CONCLUSIONS

The two mountains present several differences. Kallidromo is more wooded and its openings are three times smaller in area compared to Oiti. Moreover, Oiti shows less biomass productivity but maintains animal populations of all categories and in greater numbers. The preference in recent years towards beef cattle (at the expense of sheep) has not been studied over time and we do not know the consequences. The maintenance of openings in both mountains is required. Extensive animal husbandry could be practiced in a more correct way and could be included as an important practice and management measure for biodiversity conservation. This means that the competent state and regional services should introduce new management measures and include grazing in the practices of controlling openings and biodiversity in balance.

INTERVENTIONS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THESSALY’S RURAL LANDSCAPE TO MAKE IT MORE FRIENDLY TO FARMLAND BIRD SPECIES

Konstantinos Vlachopoulos

PhD student Laboratory of Ecosystem Management and Biodiversity, Department of Agriculture, Plant Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece Fytokou Street, 38446, Nea Ioania, Magnesia kostisvlachopoulos@gmail.com

© Konstantinos Vlachopoulos Ι A male lesser kestrel is about to leave its nest after offering food to the incubating female.

Human activities, particularly agriculture and animal husbandry, have had a significant impact on the evolution of the Mediterranean rural environment. More than 50% of the surface of the European Union is covered by agricultural land. Since its widespread adoption in 1960, the high-yield model of agriculture has increased the amount of intensively farmed land, fragmenting the landscape and converting complex natural ecosystems with high species richness into monocultures. Animal species diversity in agricultural ecosystems is declining, and this relationship is strongly influenced by changes in land use and landscape fragmentation. Numerous scientific studies have shown that intensive agricultural practices such as clearing natural vegetation, excessive use of agrochemicals, and tillage with heavy machinery have had a negative impact on the presence of vegetation elements such as hedgerows, individual trees, and uncultivated strips of land between fields. These landscape components carry out a variety of functions and provide ecosystem services such as pollination and CO2 sequestration. Among the major taxonomic groups of creatures that inhabit agricultural areas, birds exhibit the most significant decreases in species diversity and population abundance. In particular, a study which investigated the population trends of 148 European common birds over a 30-year time series, revealed that the overall decline in abundance for 57 species was 39%.

The Thessalian plain is one of Greece’s most intensively cultivated areas. Thessaly has a cultivated area of approximately 5,000,000 hectares, with arable crops accounting for 80% of this total (ELSTAT, 2018). Thessaly’s agricultural landscape is a vast monoculture of hundreds of thousands of acres, with only a few “islands” of natural vegetation. With over 5000 breeding pairs, this area also features the largest population of kestrels (Falco naumannni). The lesser kestrel is a small falcon that feeds on orthopterans (grasshoppers, crickets, and other insects) and coleopterans (various species of beetles) as revealed by a pellet analysis that was conducted in

2016 (Makri et al. 2016). This species prefers to forage at steppe-like grasslands and extensive crops, particularly grazed ones, because it prefers short grass to locate its prey. The average distances that the lesser kestrels travel in search of their prey are differentiated according to sex (Vlachopoulos et al. 2016) The population of lesser kestrels declined dramatically in the mid-1970s, which was attributed to crop changes and agricultural mechanization. Since 2013, population growth has been on the rise. In the framework of the LIFE-Nature project “Conservation and management of Falco naumanni in three Special Protection Areas (SPAs) of Greece” (LIFE11NAT/ GR/001011), agroforestry pilot actions were carried out, among other targets, to enrich the agricultural landscape with vegetation elements, primarily through the creation of hedgerows, the maintenance of uncultivated strips of land, and the planting of solitary trees on field margins.

These interventions are expected to improve the habitat of the Orthoptera, small mammals and Coleoptera, the species’ main prey. The use of an “umbrella species”, such as the lesser kestrel, can benefit other taxonomic groups that are expected to colonize and use these rural landscape structural elements. This project can serve as a springboard for larger-scale action and the overall transformation of the rural Thessalian plain into a more biodiversity-friendly landscape. International experience has shown that combining proper agricultural methods with agroforestry can reverse the effects of intensive agriculture. Furthermore, it is widely shown in literature that agroforestry systems help not only biodiversity but also the local population, because the producer can benefit from tree products in addition to the crop that he harvests, ensuring an additional income.

Konstantinos Vlachopoulos | Interventions in the structure of Thessaly’s rural landscape to make it more friendly to farmland bird species climate

© Konstantinos Vlachopoulos Ι Planting of narrow-leaved ash (Fraxinus oxycarpa), Elm (Ulmus campestris), and Mulberry (Morus sp.) to improve landscape heterogeneity, primarily for the benefit of lesser kestrels’ prey species.