Rebecca K. Peisley

• PhD, Environmental Science
• Lecturer at Charles Sturt University

Scavenging birds can provide ecosystem services to pastoralists by contributing to the breakdown of animal carcasses that can harbour and spread disease. However, these benefits have yet to be quantified in Australia. We monitored rabbit carcasses using motion-sensor cameras to identify beneficial avian scavengers across four landscape types (fores...

Context Birds active in vineyards in south-eastern Australia can reduce or enhance crop yields via their foraging activities (e.g. by consuming grapes or by preying on grape-eating species). Aims We examined the effectiveness of artificial perches in encouraging predatory birds into vineyards to scare frugivorous birds and consequently reduce the...

Birds active in apple orchards in south–eastern Australia can contribute positively (e.g., control crop pests) or negatively (e.g., crop damage) to crop yields. Our study is the first to identify net outcomes of these activities, using six apple orchards, varying in management intensity, in south–eastern Australia as a study system. We also conduct...

Supplementary methods and results

Examples of insect and bird damage to plasticine codling moth larvae (A) Insect damage—pinpricks; (B); insect damage—chew; (C) bird damage—beak mark.

Activity budgets for bird species observed in the orchards (n = 1,980 observations)

Codling moth larvae (A) and (B) Plasticine and real codling moth larvae attached to cardboard trays to be monitored by Reconyx HC500 remote motion-sensor cameras, (C) Plasticine codling moth larvae attached to apple tree branches near apple clusters, and d) real codling moth larvae attached to apple tree branches near apple clusters.

Average % of insect damaged apples per branch on open and netted branch (±95% CI), compared with insectivorous bird species richness All orchards except Orchard 6 received more insect damage on netted (bird excluded) branches (n = 120 branches). Orchards are listed 1–6 from lowest intensity management to highest intensity. (n = 120 branches).

Earwigs eating real and plasticine codling moth larvae at night

Types of apple damage a + b: bird damage, c + d: insect damage.

Bird species found in apple orchards over the entire season Feeding types categorised as: O, omnivore; H, herbivore; I, insectivore; G, granivore; and C, carnivore. Introduced species are listed in bold. Asterisks denote which species were observed in particular survey periods.

Insectivorous bird species richness in each orchard at key times of the growing season Orchards are listed 1–6 from lowest intensity management to highest intensity.

Wild fauna occur in every agroecosystem and their interactions with crops can influence yields positively or negatively. Research on the impact of fauna activity on agricultural production focuses mostly on either the costs (e.g. crop damage) or benefits (e.g. pollination) of this activity, with few studies addressing cost–benefit trade-offs in the...

Ecological interactions between crops and wild animals frequently result in increases or declines in crop yield. Yet, positive and negative interactions have mostly been treated independently, owing partly to disciplinary silos in ecological and agricultural sciences. We advocate a new integrated research paradigm that explicitly recognizes cost-be...