Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) are one of the three new greening measures of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). We used an interdisciplinary and European‐scale approach to evaluate ...ecological effectiveness and farmers’ perception of the different EFA options. We assessed potential benefits of EFA options for biodiversity using a survey among 88 ecologists from 17 European countries. We further analyzed data on EFA uptake at the EU level and in eight EU Member States, and reviewed socio‐economic factors influencing farmers’ decisions. We then identified possible ways to improve EFAs. Ecologists scored field margins, buffer strips, fallow land, and landscape features as most beneficial whereas farmers mostly implemented “catch crops and green cover,” nitrogen‐fixing crops, and fallow land. Based on the expert inputs and a review of the factors influencing farmers’ decisions, we suggest that EFA implementation could be improved by (a) prioritizing EFA options that promote biodiversity (e.g., reducing the weight or even excluding ineffective options); (b) reducing administrative constraints; (c) setting stricter management requirements (e.g., limiting agrochemical use); and (d) offering further incentives for expanding options like landscape features and buffer strips. We finally propose further improvements at the next CAP reform, to improve ecological effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness.
Agri-environment measures such as flower strips are considered fundamental instruments to reduce farmland biodiversity loss. Their effect on associated ecosystem services, such as biocontrol of crop ...pests, has received increased attention in recent discussions on the ecological intensification of agriculture, to create a win-win situation for biodiversity and production. However, studies of flower strips are rarely compared to the status quo, namely permanent field margins. We assessed the impact of two different field margin types (pre-existing grassy field margins vs. perennial flower strips) and distance decay effects from the field margins towards field centres on two major cereal pests (cereal leaf beetles and cereal aphids), their natural enemies (predators and aphid parasitoids) and crop yield on five conventional farms in Germany. Proximity to both types of field margin enhanced the enemy-to-pest ratio for cereal leaf beetles but not for aphids. However, the parasitism rate for aphids was higher next to grassy strips than next to flower strips. Yield also tended to be higher adjacent to flower strips (although not significantly) and showed no variation with distance to the field margin. Our findings paint a more nuanced picture than most previous studies: whilst field margins generally had a positive impact on one of the studied biocontrol agents, flower strips do not outperform the standard grassy margins currently in place. To promote biocontrol services, we recommend protecting existing, permanent grassy strips through the EU Common Agricultural Policy as a cost-effective alternative to flower strips.
•Field margins boosted biocontrol of cereal leaf beetles, but not aphids, in conventional cereals.•Ratio of enemies to cereal leaf beetles declined with distance from the margin.•Flower strips did not outperform grassy strips for most biocontrol parameters.•Yield tended to be higher adjacent to flower strips, but not significantly.
Wood-pastures are associated with high cultural and biodiversity values in Europe. However, due to their relatively low productivity, large areas of wood-pastures have been lost over the last ...century. In some areas, incentive schemes have been developed to revive wood-pastures. We investigated the effects of one such scheme in western Estonia. We compared the structure of grazed wood-pastures (old and restored) to those of abandoned wood-pastures and ungrazed forest stands to explore the effects of management, and conducted interviews with 24 farmers to investigate their motivations to carry out the management. We found a positive influence of active management on the semi-open structure of wood-pastures. Financial support was vital for management, but personal values related to tradition also played an important role. The interviewees differed widely in their range of motivations, suggesting that other strategies in addition to financial incentives would further improve the management of wood-pastures in the region.
Agricultural intensification has caused once diverse arable fields to become species-poor. Their seed banks, which are fundamental for re-establishment and maintenance of plant communities in such ...repeatedly disturbed environments, are now largely depleted. In order to advise farmers on the successful implementation of agri-environmental measures, as well as reduce potential subsequent costs of continued weed control, understanding seed bank dynamics in relation to aboveground vegetation is essential. We (1) investigated the change in seed bank composition in the field edge and the interior, and (2) analyzed the seed bank in flower strips and adjacent fields in relation to the aboveground vegetation on intensively managed arable farms across Germany. Low-tillage systems contained more plant species and higher seed densities in the seed bank than regularly ploughed fields. Species diversity at the field edge was higher than in the field interior, with a continuous decrease in the number of species and seed density within the first 2 m from the edge. Flower strips can lead to an enrichment of the seed bank, but it is driven by the strong rise in a few common species such as Chenopodium album. To cultivate successful flower strips, we recommend close onsite monitoring, as well as rapid intervention in the case of weed infestation.
