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The maintenance of agricultural systems traditional ensures the conservation of steppe birds, the group of birds most threatened in Spain today, say from the Center for Science and Technology Forestry of Catalonia. A group of researchers has participated for two years on a project that has concluded with the proposal to the administrations, organizations and farmers of measures to manage the fallow (arable land that is not seeded for one or more years to rest).
sandgrouse – JORDI BAS | CENTER OF SCIENCES AND FORESTRY TECHNOLOGY OF CATALONIA
“In the current context of an agriculture increasingly intensified, in which you have been disappearing to the wasteland and other scrub natural small size, such as thyme and salt marshes, the fallow land represents a small space of “seminaturalidad” in the agricultural landscape that allows for many birds, and many other agencies, to complete, to a greater or lesser degree, its life cycle,” explain the authors in the manual that have been prepared, published in may of this year. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition through the Biodiversity Foundation is supporting this initiative, aimed at achieving structures plant optimal to increase the availability of food for the birds of the steppe, whose areas of distribution in europe are restricted, in good part, to the Iberian peninsula.
Calandría common – JORDI BAS | CENTER OF SCIENCES AND FORESTRY TECHNOLOGY OF CATALONIA
“fallows provide certain resources to the birds of the steppe that other substrates are not able to provide, given that these develop most of their activity on the ground”, stand out. In comparison with the crops, being land with less agricultural activity, the animals experience less interference while they eat or nest, for example, a fact especially significant when it comes to the breeding season.
Ganga ortega – JORDI BAS | CENTER OF SCIENCES AND FORESTRY TECHNOLOGY OF CATALONIA
The document has focused on the state of conservation of the Little common (Tetrax tetrax), the great Bustard (Otis tarda), the stone curlew common (Burhinus oedicnemus), the sandgrouse (Pterocles alchata), the Ganga ortega (Pterocles orientalis), the calandra Lark (Melanocorypha calandra) and the Terrera common (Calandrella brachydactyla).
Terrera common – JORDI BAS | CENTER OF SCIENCES AND FORESTRY TECHNOLOGY OF CATALONIA
Although for each of the species mentioned above, set forth specific recommendations to manage the fallows, in general, experts advise the following:
• never use any treatment, agricultural during the period reproductive of the birds.
• Not to leave or to strengthen fallow.
• Plan when to apply the tasks agriculture in the fallow.
• it Is preferable to a fallow, old , more than a year, than the new one.
• to Diversify the types of fallows (white surface devoid of vegetation cover all year round); seeded –seeding of alfalfa, for example, to maintain the productivity of these systems, because the legumes help set of biological form atmospheric nitrogen to the soil; herbaceous – temporary abandonment for full cultivation of the earth-).
• Take into account important factors, such as the weather and fertilization of the plot; as well as the spatial distribution of the fallows.
stone curlew common – JORDI BAS | CENTER OF SCIENCES AND FORESTRY TECHNOLOGY OF CATALONIA
“In spite of its uniqueness, unfortunately, is still an important part of the society perceives the steppe-like landscapes as a means of low environmental interest. Probably due to the absence of usual rivers, trees, forests, and, in general, to its lack of lush vegetation, that falsely associate with a high ecological value “, lament David Giralt, Irene Robleño, Joan Estrada, Santiago Mañosa, Manuel B. Morales, Francesc Sardà-Palomera, John Lock and Gerard’s Boot.
Sison common – JORDI BAS | CENTRE OF SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY FORESTRY OF CATALONIA
