VOGELWELT 132: 101 – 108 (2011) 101

1. IntroductionGrassland – especially on wet sites – is one of the most threatened habitat types in Europe. For many years grasslands have suffered serious changes with almost adverse effects on biodiversity. Grassland ecosystems cover almost 13 % of Poland, and many of the mead-ows and pastures are among the richest in bird species number in Europe (Krogulec 1998; Bański 2007). Grassland birds, especially waders, are amongst the most threatened ecological groups, mainly as a result of abandonment of traditional meadow-pasture manage-ment, drainage, intensified farming and/or enhanced predation by mammals (Langgemach & Bellebaum 2005; hötker et al. 2007; Verhulst et al. 2007; Peh-lak & Lõhmus 2008). This paper describes the popu-lation changes of waders in the largest grassland areas in Western Poland during the last 30 years; it also dis-cusses key factors for the decline of these species.

2. Study areaThe survey was conducted on the 11 largest grassland areas in Western Poland (Fig. 1). Total area of the study sites is 2,835 km2, average size of the single sites is 258 km2 (range: 2.4–600 km2, n = 11). The percentage of meadows and pastures in the individual site varied from 15 % to 80 % (average 44.5 %; Table 1) while remaining area was covered by arable lands

Long-term decline of grassland waders in western Poland

Łukasz Ławicki, Przemysław Wylegała, Andrzej Batycki, Zbigniew Kajzer, Sebastian Guentzel, Michał Jasiński, Robert Kruszyk, Sławomir Rubacha & Michał Żmihorski

Ławicki, Ł., P. Wylegała, A. Batycki, Z. Kajzer, S. Guentzel, M. Jasiński, R. Kruszyk, S. Rubacha & M. Żmihorski 2011: Long-term decline of grassland waders in western Poland. Vogelwelt 132: 101 – 108.

During the periods 1980–1990 and 2000–2010, surveys on breeding populations of waders have been conducted in the 11 largest wet grassland sites in Western Poland, mainly in the valleys of the big rivers Odra, Warta, noteć, and Obra. Changes in the numbers of breeding pairs between these two periods have been studied for five species: northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus, Com-mon Snipe Gallinago gallinago, Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa, Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata, and Common Redshank Tringa totanus. A decline of all five species has been noted during the last 30 years. The most significant decrease concerns Black-tailed Godwit (84.6 %) and Eurasian Curlew (74.6 %), followed by northern Lapwing (66.1 %), Common Redshank (57.8 %), and Common Snipe (44.6 %) although for the latter on the verge of significance. Besides habitat loss through drainage, agricultural abandonment or intensification, a probable reason for the decline of grassland waders in Western Poland was low breeding success caused by enhanced predation, similar as in other parts of Europe. The results prove the declining trend of these species across Europe.

Key words: northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus, Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago, Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa, Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata, Common Redshank Tringa totanus, breeding population, decline, Western Poland.

and built-up areas. Most of the study sites are situated in the valleys of the big rivers (Odra, Warta, noteć, Obra, n = 8), only three sites are placed at a Baltic Sea lagoon, adjacent to a lake and in a river estuary (Photos 1–3). Most of the study sites were wet sedge meadows on peat soils as well as temporarily flooded pastures and halophilic plant communities (Świna River estuary). In the 1980s, these areas were intensively cul-tivated, whereas in the 1990s parts of them became rewet-ted as a result of the abandonment of any agricultural use, causing expansion of reeds and occasionally willow shrubs. During the last years, most of the studied grasslands have been mown and grazed again due to agricultural subsidies and agri-environmental schemes. Quite regular spring (less often summer) floods in the river valleys cause inundation of many large grassland areas.

