Multiyear monitoring of bird communities in chlorpyrifos-treated orchards in Spain and the United Kingdom: Spatial and temporal trends in species composition, abundance, and site fidelity.

Ralf Dittrich,Anja Russ,María M Benito,Manousos Foudoulakis,Christian Wolf,Benedikt Giessing,Steve Norman

doi:10.1002/etc.4317

Abstract

The relationship between agricultural practices and the welfare of wild birds has gained increased attention over the last decades. To assess the potential effects of chlorpyrifos on the bird community, a multiyear, multisite monitoring program was carried out in treated cider orchards (in the United Kingdom) and treated citrus orchards (in Spain). Constant‐effort mist netting was used over several consecutive years in the United Kingdom (2012–2014) and Spain (2010–2012). The general structure of the bird community and the presence of breeding species were analyzed. Twelve and 11 bird species (out of 81 and 45 trapped) in Spain and the United Kingdom, respectively, exceeded the 2% dominance value. For a selection of 6 species in citrus and 4 in cider orchards, N‐mixture models were fitted to the number of trapped birds. The abundance of most species was strongly and significantly affected by seasonality. No species showed any indication of reduction in population size over the years. The results of this extensive field program support the indications that chlorpyrifos spray applications present a low risk to the bird community over the years. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:616–629. © 2018 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.

Highlights

The assessment of acute and short-term risks posed by a specific pesticide to wild birds can be based on different methods, such as telemetric monitoring on a wide scale in a multiple-crop and multiple-country approach as described by Wolf et al (2010)
The aim of the monitoring program we describe was to assess the potential long-term risk posed by chlorpyrifos to populations of wild birds in a scientifically robust and environmentally relevant way using a
The comprehensive long-term monitoring program we describe here resulted in valuable insights into the bird communities in citrus and cider orchards in terms of conducting risk assessments of pesticides in general and chlorpyrifos in particular

Summary

Introduction

The assessment of acute and short-term risks posed by a specific pesticide to wild birds can be based on different methods, such as telemetric monitoring on a wide scale in a multiple-crop and multiple-country approach as described by Wolf et al (2010). To assess the long-term risks of bird communities exposed to a specific pesticide, new approaches and appropriate methods for field studies are needed. The aim of the monitoring program we describe was to assess the potential long-term risk posed by chlorpyrifos to populations of wild birds in a scientifically robust and environmentally relevant way using a General background information on avian monitoring in orchards. (Genghini et al 2006; Wiacek and Polak 2008; Bouvier et al 2011) This is a straightforward method, but does not yield the detailed information that systematic bird trapping (mist-netting) provides. The monitoring program aimed to investigate potential effects of chlorpyrifos on bird communities both in citrus orchards in Spain (Valencia) and in pome fruit orchards in the United Kingdom (Herefordshire)

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion