Effect of winter cutting on the passerine breeding assemblage in French Mediterranean reedbeds

Abstract

Common reed is increasingly harvested from the Mediterranean region toprovide thatching material to north European countries. The impact of thesemanagement practices on the fauna is poorly known. The aim of this study was toquantify the effect of reed cutting in the Mediterranean region through acomparative analysis of water regime, vegetation structure, arthropoddistribution and passerine assemblage at cut and uncut reedbeds in southernFrance. Cut reedbeds were characterised by a lower salinity, higher water levelin spring, and higher reed biomass than uncut reedbeds. Arthropod distributiondiffered consistently between cut and uncut sites, leading to a higher index offood available to passerines in cut reedbeds. Cut reedbeds had a similar birdspecies richness but a lower bird abundance, due to the significant decrease inMoustached Warblers and Bearded Tits at cut sites. The mild Mediterranean winterfavoured early growth of reed in spring, making harvested reedbeds suitable forbreeding of long-distance migrants such as the Great Reed Warbler and ReedWarbler. However, for the resident species that breed earlier in the season, cutreedbeds presumably lack sufficient vegetation cover to provide adequate nestingand feeding sites. Although biennial cutting (double wale) is considered as agood compromise between conservation and commercial interests in the UK, thejuxtaposition of annually cut and never cut reed patches appears as the onlysustainable alternative for the Mediterranean region. We further hypothesisethat an optimal mosaic design of cut/uncut reed patches could provide as high aconservation value as unmanaged reedbeds.