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Quantifying Changes in Abundance of Food Plants for Butterfly Larvae and Farmland Birds by S. M. Smart; L. G. Firbank; R. G. H. Bunce; J. W. Watkins is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

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## Summary **1.** Recent changes in population size of butterflies and farmland birds across north‐west European landscapes have been linked to the effects of agricultural intensification. Reduction in food supply has been postulated as one of the proximal causes of these trends but the generality of this explanation has not been tested at a large scale and across animal species. **2.** Changes in abundance of food plants for butterfly larvae and lowland farmland birds in the British countryside were analysed for the period 1978–90 using data from fixed plots recorded as part of the countryside surveys of Britain. **3.** Associations were sought between these changes and trends in population size of selected butterflies and birds recorded from long‐term monitoring schemes. **4.** No associations were found between change in abundance of food plants and either increasing, stable or decreasing animal groups. At the level of individual animal species, significantly more decreases than increases in food plant frequency were found for herbivorous bird species irrespective of population trend. The size of the reduction in food plant frequency was also significantly greater for the declin

Who reads Quantifying Changes in Abundance of Food Plants for Butterfly Larvae and Farmland Birds?

Author

S. M. Smart; L. G. Firbank; R. G. H. Bunce; J. W. Watkins

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (Blackwell Publishing); Blackwell Publishing Inc.; Wiley; JSTOR (ISSN 0021-8901)

Published

2000

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)