citizen science data, we show that both declines were driven primarily by reduced adult survival, with the greatest reductions occurring in peri-domestic habitats, where supplementary food provision is common. Post-mortem examinations showed a proportional increase in chaffinch trichomonosis cases, near-contemporaneous with its population decline. Like greenfinches, chaffinches often use supplementary food, but are less associated with human habitation. Our results support the hypothesis that supplementary feeding can increase parasite transmission frequency within and between common species. However, the dynamics behind resultant population change can vary markedly, highlighting the need for integrating disease surveillance with demographic monitoring. Other species susceptible to T. gallinae infection may also be at risk. Supplementary feeding guidelines for wildlife should include disease mitigation strategies to ensure that benefits to target species outweigh risks.

Sustainable use of land is central to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, implementation of policy targeting SDG delivery can be driven off track by external factors. There is a pressing need for rapid, adaptable modelling approaches to support policy development against a background of dynamic changes in environmental and political conditions. An example is the imminent departure of the UK from the EU (Brexit), which requires responsive inputs of robust evidence to inform decision making. We combine existing agri-economic modelling with well-tested environmental models, driven by farm survey and landscape data in an adaptive, participatory approach to assess potential agricultural sector responses to Brexit. We explore potential Brexit impacts on land use, environmental outcomes and agricultural jobs in Wales, UK, where agriculture is dominated by animal production on grassland systems. Three potential post-Brexit trade agreements scenarios are considered: EU Deal; No Deal; and Multilateral Free Trade Agreements. For each scenario potential changes in animal numbers in livestock systems in Wales are converted to predicted land use change at field and farm scale and combined with national data sources and models to explore consequences for the environment and jobs. Potential changes in grazing animal numbers range between − 30% (sheep for No Deal and MFTA) and + 53% (No Deal dairy), affecting 3% (EU Deal) to 17% (No Deal) of agricultural land and creating potential losses of 700 (EU Deal) to 7000 (MFTA) full time jobs. Environmental outcomes are mixed, with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (− 1% EU deal to − 16% MFTA) and variable impacts on pollutant loads to water (N ranges + 3% for No Deal to − 14% for MFTA) across all scenarios. Air pollution is most scenario dependent (+ 11% No Deal to − 12% MFTA), and biodiversity showed a mixed response to each scenario. The findings of this study support Welsh government in developing programmes to manage the Brexit transition proactively, mitigating risks to the environment, rural communities and agricultural sector..

Agri-environment schemes (AES) are key mechanisms to deliver conservation policy, and include management to provide resources for target taxa. Mobile species may move to areas where resources are increased, without this necessarily having an effect across the wider countryside or on populations over time. Most assessments of AES efficacy have been at small spatial scales, over short timescales, and shown varying results. We developed a survey design based on orthogonal gradients of AES management at local and landscape scales, which will enable the response of several taxa to be monitored. An evidence review of management effects on butterflies, birds and pollinating insects provided data to score AES options. Predicted gradients were calculated using AES uptake, weighted by the evidence scores. Predicted AES gradients for each taxon correlated strongly, and with the average gradient across taxa, supporting the co-location of surveys across different taxa. Nine 1 × 1 km survey squares were selected in each of four regional blocks with broadly homogenous background habitat characteristics. Squares in each block covered orthogonal contrasts across the range of AES gradients at local and landscape scales. This allows the effects of AES on species at each scale, and the interaction between scales, to be tested. AES options and broad habitats were mapped in field surveys, to verify predicted gradients which were based on AES option uptake data. The verified AES gradient had a strong positive relationship with the predicted gradient. AES gradients were broadly independent of background habitat within each block, likely allowing AES effects to be distinguished from potential effects of other habitat variables. Surveys of several mobile taxa are ongoing. This design will allow mobile taxa responses to AES to be tested in the surrounding countryside, as well as on land under AES management, and potentially in terms of population change over time. The design developed here provides a novel, pseudo-experimental approach for assessing the response of mobile species to gradients of management at two spatial scales. A similar design process could be applied in other regions that require a standardized approach to monitoring the impacts of management interventions on target taxa at landscape scales, if equivalent spatial data are available.

Agri-environment incentives form a central mechanism supporting changes to land management to provide public benefits. This study assesses the medium-term effects of woodland management on 13 target, specialist woodland bird species, as well as other woodland birds in a single region of the UK. The abundance of breeding birds (using two methods: point counts and territory mapping) and metrics of woodland structure were recorded on sites with Woodland Improvement Grants (improvement sites) and nearby comparison sites (control sites). Initial measurements were made prior to management and repeated 7-9 years later. A separate comparison of changes in bird abundance was made between the managed woodland sites and woodland from similar landscapes surveyed as part of the national Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). There was an increase in abundance of target species on improvement sites compared to a decrease on both control sites and BBS sites, although this was only evident from point count data. The effects on target species were stronger than for other woodland specialists and there was no apparent effect on woodland generalists, suggesting that the management interventions were appropriate for the target species. Changes in woodland structure were generally consistent with the expected effect of management, with lower tree density and greater Bramble (Rubus sp.) cover. However, contrary to the aim of increasing understorey cover, a reduction was recorded within the 2-10 m height category in improvement sites. This contrast is due to the removal of young trees during thinning affecting this height band and the short time period since management to allow regrowth. Our findings show that bespoke management supported through government agri-environment incentives can have a positive impact on target woodland birds. For managed forests, identifying species requirements and how management can be adapted to improve their habitats can be an effective way of delivering biodiversity gains when financial incentives are provided to achieve policy goals.

The Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) ran from 2013 until 2016, and was probably the most comprehensive programme of ecological study ever undertaken at a national scale in Wales. The programme aimed to (1) set up an evaluation of the environmental effects of the Glastir agri-environment scheme and (2) quantify environmental status and trends across the wider countryside of Wales. The focus was on outcomes for climate change mitigation, biodiversity, soil and water quality, woodland expansion and cultural landscapes. As such, GMEP included a large field survey component, collecting data on a range of elements including vegetation, land cover and use, soils, freshwaters, birds and insect pollinators from up to 300 1 km squares throughout Wales. The field survey capitalised upon the UKCEH Countryside Survey of Great Britain, which has provided an extensive set of repeated, standardised ecological measurements since 1978. The design of both GMEP and the UKCEH Countryside Survey involved stratified-random sampling of squares from a 1 km grid, ensuring proportional representation from land classes with distinct climate, geology and physical geography. Data were collected from different land cover types and landscape features by trained professional surveyors, following standardised and published protocols. Thus, GMEP was designed so that surveys could be repeated at regular intervals to monitor the Welsh environment, including the impacts of agri-environment interventions. One such repeat survey is scheduled for 2021 under the Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Programme (ERAMMP). Data from GMEP have been used to address many applied policy questions, but there is major potential for further analyses. The precise locations of data collection are not publicly available, largely for reasons of landowner confidentiality. However, the wide variety of available datasets can be (1) analysed at coarse spatial resolutions and (2) linked to each other based on square-level and plot-level identifiers, allowing exploration of relationships, trade-offs and synergies. This paper describes the key sets of raw data arising from the field survey at co-located sites, 2013 to 2016. Data from each of these survey elements are available with the following Digital Object Identifiers. Landscape features, https://doi.org/10.5285/82c63533-529e-47b9-8e78-51b27028cc7f, https://doi.org/10.5285/9f8d9cc6-b552-4c8b-af09-e92743cdd3de, https://doi.org/10.5285/f481c6bf-5774-4df8-8776-c4d7bf059d40; Vegetation plots, https://doi.org/10.5285/71d3619c-4439-4c9e-84dc-3ca873d7f5cc; Topsoil physico-chemical properties, https://doi.org/10.5285/0fa51dc6-1537-4ad6-9d06-e476c137ed09; Topsoil meso-fauna, https://doi.org/10.5285/1c5cf317-2f03-4fef-b060-9eccbb4d9c21; Topsoil particle size distribution https://doi.org/10.5285/d6c3cc3c-a7b7-48b2-9e61-d07454639656; Headwater stream quality metrics, https://doi.org/10.5285/e305fa80-3d38-4576-beef-f6546fad5d45 ; Pond quality metrics, https://doi.org/10.5285/687b38d3-2278-41a0-9317-2c7595d6b882; Insect pollinator and flower data, https://doi.org/10.5285/3c8f4e46-bf6c-4ea1-9340-571fede26ee8; Bird counts, https://doi.org/10.5285/31da0a94-62be-47b3-b76e-4bdef3037360.

Capsule: Analyses of survey data reveal no clear effects of the removal of European Badger Meles meles, a top predator in Great Britain, on bird populations.\ud \ud Aims: To investigate the effects of licensed Badger culling on bird populations in southwest England using ongoing monitoring data.\ud \ud Methods: Breeding Bird Survey data were used to compare population growth rates inside and outside Badger cull areas in southwest England over a five-year cull period (2013–2017), following a five-year baseline period (2008–2012). Comparative analyses of population growth rates of ground-nesters and of other species were tested for potential influences of Badger predation. We also compared species richness and diversity before and during culling, in treatment and control areas.\ud \ud Results: Most results were non-significant (48 of 58 species) but, where population growth rates were different (P

Aim: Hotspots of human activity are focal points for ecosystem disturbance and non‐native introduction, from which invading populations disperse and spread. As such, connectivity to locations used by humans may influence the likelihood of invasion. Moreover, connectivity in freshwater ecosystems may follow the hydrological network. Here we tested whether multiple forms of connectivity to human recreational activities promotes biological invasion of freshwater ecosystems. Location: England, UK. Time period: 1990–2018. Major taxa studied: One hundred and twenty‐six non‐native freshwater birds, crustaceans, fish, molluscs and plants. Methods: Machine learning was used to predict spatial gradients in human recreation and two high risk activities for invasion (fishing and water sports). Connectivity indices were developed for each activity, in which human influence decayed from activity hotspots according to Euclidean distance (spatial connectivity) or hydrological network distance (downstream, upstream and along‐channel connectivity). Generalized linear mixed models identified the connectivity type most associated to invasive species richness of each group, while controlling for other anthropogenic and environmental drivers. Results: Connectivity to humans generally had stronger positive effects on invasion than all other drivers except recording effort. Recreation had stronger influence than urban land cover, and for most groups high risk activities had stronger effects than general recreation. Downstream human connectivity was most important for invasion by most of the groups, potentially reflecting predominantly hydrological dispersal. An exception was birds, for which spatial connectivity was most important, possibly because of overland dispersal capacity. Main conclusions: These findings support the hypothesis that freshwater invasion is partly determined by an interaction between human activity and species dispersal in the hydrological network. By comparing alternative connectivity types for different human activities, our approach could enable robust inference of specific pathways and spread mechanisms associated with particular taxa. This would provide evidence to support better prioritization of surveillance and management for invasive non‐native species.

1. Increasing landscape heterogeneity by restoring semi-natural elements to reverse farmland biodiversity declines is not always economically feasible or acceptable to farmers due to competition for land. We hypothesized that increasing the hetero-geneity of the crop mosaic itself, hereafter referred to as crop heterogeneity, can have beneficial effects on within-field plant diversity .2. Using a unique multi-country dataset from a cross-continent collaborative project covering 1,451 agricultural fields within 432 landscapes in Europe and Canada, we assessed the relative effects of compositional and configurational crop heteroge-neity on within-field plant diversity components. We also examined how these relationships were modulated by the position within the field. 3. We found strong positive effects of configurational crop heterogeneity on within-field plant alpha and gamma diversity in field interiors. These effects were as high as the effect of semi-natural cover. In field borders, effects of crop heterogeneity were limited to alpha diversity. We suggest that a heterogeneous crop mosaic may overcome the high negative impact of management practices on plant diversity in field interiors, whereas in field borders, where plant diversity is already high, landscape effects are more limited. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our study shows that increasing configurational crop heterogeneity is beneficial to within-field plant diversity. It opens up a new effec-tive and complementary way to promote farmland biodiversity without taking land out of agricultural production. We therefore recommend adopting manipulation of crop heterogeneity as a specific, effective management option in future policy measures, perhaps adding to agri-environment schemes, to contribute to the con-servation of farmland plant diversity. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; German Ministry of Research and Education; Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Grant/Award Number: ANR-11-EBID-0004; Canada Foundation for Innovation; German Research Foundation; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; French National Research Agency, Grant/Award Number: ANR-11-EBID-0004; UK Government Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Environment Canada (EC)

1. Public data archiving (PDA) is widely advocated as a means of achieving open data standards, leading to improved data preservation, increased scientific reproducibility, and transparency, as well as additional data use. 2. Public data archiving was primarily conceived to archive data from short‐term, single‐purpose scientific studies. It is now more widely applied, including to large‐scale citizen science biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes which combine the efforts of volunteers with professional scientists. 3. This may affect the financial security of such schemes by reducing income from data and analytical services. Communication between scheme organizers and researchers may be disrupted, reducing scientific quality and impeding scheme development. It may also have an impact on the participation of some volunteers. 4. Synthesis and applications. In response to the challenges of public data archiving for citizen science biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes, the archive function of scheme organizations should be better recognized by those promoting open data principles. Increased financial support from the public sector or from commercial or academic data users may offset financial risk. Those in favour of public data archiving should do more to facilitate communication between nonscheme users and the originating schemes, while a more flexible approach to data archiving may be required to address potential impacts on volunteer participation.