3.Material and methodsThe material presented in this paper has been gathered during the periods (A) 1980s and 1990s and (B) 2000–2010. It gath-ers published and unpublished data of the authors’ team and the group of associates. For one of the sites (Middle Warta River valley, site 11), the data for the second period is from 1998 (Tab. 1). The bird counts are based on mapping loca-tions of selected wader species in the period between March and June. Estimation of abundance is based on the number of nests found, observation of adult birds with young and breeding behaviour of pairs during the peak of the breeding

102 Ł ŁAWICKI et al.: Long-term decline of grassland waders in Western Poland

season (Gilbert et al. 1996). Each site was visited from 5 to 12 times per year during the breeding period. Changes in numbers between the two periods were analysed for five species: Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa (11 sites), northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus, Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago, Com-mon Redshank Tringa totanus (10 sites) and Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata (9 sites) (Tab. 2). The percentage of changes has been calculated using the geometric mean of esti-mated minimum and maximum size of the population. We used Wilcoxon signed rank test implemented in SPSS 16.0 to assess the significance of the trends. In order to pro-vide some explanations for the observed trends of the five studied species we also checked trends of area size of meadows and pastures in Poland as preferred habi-tat type as well as changes in abundance of Red Fox Vulpes vulpes (annual hunting bags) as important predator during the study period (data from Central Statistical Office in Poland).

Fig. 1: Study area and study sites. Numeration of the sites according to Table 1. – Lage der Unter-suchungsgebiete in West-Polen. Nummerierung der Gebiete wie in Tab. 1.

Site – Gebiet

Description – Kurzbeschreibung

Area – Fläche

Proportion of grassland – Anteil

Grünland

Years of study – Untersuchungs­

jahre

Data source – Quellen

1 Delta of the Świna River 89 km2 15 % A: 1991–1996B: 2006–2010

A: osiejuk et al. 1993; kaliciuk & staszeWski 1997B: ŁaWicki & racŁaWski 2006; autors unpubl. data

2 Szczecin Lagoon 560 km2 15 % A: 1995–1996B: 2001–2010

A: kaliciuk & staszeWski 1997B: ŁaWicki & racŁaWski 2006; staszeWski 2010; autors unpubl. data

3 Lower Odra River valley 600 km2 30 % A: 1990–1996B: 2004–2008

A: krogulec 1998; ŁaWicki et al. 2007B: ŁaWicki et al. 2009

4 Lake Miedwie 160 km2 40 % A: 1990–1995B: 2000–2008

A: krogulec 1998B: guentzel & Wysocki 2004; autors unpubl. data

5 Lower Warta River valley 330 km2 50 % A: 1987–1997B: 2005–2009

A: jerMaczek et al. 1995; BartoszeWicz et al. 2000B: autors unpubl. data

6 Lower Noteć River valley 220 km2 50 % A: 1982B: 2004

A: BeDnorz & kuPczyk 1995B: WylegaŁa et al. 2004; autors unpubl. data

7 Noteć River Floodplain 170 km2 70 % A: 1981B: 2003

A: BeDnorz & kuPczyk 1995B: WylegaŁa 2003

8 Middle Noteć River valley 340 km2 50 % A: 1983-1984B: 2009

A: BeDnorz & kuPczyk 1995B: WylegaŁa et al. 2010

9 Obra River Flood Plain 230 km2 40 % A: 1980sB: 2008–2009

A: BeDnorz et al. 2000B: autors unpubl. data

10 Rogalinecko-Sowinieckie Meadows

2,4 km2 80 % A: 1980sB: 2007–2008

A: Łucka & Winiecki 2000B: autors unpubl. data

11 Middle Warta River valley 134 km2 50 % A: 1980sB: 1998

A: Winiecki 1992B: kruPa & Winiecki 2000

Table 1. Characteristics of the study sites in Western Poland. – Eckdaten der Untersuchungsgebiete in Westpolen.

Study area – Untersuchungsgebiet

Lakes, lagoons – Seen

Towns – Städte

Koszalin

BydgoszczPila

Poznan

Zielona Gora

Gorzow Wlkp.

