Breeding Conditions for Birds in the Nowaday Farmlands of European Russia: The Impact of Agriculture Intensification and Polarization, Part I: Habitats.

The recession of agriculture in Russia from approximately the mid-2000s changed to an increase, which was accompanied by a reversion to intensive technologies; market transition to cultivation of quick payback crops (potatoes, rapeseed, sunflower) and raising pigs and poultry instead of cattle and the transition from grazing of cattle to an indoor keeping system. The rates of this increase are not equal in different economic sectors and regions of European Russia. It is more pronounced in the Black Soil zone and in the southern part of European Russia, as well as in some of regions in the southern Non-Black Soil zone. These changes have been particularly evident during the past decade and entail changes in the crop structure and development of new areas of agriculture in some regions and are determined both by socio-economic factors and current climate changes. In general, the present-day trend in the development of agriculture is that pastures and most hayfields are becoming unnecessary, whereas the demand for arable fields is increasing. Modern agriculture intensification is different from the intensification of the mid-20th century, since it takes place under conditions when large areas are still abandoned and therefore becoming more overgrown. As a result a considerable polarization of bird habitats has formed in European Russia with vast perennial abandoned lands that are already unsuitable for breeding of typical grassland species alternating with increasingly intensively cultivated fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]