Context Connectivity is fundamental to understanding how landscape form influences ecological function. However, uncertainties persist due to the difficulty and expense of gathering empirical data to drive or to validate connectivity models, especially in urban areas, where relationships are multifaceted and the habitat matrix cannot be considered to be binary. Objectives This research used circuit theory to model urban bird flows (i.e. ‘current’), and compared results to observed abundance. The aims were to explore the ability of this approach to predict wildlife flows and to test relationships between modelled connectivity and variation in abundance. Methods Circuitscape was used to model functional connectivity in Bedford, Luton/Dunstable, and Milton Keynes, UK, for great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), drawing parameters from published studies of woodland bird flows in urban environments. Model performance was then tested against observed abundance data. Results Modelled current showed a weak yet positive agreement with combined abundance for P. major and C. caeruleus. Weaker correlations were found for other woodland species, suggesting the approach may be expandable if re-parameterised. Conclusions Trees provide suitable habitat for urban woodland bird species, but their location in large, contiguous patches and corridors along barriers also facilitates connectivity networks throughout the urban matrix. Urban connectivity studies are well-served by the advantages of circuit theory approaches, and benefit from the empirical study of wildlife flows in these landscapes to parameterise this type of modelling more explicitly. Such results can prove informative and beneficial in designing urban green space and new developments.

Capsule: There is seasonal variation in the benefits that birds can take from restored farmland ponds. Aims: To evaluate season-specific benefits of farmland pond restoration for local bird communities. Methods: Bird communities were recorded at unmanaged overgrown and managed open-canopy farmland ponds over the breeding, post-breeding and winter seasons. Results were compared and related to seasonal variation in environmental conditions of within-pond and marginal habitats to identify predictors of local bird communities. Results: Bird communities at managed open-canopy ponds showed a higher abundance and species richness over all seasons and displayed pronounced seasonal shifts in composition. Warblers and other specialised bird species were frequently observed at open-canopy sites over the breeding and post-breeding seasons but were generally absent from overgrown ponds. While pond management and landscape connectivity had a consistent positive influence on bird communities over all seasons, the importance of other predictors such as bramble area varied seasonally. Conclusions: Our study highlights a key role of pond management for farmland bird conservation. In addition, the identified seasonal predictors of bird assemblages provide valuable lessons for the design of agri-environment prescriptions for farmland ponds, highlighting the importance of bramble-dominated patches and pond marginal habitat over the breeding season and of a strong connectivity between pond margins and surrounding semi-natural habitats throughout the year.

The ability to predict spatial variation in biodiversity is a long-standing but elusive objective of landscape ecology. It depends on a detailed understanding of relationships between landscape and patch structure and taxonomic richness, and accurate spatial modelling. Complex heterogeneous environments such as cities pose particular challenges, as well as heightened relevance, given the increasing rate of urbanisation globally. Here we use a GIS-linked Bayesian Belief Network approach to test whether landscape and patch structural characteristics (including vegetation height, green-space patch size and their connectivity) drive measured taxonomic richness of numerous invertebrate, plant, and avian groups. We find that modelled richness is typically higher in larger and better-connected green-spaces with taller vegetation, indicative of more complex vegetation structure and consistent with the principle of ‘bigger, better, and more joined up’. Assessing the relative importance of these variables indicates that vegetation height is the most influential in determining richness for a majority of taxa. There is variation, however, between taxonomic groups in the relationships between richness and landscape structural characteristics, and the sensitivity of these relationships to particular predictors. Consequently, despite some broad commonalities, there will be trade-offs between different taxonomic groups when designing urban landscapes to maximise biodiversity. This research demonstrates the feasibility of using a GIS-coupled Bayesian Belief Network approach to model biodiversity at fine spatial scales in complex landscapes where current data and appropriate modelling approaches are lacking, and our findings have important implications for ecologists, conservationists and planners.

Agricultural landscape homogenization has detrimental effects on biodiversity and key ecosystem services. Increasing agricultural landscape heterogeneity by increasing seminatural cover can help to mitigate biodiversity loss. However, the amount of seminatural cover is generally low and difficult to increase in many intensively managed agricultural landscapes. We hypothesized that increasing the heterogeneity of the crop mosaic itself (hereafter “crop heterogeneity”) can also have positive effects on biodiversity. In 8 contrasting regions of Europe and North America, we selected 435 landscapes along independent gradients of crop diversity and mean field size. Within each landscape, we selected 3 sampling sites in 1, 2, or 3 crop types. We sampled 7 taxa (plants, bees, butterflies, hoverflies, carabids, spiders, and birds) and calculated a synthetic index of multitrophic diversity at the landscape level. Increasing crop heterogeneity was more beneficial for multitrophic diversity than increasing seminatural cover. For instance, the effect of decreasing mean field size from 5 to 2.8 ha was as strong as the effect of increasing seminatural cover from 0.5 to 11%. Decreasing mean field size benefited multitrophic diversity even in the absence of seminatural vegetation between fields. Increasing the number of crop types sampled had a positive effect on landscape-level multitrophic diversity. However, the effect of increasing crop diversity in the landscape surrounding fields sampled depended on the amount of seminatural cover. Our study provides large-scale, multitrophic, cross-regional evidence that increasing crop heterogeneity can be an effective way to increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes without taking land out of agricultural production. This research was funded by the ERA-Net BiodivERsA, with the national funders French National Research Agency (ANR-11-EBID-0004), German Ministry of Research and Education, German Research Foundation and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, part of the 2011 BiodivERsA call for research proposals. The UK component of this research was funded by the UK Government Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as Project WC1034. The Canadian component of this research was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Strategic Project, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Environment Canada, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. N.G. was supported by the AgreenSkills+ Fellowship programme which has received funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement FP7-609398 (AgreenSkills+ contract). A.G.-T. (Juan de la Cierva Fellow, JCI-2012-12089) was funded by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain). C. Violle was supported by the European Research Council Starting Grant Project “Ecophysiological and biophysical constraints on domestication of crop plants” (Grant ERC-StG-2014-639706-CONSTRAINTS). A.R.’s position at the University of Alicante is funded by the “Vicerrectorado de Investigación y Transferencia de Conocimiento.”