Torum

Rivers – Flüsse

Szczecin

Ger

man

y

12

34

5

67

8

910 11

N

0 50 km

VOGELWELT 132: 101 – 108 (2011) 103

Photo 1: Meadows at Lake Mied-wie – study site number 4. – Wiesen am Miedwie-See – Untersuchungs-gebiet 4. Photo J. kaliciuk

Photo 2: Flooded meadows in the Noteć River valley – plot number 7. – Überflutungsgrünland im Netzebruch – Untersuchungsgebiet 7. Photo P. WylegaŁa

Photo 3: Meadows in the Obra River valley – plot number 9. – Wiesen im Obra-Tal – Untersuchungsgebiet 9. Photo P. WylegaŁa

104 Ł ŁAWICKI et al.: Long-term decline of grassland waders in Western Poland

Species – Art

Study period– Untersuchungs­

zeitraum

Study site number – Untersuchungsgebiet Nr.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Vanellus vanellus

A 80–90 200–220 250–350 21–28 250–300 400 300 300 – 15–40 500B 50–60 90–105 170–190 15–24 60–120 55–60 42 64 – 1–3 216

Gallinago gallinago

A 13–20 210–230 250–280 16–24 200–300 – 100–170 50–100 50–80 1–4 70B 35–40 150–175 110–120 28–46 20–120 – 56 80–82 10–17 1–2 44

Limosa limosa

A 5–19 4–13 8–11 6–10 50–90 70–100 67–70 80–100 14–15 3–14 300–330B 3 0–1 1–2 0–1 10–16 3–4 4 10 0–1 0–1 68

Numenius arquata

A 5–17 10–14 10–15 13–16 10–15 17–20 60 52–63 20 – –B 1–4 2–3 2–3 1–2 10–12 2 19 10 3–6 – –

Tringa totanus

A 35–50 4–15 60 6–9 40–50 18–20 4–5 9–12 – 2–9 200B 17–21 8–10 13 3–9 26–55 2–3 3 2 – 0 76

4. ResultsIn last 30 years, a decline of all five species of grassland waders was noted in Western Poland (Fig. 2). In four cases (northern Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Eura-sian Curlew and Common Redshank), the decrease was very distinct (over 50 %; Table 3, Fig. 2). The strong-est decline was observed for Black-tailed Godwit and Eurasian Curlew. The northern Lapwing decrease concerned all study sites and, depending on the area size, ranged from 22 to 92 % (n = 10). In the Com-

mon Snipe, a decline was detected for six sites (range: 21–79 %), the abundance was fluctuating or stable in two sites, and at two locations a significant increase was recorded (83–134 %) (Table 2). The numbers of Black-tailed Godwit and Eurasian Curlew dropped at all study sites, ranging from 57–96 % for the former to 20–89 % for the latter. The Common Redshank number dropped in eight sites (range 12–100 %) and at two loca-tions the numbers were similar in both periods. The

Table 2: Number of breeding pairs of grassland waders in the 11 study sites in Western Poland in 1980s-1990s (A) and 2000s (B). Nume-ration of the study sites according to Table 1. – Brutbestände von Wiesenlimikolen in den 11 westpolnischen Untersuchungsgebieten in den Zeiträumen 1980er-1990er Jahre (A) und 2000er Jahre (B). Nummerierung der Gebiete wie in Tab. 1.

Fig. 2: Mean abundances (log-transformed) of the five studied species in the two periods 1980–1997 and 1998–2010 at the 11 studied sites in Western Poland. Numbers indicate particular sites listed in Table 1. Significance of Wilcoxon signed rank tests are given in each subplot. – Mittlere Abundanz (log-transformed) der fünf untersuchten Arten in den Zeiträumen 1980-1997 und 1998-2010 in den 11 west-polnischen Untersuchungsgebieten. Die Nummern bezeichnen die einzelnen Untersuchungsgebiete wie in Tab. 1.