Semi-natural grassland supports a large proportion of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Europe, however, it is continuing to be destroyed or degraded. In addition to the clear role of local ...management in these processes, there is increasing evidence for wider landscape-scale effects on species richness and community composition of plants and animals. Most of this evidence comes from studies in highly altered western European landscapes with only fragments of remaining semi-natural grassland. In contrast, Eastern European countries such as Romania still contain large areas of semi-natural grassland, but this habitat is threatened by agricultural intensification and homogenization. We analyzed vascular plant and Orthoptera communities from species-rich pastures in Southern Transylvania, Romania, against a range of local and landscape factors. Species richness of plants had a highly significant positive relationship with landscape heterogeneity. Orthoptera species richness and abundance were negatively correlated with plant species richness, and increased with proportion of grassland in the landscape and local vegetation height. The results suggest that large and species-rich grassland communities can be significantly affected by both local and landscape scale land use changes, but effects can vary within and between taxonomic groups. Conservation measures such as agri-environment schemes should therefore seek to address landscape scale processes better, promoting a range of low-intensity land use practices in order to support a variety of landscape types.
A large proportion of European biodiversity today depends on habitat provided by low-intensity farming practices, yet this resource is declining as European agriculture intensifies. Within the ...European Union, particularly the central and eastern new member states have retained relatively large areas of species-rich farmland, but despite increased investment in nature conservation here in recent years, farmland biodiversity trends appear to be worsening. Although the high biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland has long been reported, the amount of research in the international literature focused on farmland biodiversity in this region remains comparatively tiny, and measures within the EU Common Agricultural Policy are relatively poorly adapted to support it. In this opinion study, we argue that, 10 years after the accession of the first eastern EU new member states, the continued under-representation of the low-intensity farmland in Central and Eastern Europe in the international literature and EU policy is impeding the development of sound, evidence-based conservation interventions. The biodiversity benefits for Europe of existing low-intensity farmland, particularly in the central and eastern states, should be harnessed before they are lost. Instead of waiting for species-rich farmland to further decline, targeted research and monitoring to create locally appropriate conservation strategies for these habitats is needed now.
The region of Southern Transylvania in Romania contains large expanses of species-rich grassland and mixed farmland. Within these landscapes, clusters of small, steep-sided slumping hills support ...mosaics of herbaceous vegetation caused by the heterogeneity in temperature and water supply and maintained by mowing or grazing. These are of conservation interest not only for the high species density, but also the relict steppe-like vegetation types especially found on their south-facing slopes. Usually surrounded by more intensively used mesic grassland, these hills can be considered patches of species-rich grassland vegetation. We therefore surveyed the vascular plants in 10 m
2
plots on the south- and north-facing slopes of 50 hills in 12 clusters in order to investigate the influence of their size and isolation on the species richness and composition of the vegetation. We found that larger hills had higher plot-scale species richness, a greater proportion of competitive species and a lower proportion of species of steppe-like vegetation, but only on their south-facing slopes where the conditions are more extreme. Both large and small hills should be considered as important habitats and potential sources of propagules for plant communities in the surrounding areas.
•Transylvanian dry grasslands are extremely rich in vascular plants.•Total richness at 10m2 is affected positively by mowing and negatively by heat load.•The z-values of power-law species-area ...relationships peak at 0.01–0.1m2.
Patterns of biodiversity may vary across spatial scales and between taxonomic groups; therefore, specific studies are needed to provide insights into factors driving community structure. Semi-natural grasslands are among the most biodiverse ecosystems, providing a suitable model for examining key ecological mechanisms. We analysed dry grasslands in Transylvania (Romania), which harbor extraordinarily species-rich plant communities, including the global maxima for two small grain sizes. We sampled data of vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens in both nested and separate plots. We used soil, topographic, climatic, and land-use variables as predictors. Species richness at seven grain sizes (0.0001–100m2) was modeled as a function of these predictors by generalized linear models, followed by multimodel inference over all possible variable combinations with AICc. We also fitted power-law species–area relationships (SARs), both across the full range and for each transition of two subsequent plot sizes, as they provide a way of assessing β-diversity (through z-values) and its dependence on environmental variables. We found large differences in factors between scales and taxonomic groups, which generally supports the hypothesis that niche-related variables are important at very fine scales, while heterogeneity and disturbance-associated parameters become influential at larger scales. We explained the differences among the responses of taxonomic groups by their ecology. The exponents of the power-law SARs (z) for total richness were higher than in most other European dry grasslands, demonstrating that β-diversity is also extraordinary here. Further, the z-values showed strong and unexpected scale dependence, peaking at 0.01–0.1m2, and exponentially decreasing above these grain sizes. In conclusion, our study highlights the strong scale dependence of diversity-environment relationships, both in the case of α- and β-diversity, while emphasizing the importance to study multiple taxonomic groups.
