CENTRAL ARGENTINA by ANDREA
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CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF BIRDS IN AGROECOSYSTEMS IN EAST- CENTRAL ARGENTINA by ANDREA PAULA GOIJMAN (Under the Direction of MICHAEL J. CONROY) ABSTRACT Bird conservation, and associated ecosystem services, is challenged by agricultural intensification and expansion. In Pampas grassland and Espinal forest ecoregions of east-central Argentina these processes have been ongoing and rapid, requiring the assessment of their impact on biodiversity so as to recommend management alternatives. The objective of this study was to gather evidence to inform decision-making for bird conservation in agroecosystems, focusing on foraging guilds and potential ecosystem services provided. I evaluated the effects of land use on birds at a regional scale in the Pampas and Espinal, using 10 years of a regional bird monitoring program, modeling occupancy with hierarchical multi-species dynamic models using a Bayesian approach. At a local scale, I evaluated factors influencing the use of soybean fields and borders by birds, using bird surveys and arthropod sampling in 78 borders and 20 soybean fields, in four crop stages for two years. I analyzed bird occupancy using multiple-groups single- season models, separating field interior and edges, and fitting Poisson mixed models for counts of the orders of arthropods consumed by birds. I used structured decision making (SDM) to find optimal management strategies to integrate bird conservation with soybean agriculture. I demonstrated how the regional scale results can be used as a tool for decision-making, mapping species-based spatial distributions over time. Although potential ecosystem services offered by birds were distributed throughout the study area, few species could provide them in crop dominated areas. Most raptors, unlike other guilds, were associated with soybean. Most insectivore gleaners seemed unaffected by crops, suggesting their perception of landscape at smaller scales. Birds in soybean fields are mainly those common in agroecosystems, some likely providing pest control service, while most guilds benefited from native trees in borders. Counts of arthropods preyed by birds remained mostly constant throughout the soybean cycle. Finally, I identified the objectives of the SDM process: maximizing insectivorous birds and farmers’ well- being, while minimizing management costs. Reducing insecticide applications in soybean, and either planting trees in borders or no management, were the best decisions dependent on constraints of cost allocation and percent of managed border. INDEX WORDS: Birds, Foraging Guilds, Ecosystem Services, Monitoring, Occupancy Estimation, Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling, Structured Decision Making, Conservation, Agriculture, Soybean, Borders, Argentina CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF BIRDS IN AGROECOSYSTEMS IN CENTRAL ARGENTINA by ANDREA PAULA GOIJMAN FORB, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2014 © 2014 Andrea Paula Goijman All Rights Reserved CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF BIRDS IN AGROECOSYSTEMS IN CENTRAL ARGENTINA by ANDREA PAULA GOIJMAN Major Professor: Michael J. Conroy Committee: Jeffrey Hepinstall-Cymerman Robert J. Cooper John P. Carroll Nicole A. Lazar Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2014 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to all those people who have a dream... …and are brave enough to go for it. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Michael Conroy for the opportunity to pursue my PhD under his guidance; I have no words that could explain how thankful I am. Six years ago when I met Mike in Argentina, I never thought I could learn so much from one person. He opened the doors to countless opportunities that have made me grow as a scientist and a person, and have always been very supportive. Therefore, I will be to him infinitely grateful. Thanks to my committee members Drs. Jeff Hepinstall-Cymerman, Bob Cooper, John Carroll, and Nicole Lazar for their support and guidance. Thanks especially to Jeff, for entrusting me with my four- legged best friend, Bella. Thanks to my research group in Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Argentina. Thank you “Biodiversos” for being always there for me, for your friendship, help, and support. Thanks to María Elena Zaccagnini, the founder and coordinator of our team, who has from the beginning of my career always provided me with support, encouraged me to pursue my PhD in United States, and has been there as a mentor, colleague, and friend. Thanks to Jaime Bernardos, Noelia Calamari, and Gregorio Gavier for sharing your expertise in different topics which became a fundamental a part of this dissertation. Special thanks to “las ángeles de Charly” for many years of friendship, field work, and support: Laura Solari, Julieta Decarre, and Romina Suarez. Thanks to Brenda Riera, Laura Medero, Jimena Damonte, Julie Brodeur, Belén Poliserpi, Yanina Sica, Sonia Canavelli, Sebastián Dardanelli, and Julieta Von Thungen. Special thanks to Vanina Varni for fieldwork help and her eternal patience classifying arthropods. Thanks to Belén Poliserpi, Jimena Damonte, Matías Morales, José Segovia, v Alejandro Znidar, who also collaborated with field work. Thanks to Guillermo Stamati, and Maria Jose Marnetto, who collaborated with farmer’s interviews in Argentina. Drs. Jeff Thompson, Elise Zipkin, Vivina Ruiz-Gutierrez, Marc Kéry, Rebecca Moore, Gary Green, also collaborated with their expertise. I also want to thank all the farmers and landowners that collaborated by allowing us to carry out the study in their fields and providing us with information about applied agrochemicals, as well as those who collaborated in the interviews. I finally thank all the people that participated in the field surveys for the regional bird monitoring program. The funds for the entire period of the doctoral program were provided by INTA through the Development and Training Program. Funds for field work have also been provided by INTA Projects AERN 292241 (former 2624), AERN 292221 (former 2622), and PNGA 745. Funds for interviews of farmers have been provided by Graduate School, University of Georgia through the 2011 Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant; and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute (LACSI), University of Georgia, Tinker award: Summer 2011, Graduate Field Research Travel Awards. Part of the funding for avian field surveys in Chapter 2 was provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Grant # 98210-1-G958), the Western Hemisphere International Office (1997–2002) and the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (2003– 2005) (Grant # 2534). I warmly thank my Athens friends for their support and friendship: you will always have a place to visit in Buenos Aires, I hope our friendship lasts through space and time I want to especially thank Angela Romito for being my office/gym/house/SDM/ and all mate, for uncountable shared happy and dissertation-whining moments. Thanks for my friends in vi Argentina and other parts of the world for their valuable support, for understanding that even if I have been far and busy, our friendship remains intact. Last but not least I want to thank my family: my mom, Laura; dad, Mario; my brother, Gabriel; sister in law, Natalia; and especially my niece and nephew, Micaela and Matías, for still considering me a great aunt. All of you thank you: for your support, understanding, and for always being proud of me, it means the world. I also want to thank my new family, my wonderful and loving in-laws: Linda, Doug, Holly, Andras, and “peanut”. Thanks for accepting me as part of the family, and give me all your support. Finally, I don’t have enough words to express how thankful I am to Robin. Thank you for your love, your support, your friendship, and your understanding. Thanks for putting up with so many hours of work and study, thank you for understanding how important this is to me. Thanks for being so brave to join me to continue our life together in Argentina; I'm a very lucky girl. Trust me, everything will be fine. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................1 RECONCILING MODERN AGRICULTURE AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ..................................................................................................1 AGRICULTURE IN PAMPAS AND ESPINAL ECOREGIONS IN ARGENTINA ..........................................................................................................3 BIRDS AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES ........................................................................................................6 DECISION ANALYSIS FOR CONSERVATION ...............................................10 CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE TOWARDS BIRD OCCUPANCY ......12 CHAPTER DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES ................................................16 LITERATURE CITED ..........................................................................................18