Num

ber o

f pai

rs (l

og-t

rans

form

ed) –

Anz

ahl P

aare

1998-2010

Z = 1.89p = 0.059

Z = 2.94p = 0.003

Z = 2.67p = 0.008

Z = 2.80p = 0.005

Z = 2.80p = 0.0050

11

11

119

9

9

9

9

9

11

11

11

11

11

78

6

8

8

8

8

8

8

8

8

8

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

1

1

1

1

1 1

1

13

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

7

7

7

7

7

7

7

7

7

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

44 4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

5

5

55

5

5

55

5

5

1

1980-97

2

3

4

5

6

1998-2010

1

1980-97

2

3

4

5

1998-2010

1

1980-97

2

3

4

5

6

1998-2010

1

1980-97

2

3

4

1998-2010

1

1980-97

2

3

4

5

0

N. arquataL. limosaG. gallinagoV. vanellus T. totanus

VOGELWELT 132: 101 – 108 (2011) 105

Fig. 3: Area of meadows and pastures and hunting bags of Red Fox in Poland during 1980–2010. – Fläche von Wiesen und Weiden sowie Jagdstrecken des Rotfuchses in Polen im Zeitraum 1980-2010.

Species – Art 1980s–1990s 2000s Change in numbers – Bestandsänderung [ %]

Trend – Trend

Vanellus vanellus (n=10) 2316–2528 763–884 -66.1 ↓↓↓Gallinago gallinago (n=10) 957–1276 534–702 -44.6 ↓↓Limosa limosa (n=11) 607–772 99–111 -84.6 ↓↓↓Numenius arquata (n=9) 197–240 50–61 -74.6 ↓↓↓Tringa totanus (n=10) 378–430 150–192 -57.8 ↓↓↓

Table 3: Changes in numbers of grassland waders in Western Poland during the last 30 years (n = number of sites). ↓ – moderate decline (1–20 %), ↓↓ – strong decline (21–50 %), ↓↓↓ – very strong decline (51–100 %). – Bestandsänderungen von Wiesenlimikolen in Westpolen während der letzten 30 Jahre (n = Anzahl Gebiete). ↓ – mäßige Abnahme (1–20 %), ↓↓ – starke Abnahme (21–50 %), ↓↓↓ – sehr starke Abnahme (51–100 %).

decline in numbers was sta-tistically significant in all spe-cies except for the Common Snipe, which showed changes on the verge of significance (Fig. 2). During the study period the meadow cover-age did not decline, however, the area of pastures showed a two-fold decrease (Fig. 3). Moreover, the index of Red Fox abundance increased distinctly during the last 15 years (Fig. 3).

5. DiscussionDuring the past decades in Europe all the five wader species showed a decline in numbers (Birdlife International 2004). The most threatened species are northern Lapwing, Common Redshank, Eurasian Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit. Eurasian Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit have been qualified as near-threat-ened species on the IUCn Red List (IUCn 2011), and management programmes to help prevent the extinc-tion of these species have been created on behalf of the European Commssion (Jensen & Lutz 2007; Jensen & Perennou 2007).

It is believed that the reasons for the decline of the previously mentioned species in many countries are the loss of breeding habitats and the low breeding suc-cess because of enhanced predation (Grant et al. 1999; Groen & hemerik 2002; Bellebaum & Boschert 2003; Boschert 2005; Jensen & Lutz 2007; Schek-kerman et al. 2009). Loss of breeding habitats might

be a result of: (1) abandonment of grassland use, which leads to overgrowing by tall herbaceous plants, reeds and bushes, (2) too frequent mowing as well as too early first mowing, (3) conversion of grassland into arable lands, industrial sites and settlements, and (4) too intensive grazing (Durant et al. 2008; Ławicki & Wylegała 2011). The decrease in abundance of grassland wad-ers in Western Poland, caused by the loss of breed-ing sites and habitats, has been noticed mainly in the 1990s after the post-socialist big farms had collapsed, and abandoned grasslands started to overgrow with reed and bushes. Other contributing factors include the drainage of river valleys, afforestation of grassland or conversion into arable land, industrial sites and set-tlements (Kaliciuk & Staszewski 1997; Wylegała et al. 2004; Ławicki & Racławski 2006). however, at a large scale, the area of grassland in Poland remained rather stable, therefore it seems unlikely that the decline of the species is driven by the reduction of grassland availability. We suppose that change in habitat quality is of much more importance for the declines. Moreover, it is worth to note the importance of extensively used pastures. Area of this habitat in Poland showed twofold decline during the last decades. Grants for Polish farm-ers who adjust dates and methods of mowing in order to protect broods of birds did not change the situation of grassland waders. This may indicate the impact of factors other than merely the habitat changes.