The release of more than 40 million captive‐bred pheasants and red‐legged partridges in Britain annually represents a significant addition to the potential food resource base for predators and scavengers. If this extra food availability subsidizes predator populations, gamebird releases could increase predation pressure on other wild birds, affecting their populations. Using three extensive datasets, we examined the spatial relationships between reared and free‐roaming gamebirds (pheasant Phasianus colchicus and red‐legged partridge Alectoris rufa), and explored spatial and temporal associations between these gamebirds and five species of avian predator (buzzard Buteo buteo, jay Garrulus glandarius, raven Corvus corax, magpie Pica pica and hooded Corvus cornix and carrion Corvus corone crows combined) in lowland rural Britain. Patterns of spatial variation in the abundance of free‐roaming gamebirds across Britain appear to be largely determined by gamebird releases, over and above any effects of land use or habitat. Predominantly positive associations between gamebird abundance (both reared and free‐roaming) and the abundance and inter‐annual population growth rates of predators tested suggest that large‐scale variation in avian predator populations may be positively affected by gamebird releases. Synthesis and applications. The positive associations between large‐scale gamebird release and predator populations shown here may have implications for prey populations if the releases cause increased predation pressure. If this occurs, game management could have an indirect negative impact on some prey species partially counteracting previously reported positive or benign effects of game management on wider biodiversity. Overall impacts of gamebird releases are likely to be determined by complex interactions between multiple factors, including induced predation pressure, better understanding of which would be possible with compulsory recording of releases and numbers of predators killed. Restriction of releases warrants further investigation and consideration as a potential conservation tool for wild bird populations.

Understanding how species richness is distributed across landscapes and which variables may be used as predictors is important for spatially targeting management interventions. This study uses finely resolved data over a large geographical area to explore relationships between land-use intensity, habitat heterogeneity and species richness of multiple taxa. It aims to identify surrogate landscape metrics, valid for a range of taxa, which can be used to map and monitor High Nature Value farmland (HNV). Results show that variation in species richness is distributed along two axes: land-use intensity and habitat heterogeneity. At low intensity land-use, species rich groups include wetland plants, plant habitat indicators, upland birds and rare invertebrates, whilst richness of other species groups (farmland birds, butterflies, bees) was associated with higher land-use intensity. Habitat heterogeneity (broadleaved woodland connectivity, hedgerows, habitat diversity) was positively related to species richness of many taxa, both generalists (plants, butterflies, bees) and specialists (rare birds, woodland birds, plants, butterflies). The results were used to create maps of HNV farmland. The proportion of semi-natural vegetation is a useful metric for identifying HNV type 1. HNV type 2 (defined as a mosaic of low-intensity habitats and structural elements) is more difficult to predict from surrogate variables, due to complex relationships between biodiversity and habitat heterogeneity and inadequacies of current remotely sensed data. This approach, using fine-scaled field survey data collected at regular intervals, in conjunction with remotely sensed data offers potential for extrapolating modelled results nationally, and importantly, can be used to assess change over time.

International audience; Farmland landscapes support very highbiodiversity (Pimentel et al., 1992), includingfunctional species that provide ecosystem services(Tscharntke et al., 2005) and flagship speciesfor wider ecosystems. However, over thepast 50 years, biodiversity has strongly declinedin agricultural areas, with major losses in plants,amphibians, reptiles, arthropods, mammals,and birds, and these losses have been attributedto agricultural intensification (Robinson andSutherland, 2002; Inger et al., 2015). Agricultureintensification refers to the combination of rapidland use changes with, e.g., the replacement ofnatural habitats by crops, and more intensiveuse of existing farmland (Krebs et al., 1999;Robinson and Sutherland, 2002; Stoate et al.,2001). About 50% of all European bird specieslive in rural landscapes (Tucker, 1997), butfarmland birds have declined in Europe muchfaster (57% on the European Union farmlandbird indicator between 1980 and 2013, EBCC,2017) than in other ecosystems, i.e., birds weremore or less stable in forests during the sameperiod (EBCC, 2017). Farmland bird specialistspecies, even extremely common species suchas the skylark Alauda arvensis, have declinedby more than 50% in the past 30 years (Gregoryet al., 2005, Vorísek et al., 2010). Although themain service expected in farmland is obviouslyfood production, species and habitat conservationin agroecosystems are important issues,since farmland species provide other ecosystem services and are often the elements of biodiversitythat are most accessible to humans closeto urban areas (Power, 2010). Biodiversityloss has therefore additional consequences forecosystem function and, ultimately, societalrepercussions.

Biodiversity declines in agricultural landscapes represent a major conservation challenge. In the UK, some agricultural landscapes contain high pond densities, but many farmland ponds have become terrestrialised since the 1960s, with input of organic material resulting in a decrease in the size and depth of ponds that eventually transform into wet woodland habitats. Pond management, including removal of overhanging scrub and sediment, has proven highly effective in enhancing freshwater biodiversity. However, the implications of this management for farmland bird assemblages are unknown. Bird surveys were undertaken at recently managed, open, macrophyte-dominated and at highly terrestrialised, macrophyte-free ponds in the intensively cultivated farmland of North Norfolk, UK. The diversity, abundance and composition of bird assemblages visiting these ponds were compared to determine responses to pond management by tree and mud removal. Avian species richness, abundance and bird-visit frequencies were all higher at open farmland ponds. The observed patterns of bird occurrence were best explained by management-induced reductions in tree shading that resulted in aquatic macrophyte-dominance likely associated with high emergent invertebrate prey abundance. Moreover, we predict that open-canopy ponds offer greater habitat heterogeneity than overgrown ponds, allowing diversified bird use. Overgrown, terrestrialised ponds were preferred by some woodland bird species. Gamma diversity across the entire pondscape exceeded all individual pond alpha diversity measures by an order of magnitude, suggesting distinct variation in the bird assemblages visiting farmland ponds during different successional stages. Pond management that generates a mosaic of pond successional stages, including open-canopy, macrophyte-dominated ponds, could help to address the long-term decline of farmland birds. We strongly advocate increased agro-ecological research in this field, combined with greater emphasis on ponds and pond management options in agri-environment schemes.

