Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- PART I FACTORS DRIVING CHANGES IN WILDLIFE
- PART II CONSERVATION IN ACTION
- PART III THE CASE HISTORIES
- 15 Mammals in the twentieth century
- 16 Bats
- 17 State of bird populations in Britain and Ireland
- 18 The conservation of the Grey Partridge
- 19 Reptiles
- 20 Amphibians
- 21 Freshwater fishes: a declining resource
- 22 Riverflies
- 23 Bumblebees
- 24 Butterflies
- 25 Moths
- 26 Dragonflies (Odonata) in Britain and Ireland
- 27 Flies, beetles and bees, wasps and ants (Diptera, Coleoptera and aculeate Hymenoptera)
- 28 Hemiptera
- 29 Grasshoppers, crickets and allied insects
- 30 Aerial insect biomass: trends from long-term monitoring
- 31 Other invertebrates
- 32 Land and freshwater molluscs
- 33 The seashore
- 34 The offshore waters
- 35 Plants
- 36 Conclusion: what is the likely future for the wildlife in Britain and Ireland?
- Glossary
- Name index
- Subject index
- Plate section
- References
18 - The conservation of the Grey Partridge
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- PART I FACTORS DRIVING CHANGES IN WILDLIFE
- PART II CONSERVATION IN ACTION
- PART III THE CASE HISTORIES
- 15 Mammals in the twentieth century
- 16 Bats
- 17 State of bird populations in Britain and Ireland
- 18 The conservation of the Grey Partridge
- 19 Reptiles
- 20 Amphibians
- 21 Freshwater fishes: a declining resource
- 22 Riverflies
- 23 Bumblebees
- 24 Butterflies
- 25 Moths
- 26 Dragonflies (Odonata) in Britain and Ireland
- 27 Flies, beetles and bees, wasps and ants (Diptera, Coleoptera and aculeate Hymenoptera)
- 28 Hemiptera
- 29 Grasshoppers, crickets and allied insects
- 30 Aerial insect biomass: trends from long-term monitoring
- 31 Other invertebrates
- 32 Land and freshwater molluscs
- 33 The seashore
- 34 The offshore waters
- 35 Plants
- 36 Conclusion: what is the likely future for the wildlife in Britain and Ireland?
- Glossary
- Name index
- Subject index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Summary
The Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix) is an iconic farmland bird that has declined on UK farmland by over 80% in the last 50 years. This decline was caused by poor levels of chick survival driven by agricultural intensification and primarily the use of insecticides and herbicides. These products reduce numbers of insects eaten by young chicks and the host plants that support these chick-food insects. Annual monitoring of such insects in cereal fields on a study area in Sussex, England over 40 years identified these insect declines and established how closely they mirrored pesticide use.
Mitigation measures were developed whereby the edges of cereal crops received only selective or seasonably restricted inputs of pesticides to facilitate insect recovery. These ‘conservation headlands’ were demonstrated to improve chick survival significantly and have now been made available (i.e. funded) in the UK's Agri-environment Schemes, whereby farmers are subsidised to help declining wildlife species recover.
Introduction
Over the last few decades, concerns have been expressed about the loss of wildlife from farmland (Gregory et al. 2001). The work by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust on the Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix) was some of the earliest research to voice and confirm these concerns, as well as quantify losses caused by pesticides (Potts 1986). The decline of the Grey Partridge is a well-studied example of a species of farmland wildlife under threat from the intensification of agricultural production (hedgerow removal, pesticide use, mechanisation).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Silent SummerThe State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland, pp. 319 - 336Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
References
- 3
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