Ecological farmlands help protecting bird populations and reducing the effects of global change on the environment, according to a study published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment by the experts Joan Real, Àlex Rollan and Antonio Hernández-Matías, from the Conservation Biology Group of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio).
Ecological farmlands help protecting bird populations and reducing the effects of global change on the environment, according to a study published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment by the experts Joan Real, Àlex Rollan and Antonio Hernández-Matías, from the Conservation Biology Group of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio).
According to the study, which counted on the support from Torres Family, from Vilafranca del Penedès, the ecological viticulture increases the abundance and amount of species of farmland birds, and favours the insectivore bird populations that help the natural control of plagues in ecological crops. This agricultural practise helps improving the resilience of farmland birds –which are especially sensitive to environmental changes- towards the effects of global warming.
Farmland birds: at risk due intensive agriculture and climate change
Changes in agricultural production systems –from traditional to intensive- generated several environmental impacts on the environment, such as the loss of biodiversity. At the moment, intensive agricultural exploitation in Europe caused the loss of millions of farmland birds, which are also affected by global change.
Read more at University of Barcelona
Image: The Conservation Biology Group of the University of Barcelona describes for the first time the beneficial effect of ecological viticulture on bird population in the environment. (Credit: Conservation Biology Group - University of Barcelona)