There is growing interest in the role that natural capital plays in underpinning ecosystem services. Yet, there remain differences and inconsistencies in the conceptualisation of capital and ecosystem services and the role that humans play in their delivery. Using worked examples in a stocks and flows systems approach, we show that both natural capital (NC) and human-derived (produced, human, social, cultural, financial) capital (HDC) are necessary to create ecosystem services at many levels. HDC plays a role at three stages of ecosystem service delivery. Firstly, as essential elements of a combined social-ecological system to create a potential ecosystem service. Secondly, through the beneficiaries in shaping the demand for that service. Thirdly, in the form of additional capital required to realise the ecosystem service flow. We show that it is possible, although not always easy, to separately identify how these forms of capital contribute to ecosystem service flow. We discuss how applying a systems approach can help identify critical natural capital and critical human-derived capital to guide sustainable management of the stocks and flows of all forms of capital which underpin provision of multiple ecosystem services. The amount of realised ecosystem service can be managed in several ways: via the NC & HDC which govern the potential service, and via factors which govern both the demand from the beneficiaries, and the efficiency of use of the potential service by those beneficiaries.

Spatial environmental heterogeneity (EH) is an important factor determining species richness among many taxa across spatial scales. Increased EH may support higher diversity mainly by providing a higher number of ecological niches. However, the shapes of the EH-diversity relationships and their influence on diversity measures at landscape scales are poorly understood. We used random forests regression models to assess the relationships between different components of EH and bird species richness across Great Britain. Bird data were obtained using BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey methods across 335 UK Countryside Survey (CS) 1-km squares in 2000. Data on components of EH, including; vegetation, habitat diversity, and habitat structure were collected in associated field surveys. Using the results of our EH component-bird richness models, we applied the case of the likely decline of the ash tree, a species of conservation concern and a key component of British landscape complexity, to create predictive scenarios of future bird richness. We found that EH components had a strong positive effect on bird richness and identified six key components that explained over 70% of variance in bird richness. Bird richness responses were strongly dependent on the specific EH components and were generally non-linear, especially for habitat structural variables, such as lines of trees and hedges. Our predictive scenarios showed a decrease in bird species richness only for simulated ash tree decreases within the habitat structural variables of over 90%, and only for areas where this tree species was a particularly abundant component of the landscape. Our findings, showing that bird richness responses differ for EH components, and that non-linear responses are common, could help the ‘design’ of landscapes that enhance bird diversity. In particular, our study indicates that, in some cases, increasing the occurrence of key structural components of habitat (such as ensuring a minimum of 700 m of managed hedges or a minimum of 70 individual trees per km square), could have disproportionally positive impacts on bird richness.

Small, 1st and 2nd-order, headwater streams and ponds play essential roles in providing natural flood control, trapping sediments and contaminants, retaining nutrients, and maintaining biological diversity, which extend into downstream reaches, lakes and estuaries. However, the large geographic extent and high connectivity of these small water bodies with the surrounding terrestrial ecosystem makes them particularly vulnerable to growing land-use pressures and environmental change. The greatest pressure on the physical processes in these waters has been their extension and modification for agricultural and forestry drainage, resulting in highly modified discharge and temperature regimes that have implications for flood and drought control further downstream. The extensive length of the small stream network exposes rivers to a wide range of inputs, including nutrients, pesticides, heavy metals, sediment and emerging contaminants. Small water bodies have also been affected by invasions of non-native species, which along with the physical and chemical pressures, have affected most groups of organisms with consequent implications for the wider biodiversity within the catchment. Reducing the impacts and restoring the natural ecosystem function of these water bodies requires a three-tiered approach based on: restoration of channel hydromorphological dynamics; restoration and management of the riparian zone; and management of activities in the wider catchment that have both point-source and diffuse impacts. Such activities are expensive and so emphasis must be placed on integrated programmes that provide multiple benefits. Practical options need to be promoted through legislative regulation, financial incentives, markets for resource services and voluntary codes and actions., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • Small Water Bodies (SWB) provide a suite of vital ecosystem services. • Hydromorphology of SWBs makes them highly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. • Land-use and environmental changes are disrupting the ecosystem functions of SWBs. • 3-tier restoration is needed: channel, riparian and wider catchment management. • Success will require government prioritization, expert advice, and stakeholder buy-in.

Agricultural intensification is one of the main causes for the current biodiversity crisis. While reversing habitat loss on agricultural land is challenging, increasing the farmland configurational heterogeneity (higher field border density) and farmland compositional heterogeneity (higher crop diversity) has been proposed to counteract some habitat loss. Here, we tested whether increased farmland configurational and compositional heterogeneity promote wild pollinators and plant reproduction in 229 landscapes located in four major western European agricultural regions. High-field border density consistently increased wild bee abundance and seed set of radish (Raphanus sativus), probably through enhanced connectivity. In particular, we demonstrate the importance of crop–crop borders for pollinator movement as an additional experiment showed higher transfer of a pollen analogue along crop–crop borders than across fields or along semi-natural crop borders. By contrast, high crop diversity reduced bee abundance, probably due to an increase of crop types with particularly intensive management. This highlights the importance of crop identity when higher crop diversity is promoted. Our results show that small-scale agricultural systems can boost pollinators and plant reproduction. Agri-environmental policies should therefore aim to halt and reverse the current trend of increasing field sizes and to reduce the amount of crop types with particularly intensive management. This research was funded by the ERA-Net BiodivERsA, with the national funders French National Research Agency (ANR-11-EBID-0004), German Ministry of Research and Education (FKZ:01LC1104A) and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, part of the 2011 BiodivERsA call for research proposals. The contribution from the UK was funded by the UK Government Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as project WC1034.

