Authors: Edo, Manon; Rösch, Verena;Entling, Martin;

Declining numbers of farmland birds across Europe call for drastic changes in agricultural systems. Agroforestry could be such a change by mixing open farmland elements with trees. In the EU AGROMIX project, we study mature agroforestry systems combining either trees and crops or trees and livestock grazing. We compare biodiversity of the agroforestry system with its components, such as crop monocultures or tree plantations. Here, we present first results regarding breeding birds in agroforestry systems in temperate Europe, with sampling sites in England, Switzerland, France and Germany. Breeding birds were assessed with audio recordings. Preliminary analyses suggest that species richness in agroforestry is comparable to forest, but higher than in orchard, grassland and arable controls. However, agroforestry had different species composition than forest, including species that depend on semi-open habitats. Thus, integrating agroforestry into agricultural landscapes could greatly enhance bird populations.