It seems that in the last years one of the main rea-sons for the decline of northern Lapwing, Common Snipe, Common Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Eurasian Curlew is a low breeding success caused by increased predation. There are no special studies from Western Poland to confirm this hypothesis, but studies in Eastern Poland show a very low breeding success of grassland waders (Chylarecki et al. 2006; Trzciński 2008; Świętochowski 2009). In the Bie-brza Valley, for example, the percentage of nest losses was 44.8–50 % for northern Lapwing, 60–72.9 % for Common Redshank and 62.8–63 % for Black-tailed Godwit. The most significant loss factor was preda-tion, mainly raptors and the American Mink Neovison vison (Świętochowski 2009). In Bug and narew val-

1980

010

0015

00

150100

50

2500

500

2000

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Annual hunting bag – Jagdstrecke (*1000)

Are

a –

Fläc

he (h

a *

1000

)

Meadows – Wiesen

Pastures – Weiden

Red Fox –Rotfuchs

106 Ł ŁAWICKI et al.: Long-term decline of grassland waders in Western Poland

leys between 2004–2005 the average breeding success of grassland wad-ers (northern Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Snipe and Com-mon Redshank) was only 7 %, main predators being Red Fox and hooded Crow Corvus cornix (Chylarecki et al. 2006). In the Pisa River valley in northeast Poland, in 2008 five out of 17 broods of Eurasian Curlew have been destroyed by tractors, another five have been plundered by hooded Crow, stray dogs have dam-aged three more, and one nest with an adult bird was predated by Red Fox. Chicks hatched only from three nests (Trzciński 2008). In the light of these facts the rapid increase of hunting bag of Red Fox is bad news for the studied species. Despite this issue needs further research, the dis-tinct increase in predation pressure seems to be the most likely explanation for the negative trends of the species studied. however, it should be kept in mind that the increase may result from habitat transformation including drainage and prevention of long-lasting spring floods.

Very low breeding success due to predation (par-ticulary Red Fox and corvids) has also been proved by other studies from Western and northern Europe (Berg 1994; Grant et al. 1999; Valkama & Cur-rie 1999; Bellebaum & Boschert 2003; Boschert 2005; Mcdonald & Bolton 2008; Schekkerman et al. 2009). Fletcher et al. (2010) show that long-term and enhanced predator reduction (mainly of Red Fox and corvids) multiplied the breeding success of northern Lapwing, Eurasian Golden Plover Pluvia-lis apricaria and Eurasian Curlew over three times in

Photo 4: Black-tailed Godwit – nearly extinct species in Western Poland. – Uferschnepfe – in Westpolen fast ausgestorben. Photo A. gerersDorf

northern England. In the last 30 years a strong increase of Red Fox population, as well as increasing occurrence of Racoon Dog Nyctereutus procyonoides, American Mink and Racoon Procyon lotor (Panek & Bresiński 2002; Brzeziński & Marzec 2003) has been noted, indicating the significance of mammal predation in Western Poland.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the observers Karol Drab, Adam Kasprzak, Adam Krupa, Dominik Marchowski, Zuzanna Rosin, Paweł Sieracki, Marcin Sołowiej, Artur Staszewski and Jacek Udolf for their help in the field work and contribution of unpublished data. We thank Artur Gerersdorf and Jacek Kaliciuk for providing photos and Agnieszka Piróg for preparation of the English text version.