Human activities are causing rapid environmental change at a global scale. Urbanization is responsible for some of the most extreme human-altered habitats and is a known driver of evolutionary change, but evidence and understanding of these processes is limited. Here, we investigate the potential underlying mechanisms contributing to the contemporary evolution of migration behaviour in the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla). Blackcaps from central Europe have been wintering in urban areas of Britain with increasing frequency over the past 60 years, rather than migrating south to the Mediterranean. It has been hypothesized that the popularization of providing supplementary foods for wild birds within Britain may have influenced this marked migratory change, but quantifying the selective forces shaping evolutionary changes remains challenging. Using a long-term national scale data set, we examine both the spatial distribution and interannual variation in blackcap wintering behaviour in Britain in relation to supplementary food availability and local climate. Over a 12-year period, we show that blackcaps are becoming increasingly associated with the provision of supplementary foods in British gardens, and that the reliability of bird food supplies is influencing their winter distribution at a national scale. In addition, local climatic temperatures and broader scale weather variation are also important determinants of blackcap wintering patterns once they arrive in Britain. Based on our findings, we conclude that a synergistic effect of increased availability of feeding resources, in the form of garden bird food, coupled with climatic amelioration, has enabled a successful new wintering population to become established in Britain. As global biodiversity is threatened by human-induced environmental change, this study presents new and timely evidence of the role human activities can play in shaping evolutionary trajectories.

The statistical modelling of count data permeates the discipline of ecology. Such data often exhibit overdispersion compared to a standard Poisson distribution, so that the variance of the counts is greater than that of the mean. Whilst modelling to reveal the effects of explanatory variables on the mean is commonplace, overdispersion is generally regarded as a nuisance parameter to be accounted for and subsequently ignored. Instead we propose a method that models the overdispersion as a biologically interesting property of a dataset and show how novel inference is provided as a result. We adapted the double hierarchical generalized linear model approach to create an easily extendible model structure that quantifies the influence of explanatory variables on the overdispersion of count data, and apply it to farmland birds. These data were from a study within Irish agricultural ecosystems, in which total bird species abundance and the abundance of farmland indicator species were compared on dairy and non-dairy farms in the winter and breeding seasons. In general, overdispersion in bird counts was greatest on dairy farms compared with non-dairy farms, and for total bird numbers, overdispersion was greatest on dairy farms in winter. Our code is fitted using the Bayesian package Rstan, and we make all code and data available in a GitHub repository. Within a Bayesian framework, this approach facilitates a meaningful quantification of the effects of categorical explanatory variables on any response variable with a tendency to overdispersion that has a meaningful biological or ecological explanation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Butler and Norris (2013) describe a modelling framework designed to predict farmland bird population trends with reference to the resources provided by the habitats found at the sites. There are several important problems with the approach taken by Butler and Norris and with its suitability for the specific data to which it is applied. Principally, these are over-simplistic conceptual assumptions about habitat effects on abundance, analytical inefficiencies, a failure to consider stochasticity in annual survey data and an absence of evidence linking habitat information recorded in the field to true resource provision. Modelling frameworks can be valuable alternatives to expensive field data collection for predicting the effects of environmental change and sound new initiatives in this field would be welcome.

Urban expansion increases fragmentation of the landscape. In effect, fragmentation decreases connectivity, causes green space loss and impacts upon the ecology and function of green space. Restoration of the functionality of green space often requires restoring the ecological connectivity of this green space within the city matrix. However, identifying ecological corridors that integrate different structural and functional connectivity of green space remains vague. Assessing connectivity for developing an ecological network by using efficient models is essential to improve these networks under rapid urban expansion. This paper presents a novel methodological approach to assess and model connectivity for the Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) and Yellow-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) in three cities (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Jakarta, Indonesia and Metro Manila, Philippines). The approach identifies potential priority corridors for ecological connectivity networks. The study combined circuit models, connectivity analysis and least-cost models to identify potential corridors by integrating structure and function of green space patches to provide reliable ecological connectivity network models in the cities. Relevant parameters such as landscape resistance and green space structure (vegetation density, patch size and patch distance) were derived from an expert and literature-based approach based on the preference of bird behaviour. The integrated models allowed the assessment of connectivity for both species using different measures of green space structure revealing the potential corridors and least-cost pathways for both bird species at the patch sites. The implementation of improvements to the identified corridors could increase the connectivity of green space. This study provides examples of how combining models can contribute to the improvement of ecological networks in rapidly expanding cities and demonstrates the usefulness of such models for biodiversity conservation and urban planning.

Agri-environment schemes (AESs) have shown mixed success across Europe in terms of meeting environmental targets. Tir Gofal, the first widespread AES in Wales, ran from 1999 to 2013. Here we test the effects of its options on bird population growth rates, using the annual BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Using over 400 1-km BBS squares, we applied a log-linear analytical approach that models the average change in expected abundance of individual species between consecutive years, testing the effects of spatio-temporal covariates (here, local quantities of Tir Gofal management and appropriate controls). Management options within the scheme were grouped according to their intended mode of impact on birds and commonalities in the habitat changes that they describe. Overall, 28/97 tests conducted produced positive results, and only four negative ones, a pattern that was also found among priority species alone (14 and two of 58 tests, respectively), involving eight of 17 priority species in Wales. Out of the ten groups of options considered, those concerning woodland, scrub and hedgerows were the most successful, each showing a predominance of positive effects across the bird species tested. Arable and grassland open-field options produced some positive effects, but failed to deliver detectable benefits for priority species, with wet grassland and waders being a particular gap. The non-significant effects found may reflect low analytical power, confounded option and landscape variation or failures of those options to address the key factors limiting species’ populations. Overall, however, this study provides good evidence that Tir Gofal had positive effects on many target bird populations in Wales, showing that the scheme contributed positively to key conservation policy targets, even if significant effects were not detectable on all such species.

Political institutions are keen to use the best available scientific knowledge in decision-making. For environmental policy, relevant scientific evidence can be complex and extensive, so expert judgment is frequently relied upon, without clear links to the evidence itself. We propose a new transparent process for incorporating research evidence into policy decisions, involving independent synopsis of evidence relating to all possible policy options combined with expert evaluation of what the evidence means for specific policy questions. We illustrate the process using reforms of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy currently being negotiated. Under the reform proposals, 30% of direct payments to farmers will become conditional upon three “compulsory greening measures.” Independently, we compiled and evaluated experimental evidence for the effects of 85 interventions to protect wildlife on northern European farmland, 12 of which correspond to aspects of the compulsory greening measures. Our evaluation clearly indicates evidence of consistent wildlife benefits for some, but not all, of the greening measures. The process of evidence synopsis with expert evaluation has three advantages over existing efforts to incorporate evidence into policy decisions: it provides a clear evidence audit trail, allows rapid response to new policy contexts, and clarifies sources of uncertainty.