Aims
Understanding fine‐grain diversity patterns across large spatial extents is fundamental for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation. Using the GrassPlot database, we provide ...benchmarks of fine‐grain richness values of Palaearctic open habitats for vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and complete vegetation (i.e., the sum of the former three groups).
Location
Palaearctic biogeographic realm.
Methods
We used 126,524 plots of eight standard grain sizes from the GrassPlot database: 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 m2 and calculated the mean richness and standard deviations, as well as maximum, minimum, median, and first and third quartiles for each combination of grain size, taxonomic group, biome, region, vegetation type and phytosociological class.
Results
Patterns of plant diversity in vegetation types and biomes differ across grain sizes and taxonomic groups. Overall, secondary (mostly semi‐natural) grasslands and natural grasslands are the richest vegetation type. The open‐access file ”GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks” and the web tool “GrassPlot Diversity Explorer” are now available online (https://edgg.org/databases/GrasslandDiversityExplorer) and provide more insights into species richness patterns in the Palaearctic open habitats.
Conclusions
The GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks provide high‐quality data on species richness in open habitat types across the Palaearctic. These benchmark data can be used in vegetation ecology, macroecology, biodiversity conservation and data quality checking. While the amount of data in the underlying GrassPlot database and their spatial coverage are smaller than in other extensive vegetation‐plot databases, species recordings in GrassPlot are on average more complete, making it a valuable complementary data source in macroecology.
We show that diversity patterns in different types of open habitats and biomes differ across grain sizes and taxonomic groups. Benchmark richness values for any combination of plant group (vascular plant, bryophyte, lichen, complete vegetation), grain size (for eight standard sizes), vegetation type, region and biome are available in the open‐access file GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks and the online interactive tool GrassPlot Diversity Explorer.
•Four agri-environment measures increased arable plant diversity and cover.•Adapted management is crucial to maintain the positive effects over time.•Weather conditions strongly influence species ...richness and cover.•Long-term monitoring is necessary to reliably validate the success of measures.
Agri-environment measures to support biodiversity in intensively used agricultural landscapes have been implemented in many European countries, but the large-scale downward trend in many species groups continues. The arable flora is one of the species groups that suffered the steepest declines in European cultural landscapes. Despite their fundamental importance in agroecosystems as the basis of the food web, few studies have tested the effectiveness of different agri-environment measures on the arable flora in replicated field trials over several consecutive years. In a four-year participative project with the farmers, we recorded the effects of four agri-environment measures, namely conservation field margins (CFM), annual fallow strips (fallows), alternately managed biennial flower strips (AFS), and perennial flower strips (PFS), on the species richness, plant cover and composition of the non-crop vegetation in 67 intensively managed arable fields in Northwest Germany. Compared to conventionally managed field edges, all measures led to a large increase in total plant cover (median values across measures and years: 68.5 vs. 9.5 %) and doubling of species richness (21 vs. 9 species per plot), promoting not only generalist species but also the typical arable flora (17 vs. 7 species, 56.5 vs. 8 % cover). Of the 207 plant species recorded during sampling, 43 (including 16 typical arable species) were solely found in measures. All measures promoted forbs more than graminoids, while annual species benefited especially from CFM and fallows. The overall effects on diversity and cover remained stable over the 3-yr implementation period but were significantly influenced by interannual weather fluctuation. Spillover effects of the measures into adjacent conventionally managed crops were not detectable.
We conclude that, if well-managed, all tested measures can have a positive effect on the native arable flora even in long-term intensively farmed landscapes. However, especially CFM and the annual fallows are particularly effective in naturally restoring and maintaining arable plant diversity. The limited occurrence of 1/4 of typical arable plant species on less than four fields indicates severely impoverished soil seed banks in intensive farmland. Therefore, the re-introduction of native, rare arable plant species through seed mixtures should be considered in order to promote local diversity and save local populations of these species.
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