6. ZusammenfassungŁawicki, Ł., P. Wylegała, A. Batycki, Z. Kajzer, S. Guentzel, M. Jasiński, R. Kruszyk, S. Rubacha & M. Żmihorski 2011: Langfristiger Bestandsrückgang von Wiesenlimikolen in Westpolen. Vogelwelt 132: 101 – 108.Während der Perioden 1980–1990 und 2000–2010 wurden die Wiesenlimikolen-Bestände in den 11 größten Feuchtgrün-land-Gebieten Westpolens untersucht, die sich hauptsächlich in den niederungen der größeren Flüsse Oder, Warthe, netze and Obra befinden. Die Veränderungen des Brutbestandes zwischen den beiden Untersuchungsperioden wurden für die folgenden fünf Arten ermittelt: Kiebitz Vanellus vanellus, Bekassine Gallinago gallinago, Uferschnepfe Limosa limosa, Brachvogel Numenius arquata und Rotschenkel Tringa tota-nus. Alle fünf Arten haben während der letzten 30 Jahre im Bestand abgenommen. Die stärksten Rückgänge betreffen

Uferschnepfe (84,6 %) and Brachvogel (74,6 %), gefolgt von Kiebitz (66,1 %), Rotschenkel (57,8 %) und Bekassine (44,6 %), wobei der Rückgang der letztgenannten Art an der Signifikanzgrenze liegt. Abgesehen von Lebensraum-verlust durch Entwässerung, Aufgabe oder Intensivierung der landwirtschaftlichen nutzung liegt ein wahrscheinlicher Grund für den Bestandsrückgang im durch verstärkte Prä-dation verursachten zu niedrigen Bruterfolg, wie dies auch in anderen Teilen Europas festgestellt wurde. Unsere Ergeb-nisse bestätigen die negativen Trends dieser Arten über weite Teile Europas.

VOGELWELT 132: 101 – 108 (2011) 107

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Wylegała, P., A. Batycki, B. Rudzionek, K. Drab, M. Blank, T. Blank, J. Barteczka, W. Bagiński & A. Konopka 2010: Awifauna Doliny Środkowej noteci i Kanału Bydgoskiego – stan aktualny oraz zmiany liczebności. – Avifauna of the Middle noteć River Val-ley and Bydgoszcz Canal – current state and changes in abundance. Ornis Pol. 51: 43–55.

Łukasz Ławicki ✉, West-Pomeranian nature Society, Flisacza 35e/6, 74-100 Gryfino, Poland;

E-Mail: izuza@interia.plPrzemysław Wylegała, Polish Society for nature Pro-

tection Salamandra, Stolarska 7/3, 60-788 Poznań, Poland; E-Mail: przemo@salamandra.org.pl

Andrzej Batycki, Polish Society for nature Protection Salamandra, Stolarska 7/3, 60-788 Poznań, Poland;

E-Mail: andrrex@wp.plZbigniew Kajzer, West-Pomeranian nature Society,

Wiosny Ludów 3/35, 71-471 Szczecin, Poland; E-Mail: atricilla@interia.plSebastian Guentzel, West-Pomeranian nature Society,

Chopina 51, 71-450 Szczecin, Poland; E-Mail: limicola@interia.pl Michał Jasiński, West-Pomeranian nature Society,

Sikorki 19a, 72-200 nowogard, Poland; E-Mail: czołguczu@interia.plRobert Kruszyk, Wrocławska 5/22, 44-335 Jastrzębie

Zdrój, Poland; E-Mail: brkruszyk@gmail.comSławomir Rubacha, Laski 17, 66-016 Czerwieńsk,

Poland; E-Mail: ochlapusik@interia.plMichał Żmihorski; Museum and Institute of Zoology,

Polish Academy of Sciences, Wilcza 64, 00-679 War-szawa, Poland; E-Mail: zmihorski@miiz.waw.pl

Manuskripteingang: 4. Febr. 2011Annahme: 15. Sept. 2011