DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fbg79cp8s
title: Data from: <em>Typha</em>-based paludiculture offers potential for greater bird species abundance and diversity than drained agricultural grassland

description: Agriculture on drained lowland peat, though very productive, contributes
 significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One potential solution is
 to implement paludiculture: an agricultural system of cropping with raised
 water tables. Despite the potential for reducing GHG emissions, little is
 known about the impact of paludiculture on biodiversity. We carried out
 breeding bird surveys using point counts to investigate bird habitat
 associations in cattail (Typha spp.) paludiculture at 10 trial sites in
 the Netherlands. We also performed point counts at nine nearby natural
 wetland sites and nine agricultural grassland sites for comparison. We
 modelled the results using GLMM and ANOSIM to understand differences in
 bird abundance and community composition between these land uses.
 Paludiculture hosted a range of generalist and wetland specialist bird
 species, including several that are considered of European or global
 conservation concern. Predicted bird abundance in paludiculture was
 comparable to natural wetland (30.8 birds per ha; standard error: ±7.85;
 and 31.5 ±10.5, respectively) and significantly higher than on grasslands
 (10.5 ±3.23, p &lt; 0.01). Community composition in paludiculture was
 between that of wetlands and grasslands. Whilst some wetland specialists
 were recorded in paludiculture, they were at lower abundance than in
 wetlands, and not all wetland specialists were present in paludiculture.
 The only species present in both paludiculture and grassland were those
 which forage in both habitats and are considered generalists. Our study
 shows that paludiculture can support overall bird abundance on par with
 wetlands, and function as a habitat bridging agricultural and wetland
 species assemblages by providing resources for both generalist and
 wetland-associated species. These results suggest that paludiculture can
 be a multifunctional land use, enhancing biodiversity in addition to other
 known benefits.
description: # Data from: *Typha*-based paludiculture offers potential for greater bird
 species abundance and diversity than drained agricultural grassland
 Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.fbg79cp8s](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fbg79cp8s) ###
 Data used in: *Typha*-based paludiculture offers potential for greater
 bird species abundance and diversity than drained agricultural grassland
 ### Files and variables #### File:
 **copping_paludiculture_birds_data.xlsx** #### Description: Bird point
 count data #### Variables: * date – date of survey in
 "dd/mm/yyyy" format * location_id – Identifier for the survey
 location * plot – Broad habitat type of the survey plot; categorical with
 levels: Paludiculture, Grassland, Wetland * plot_detail – Description of
 the plot or management type * area_m2 – Area of the survey plot in square
 metres (m²) * lat – Latitude of the plot centroid in decimal degrees
 (WGS84) * long – Longitude of the plot centroid in decimal degrees (WGS84)
 * bto2_species_code – Two-letter species code following the BTO standard.
 Species code and full species common name lookup can be found here:
 [https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/bto-2-letter-species-codes.pdf](https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/bto-2-letter-species-codes.pdf) * count – Number of individuals of the given species observed in the plot