Predation on artificial ground nests in relation to forest fragmentation, agricultural land and habitat structure

The impacts of forest fragmentation, agricultural land and habitat structure on depredation of artificial ground nests were studied in the cultivated area in central Finland and in the forest dominated area in Finnish Lapland. The overall predation rate did not differ between the regions. The overall predation rate was also independent of landscape characteristics forest patch size and the distance to patch edge. However, nest predation was clearly affected by the agricultural land since the robbing rate in forest edges was higher near farmlands than further away. This effect was caused by avian predators which proportional importance in predation was higher in the agricultural landscape than in the forest landscape. In both regions, depredation correlated positively with high numbers of pine and spruce. This can be mainly explained by the preference of predators over coniferous forest habitat as a living or hunting area.