نبذة مختصرة : Agricultural intensification is threatening ecosystems and causing the collapse of farmland birds. Biodiversity-rich, semi-natural grasslands dramatically decreased in recent decades and were either intensified, replaced by more remunerative crops or abandoned. We investigated the factors driving habitat selection by corncrake Crex crex, a flagship species for grassland conservation, in Trentino (Italy, European Alps), considering topography, public payments through Rural Development Programme (RDP), agro-botanic grassland types and farming intensification, during 2010–2018. Topographical variables were the most important predictors, but a synthetic model combining different predictors was even more supported. Elevation (negatively) and solar radiation (positively) affected occurrence; untargeted subsidies for grassland mowing had a negative effect, whereas specific subsidies for the management of Natura 2000 grasslands had a positive effect. Stocking density (livestock units/ha), taken as a direct measure of intensification, had a negative impact on occurrence. Corncrakes preferred unfertilized grasslands, then species-rich grasslands with little fertilization; mountainside and, especially, valley-floor grasslands were under-selected. Corncrake has progressively disappeared from Trentino's valley-floors, ‘shifting’ to mountain areas, but the effects of topography remind it is a lowland species pushed towards uplands by farming intensification, which is now affecting also the ‘mountain refugia’. Grassland types are selected by the species according to a gradient from unmanaged to heavily managed; subsidized mowing and livestock units/ha, a proxy for the amount of fertilizers and timing/frequency of mowing, had negative impacts. The conservation of the Alpine corncrake population and associated biodiversity critically depends on the maintenance of low-intensity farming on a relevant portion of cultivated grasslands. The reduction of fertilization, the adaptation of mowing regimes (to avoid early mowing, close ...
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