Night time illumination of cities is undergoing radical change through the adoption of new street lighting technologies, but the impacts of these large-scale changes on biodiversity have not been explored. Moths are of particular concern because of their nocturnal ‘flight-to-light’ responses. Here we examine in situ effects of (1) street lamp replacement and (2) the spatial distribution of local street lighting on garden moth communities in Birmingham, UK, to determine whether current shifts in street lighting infrastructure are leading to an increased attraction of moths into suburban areas. Using a unique beforeafter- control-impact survey, we show that switching from narrow (low-pressure sodium) to broad spectrum (high-pressure sodium) lamps significantly increases the diversity of macro-moths in suburban gardens. Furthermore, we demonstrate the complex ways in which the moth community differentially responds to variation in street lighting characteristics. In particular we found that macro-moth attraction was greatest at high lamp densities, whilst micro-moth families responded more strongly to street lamp proximity and the density of UV-emitting lamps specifically. Our findings indicate that moths are attracted to suburban gardens with closer, more dense and more spectrally diverse local street lighting, and suggest that suburban areas could represent ecological traps for moth communities if they have insufficient resources to support moth survival and reproduction. Further research is now needed to determine whether street lighting is progressively damaging moth communities, and to understand whether these impacts could be mitigated through changes to street lighting regimes or through the provision of ecologically important habitats in urban landscapes.

Summary 1. Agri-environment schemes (AES) are used extensively across Europe to address biodiversity declines in farmland. In England, Environmental Stewardship (ES) was introduced in 2005 to address the shortcomings of previous schemes, but as for schemes in other countries, assessments to date have revealed little evidence for national-scale biodiversity benefits. 2. Here, we assess the efficacy of ES in driving changes in national farmland bird populations over the period 2002–2010, using BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey data. We tested for associations between ES management options, grouped into categories reflecting intended biological effects (e.g. stubble), and species’ population growth rates, wherever benefits of management might be expected to occur. 3. We found strong evidence for positive effects of management that provides winter food resources (i.e. ES stubble and wild bird seed [WBS] crops) on population growth rates across multiple granivorous species, at three landscape scales. The results for management aiming to provide breeding season benefits (i.e. grassland, field margin and boundary [hedge, ditch] management) showed mixed patterns of positive and negative associations. 4. The results for stubble and WBS provide the first evidence for landscape-scale responses of biodiversity to AES management. The negative relationships identified may also show the importance of management context driving unforeseen predation or competition effects. 5. Synthesis and Applications. This study demonstrates that agri-environment scheme management has the potential to have national-scale effects on avian population growth rates, although our results suggest that some components of the scheme have had little effect on bird populations. Therefore, whilst this study provides the first proof-of-concept for broad-and-shallow scheme impacts on biodiversity, our results underline the importance of targeting towards population-limiting factors, here winter food resources. A combination of low uptake of key in-field options that provide winter seed and a failure to cover the late-winter period effectively explains the lack of national population responses. Such issues need to be addressed before schemes like Environmental Stewardship will achieve their goals. This study shows the value of feedback from monitoring for informing scheme design, through identifying problems and testing solutions.

Given likely dramatic land use changes in the UK, there is a need to predict their impact upon biodiversity. Such predictions require an understanding of the habitat factors that determine species' abundances. We relate British farmland bird abundance at the 1 km square scale to three variable sets: landscape composition (for example, areas of woodland, urban and arable), field boundary characteristics and cropping. We then use multi-model inference to summarize model fits for each variable set and compare their explanatory power to identify the relative importance of the three forms of description of the farm landscape. The important variables across species within each set show the habitat features that are most significant for the farmland bird community. Models comprising landscape variables provided the best fits for 21 of 31 bird species, while field boundary variables were most important for seven species and cropping variables for one. After controlling for landscape influences, we then found that field boundary variation was slightly more influential than cropping. These patterns remained when farmland-specialist species were considered alone. This shows that landscapes are the most important determinant of bird abundance and that cropping patterns and field boundary characteristics are influential only within the constraints of landscape structure. However, boundaries and, especially, crops remain important from a management perspective because they are more volatile, and can still drive population change. Important single variables that affected multiple species included woodland (predominantly negative even within farmland-dominated landscapes), hedges with trees (providing nesting habitat and song-posts) and heterogeneity both of landscapes and of cropping (predominantly positive effects). The results indicate which habitat features offer the most scope for induced population changes via management action and potentially provide relationships for input into predictive models with respect to land-use change.

It has recently been proposed that losses in farmland habitat heterogeneity may have been a primary driver of the profound declines exhibited by many farmland bird species in recent decades. However, it has yet to be demonstrated which facets of heterogeneity and what spatial scales are most important for birds. Here we analyse the relationship between abundance and features of landscape heterogeneity at three spatial scales (1, 9 and 25 km2) for 32 bird species commonly associated with farmland. Heterogeneity was quantified using three contrasting indices reflecting 1) the spatial mixing of land uses, 2) variation in field sizes and 3) the density of field boundaries. The spatial mixing of land-uses explained, on average, the most variation in, and was most likely to be positively associated with, abundance at all spatial scales. The majority of species (66–75%, depending on the spatial scale) were more common in heterogeneous landscapes overall; however, migrants, those under a high level of conservation concern and farmland specialist species tended to be less abundant in more heterogeneous landscapes at all scales. Ground-nesting species were also more likely to be found in more homogeneous habitats than non-ground-nesters, but only at the finest spatial scale. Relationships between abundance and heterogeneity were generally consistent across spatial scales; however, species of high conservation concern had more variable associations compared with other species. These results highlight a potential role for farmland habitat heterogeneity in determining the abundance of many farmland species but suggest that population responses to an increase in heterogeneity would not be unanimously positive and would probably have negative impacts on some species, notably those that are already threatened.

Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes can be increased with conversion of some production lands into 'more-natural'- unmanaged or extensively managed - lands. However, it remains unknown to what extent biodiversity can be enhanced by altering landscape pattern without reducing agricultural production. We propose a framework for this problem, considering separately compositional heterogeneity (the number and proportions of different cover types) and configurational heterogeneity (the spatial arrangement of cover types). Cover type classification and mapping is based on species requirements, such as feeding and nesting, resulting in measures of 'functional landscape heterogeneity'. We then identify three important questions: does biodiversity increase with (1) increasing heterogeneity of the more-natural areas, (2) increasing compositional heterogeneity of production cover types and (3) increasing configurational heterogeneity of production cover types? We discuss approaches for addressing these questions. Such studies should have high priority because biodiversity protection globally depends increasingly on maintaining biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes.

