The importance of managing the costs and benefits of bird activity for agricultural sustainability

Abstract

The behaviour of wild animal species in agricultural landscapes may confer benefits to growers through the provision of ecosystem services (e.g. control of agricultural pests) or inflict costs through direct or indirect damage to crops or livestock. The literature on the costs that species inflict or the benefits they provide has evolved largely independently with few attempts to synthesize information across studies. However, managing cost–benefit trade-offs to maximize agricultural productivity while ensuring native species conservation is vital to the future of ecologically sustainable agriculture. Using birds as a case study, we review the two bodies of literature on the costs and benefits attributed to bird activity in agricultural landscapes. In each case, we examine the major types of costs (e.g. consumption of crops) and benefits (e.g. pollination of crops) and assess approaches to quantifying these in terms of changes in crop yield or monetary value. We then synthesize this information to examine options for balancing cost–benefit trade-offs through coordinated and integrated management strategies that consider all aspects of species activity in agricultural landscapes. Employing strategies that successfully balance costs and benefits is fundamental to future food security and agricultural sustainability.

Keywords:

• avian function
• bird traits
• crop damage
• ecosystem services
• integrated management

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (LP0883952) to P. Spooner and G. Luck, and an associated Postgraduate scholarship to S. Triplett. The contribution of G. Luck was supported also by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT0990436). We thank four anonymous referees and the Editor for constructive comments on the manuscript.