CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Introduction: Recognition of the variety of ecosystem services that biodiversity performs inagroecosystems is one of the basic principles of agroecology. Because indices of functional diversity may bedirectly related with ecosystem services, an assessment of functional diversity can be useful for evaluatingecosystem services provided under agroecological management. Objective: We compared functional diversityof birds found in rice fields under conventional and agroecological management in the rice zone of Santa FeProvince, Argentina. Our objective was to determine whether agroecological management of rice is associatedwith a higher functional diversity and a different functional composition of birds than conventional management.Methods: We surveyed birds eight times, roughly every 15 days between November 2017 and March 2018, frombeginning of sowing to before harvest, in both types of rice fields. Birds were sampled by a combined techniqueof line transects and point counts at four sites in each type of management. We calculated indices of functionaldiversity and composition based on morphologic and trophic attributes of birds detected in each type of field.Results: Functional richness, divergence and dispersion were higher under agroecological management. Onlydifferences in functional richness between managements reflected differences in species richness. Communitylevelweighted means of trait values by sample varied between management types. An insectivorous diet, pursuitas a foraging method, and air and shrubs as foraging substrates were traits best represented under agroecologicalmanagement. Conclusions: Our results suggest that agroecological management of rice crops is related with ahigher functional diversity of birds than conventional practices, suggesting that agroecological management mayenhance the provision of ecosystem services by birds in rice agroecosystems.

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