Capsule Hedgerows and margins managed under agri‐environment schemes appear to attract greater numbers of some farmland bird species. Aims To examine fine‐scale habitat associations of farmland birds to determine whether Entry Level Stewardship, the wider countryside agri‐environment scheme for England, provides a mechanism for affecting population changes. Methods Ninety‐seven 1‐km squares in East Anglia were surveyed to create two‐dimensional habitat maps showing the location of all habitat patches and associated stewardship management. Modified territory‐mapping techniques were used to produce relative estimates of bird numbers within each discrete habitat patch within each square. The effect of Entry Level Stewardship on species density was then analysed using glms. Results Boundaries managed under Entry Level Stewardship appeared to attract higher densities of Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Common Whitethroats and Yellowhammers. Margins managed under the scheme also had higher densities of Yellowhammers. Concl...

The Entry Level Stewardship scheme, introduced in 2005, is the first non-competitive, broad-uptake scheme designed to deliver simple but effective environmental management on farms throughout England. While previous analysis suggests that the benefits of the scheme at the national scale may be limited thus far, efficacy may vary on a regional basis because of spatial differences in the uptake of individual options, in local environmental resource gaps or in the population status of key species. We assessed the influence of Entry Level Stewardship on regional population changes between 2005 and 2008 of farmland bird species. Trends were derived from standardised surveys carried out across eight geographical regions in England in more than 2000 lowland farmland 1 km squares. Birds showed apparent region-specific population trends and responses to Stewardship options. Boundary management had a positive association with the population trends of several species in both Yorkshire and the North West. Neither grass field margins nor the provision of winter foraging resources appeared to have any substantial benefits across any regions. An important influence of regional context was suggested by contrasting effect of management on some species, such as linnet, across regions. This study suggests that there are regional differences in the efficacy of options and responses of bird populations, although the number of tests conducted means that some of the apparent results may represent statistical artefacts. Nevertheless, this study suggests that agri-environment schemes like Entry Level Stewardship would be improved by greater consideration of regionality in biodiversity responses and efficacy than is currently common in standard schemes.

There is currently little evidence that wider countryside agri-environment scheme (AES) management has led to population-level benefits for farmland birds and it is timely to consider why this might be the case, so that AES options can be improved if necessary. Two reasons why particular options might not deliver landscape-scale population benefits are that they do not take account of the full temporal scale of a resource gap for birds and that they do not provide resources at an appropriate spatial scale for the target population. This paper reviews the published evidence on both issues, focusing on the results of landscape-scale field experiments that used winter seed provision as a model AES option. There is strong evidence that most existing measures that aim to provide over-winter food resources for granivorous birds fail to do so during the late winter period, when the need for the resource is likely to be greatest. Consideration of within-season changes, such as vegetation growth and management of vegetation height, could also increase the value of options such as field margins for birds. Published research and new data together suggest that a separation of c. 1 km between winter food patches would provide all individuals in local Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella populations with access to the resource. This separation tallies well with the recommendation in Environmental Stewardship in England that seed crop patches should be sown in patches no larger than 2 ha, with no more than 3 ha/km 2 . Spatial scale issues could also be critical for AES success in terms of the degree to which complementary resources, within or between seasons, are sufficiently close to one another for the same birds to access the resources that they need. Although they are based on sound evidence, modern AESs might still be improved by revision of their organization or management prescriptions. Revisions that take both the temporal and the spatial scale of resource provision into account will be necessary if farmland bird population recovery goals are to be met. Such revisions could include seed crops or mixes managed specifically to provide food in late winter and the coordination of AES agreements between neighbouring farms to ensure that sufficient resources are provided at the appropriate spatial scale.

Agri-environment schemes (AES) are central to the conservation of Europe's farmland biodiversity. The UK Government's Public Service Agreement target seeks to reverse the decline of farmland birds in England by 2020 through the use of AES. The Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) scheme, introduced in 2005, is the first non-competitive, broad-uptake stewardship scheme designed to deliver simple but effective environmental management on farms throughout England. Approximately 5 million hectares of farmland are currently entered into Environmental Stewardship (ES) agreements, and given the scale of this investment it is important to verify the efficacy of ELS as a mechanism for delivering biodiversity benefits. We used spatially referenced ES agreement data to assess the influence of specific management options and combinations of options on farmland bird population changes between 2005 and 2008 derived from standardized surveys carried out on over 2000 lowland farmland 1-km squares in England. The results showed only limited evidence for short-term effects of ES. Only Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra and Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris showed some landscape-specific positive associations with area under ELS management. There was also limited evidence for positive associations between specific management options and the population changes of the species at which they were aimed. The current pattern of option uptake may be limiting benefits of ELS, with boundary management accounting for over 50% of scheme compensation value. However, the time required for option maturation and the time lags in bird population responses to environmental change mean that it is too early to reach definitive conclusions about the success or failure of the scheme. The findings of this study will assist in the development of ELS by feeding into the 5-year review scheduled for 2010 and have implications for the development of similar schemes elsewhere in Europe.

Poor overwinter survival caused by low food availability represents the most likely mechanism behind the decline, and failure to recover, of many farmland passerine populations. Management to enhance food resources is now in place via agri-environment schemes (AESs) such as Environmental Stewardship in England, but the measures concerned probably fail to provide a significant seed resource in late winter. Landscape-scale experimental feeding over six winters was used to investigate the variation in demand for supplementary food from farmland birds between November and March. Quadratic modelling of the temporal variation in (semi-)weekly bird-use data from experimental feeding stations showed some evidence of curvilinear changes through the winter for all of the 11 granivorous or omnivorous species considered. For generalists and human-associated granivores, peak use of supplementary food was found in January or earlier, suggesting that harsh weather is the principal influence. However, peaks occurred in February or later for Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch and Dunnock, suggesting an effect of ambient food availability. These species depend on seed in farmland in winter and three of them have declined, probably because of reduced survival (rather than poor breeding success). It is likely that current farming practices, including existing agri-environment prescriptions, do not provide enough food in late winter for such species and that the loss of set-aside will exacerbate this problem. Revisions of management guidelines and crop content for AES stubble and sacrificial crop prescriptions are needed to ensure late winter seed availability for farmland birds.