Effects of Agricultural Use on Endangered Plant Taxa in Spain

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the most widespread human activities and has the greatest impact on terrestrial ecosystems, as it transforms natural ecosystems into artificial landscapes using, in many cases, large amounts of pesticides as well as overexploiting natural resources. Therefore, for effective biodiversity conservation, it is necessary to include agricultural systems in conservation programs. In this work, the 50 plant taxa described for Spain as threatened by agricultural use were selected. These were divided according to the type of threat into those affected by crop extension, intensification, or abandonment. In addition, information was obtained concerning their conservation status, level of protection and functional traits (life form, pollination, and dispersal). Finally, the evolution of land use, in the areas near the populations of the selected species, was identified. The selected taxa belong to 21 families and present different life forms and modes of dispersal or pollination. Forty-six percent are endangered (EN) and most are included in legal protection lists. Nearly three-quarters are threatened by crop expansion and land use dynamics, reflecting an expansion of cultivated areas, which adds further pressure to these species. In addition to agricultural expansion, taxa are also at risk, due to important rates of agricultural land abandonment, and mention agricultural intensification. Nevertheless, conservation measures do exist to promote biodiversity in agricultural landscapes that may help to reverse the negative effect of land use dynamics on selected species, but few are specific to threatened flora. Therefore, if threatened plants are to be conserved in agricultural areas, it is necessary to promote a profound transformation of our socioecological systems. One of these transformative changes could come from the human-nature reconnection.

A Transformative (r)Evolution of the Research on Agriculture through Fostering Human-Nature Connectedness—A Special Issue Editorial

“…This has to be accompanied by the combination of a set of social research methods and approaches that lead to transformative change in the agricultural systems for sustainability. Thus, in this SI, alternative approaches have been employed, such as conservation biology [34], nature's contribution to people [35], ecosystem services [36,37] and multi-actor authorship approaches [29], which go beyond the biophysical analysis by considering socio-cultural aspects under a more systemic perspective. Most of these approaches imply a broadening in the scale of the study while incorporating knowledge, perceptions, preferences and values from local stakeholders.…”

“…Most of these approaches imply a broadening in the scale of the study while incorporating knowledge, perceptions, preferences and values from local stakeholders. While typically, agricultural studies are focused at the plot level, embracing these new approaches leads to a broadening of the scale, especially to farm or landscape scales [29,31,35,[37][38][39], and to a lesser extent to regional or foodshed [40] or to country scales [34].…”

The Adaptive Capacity of Alien and Rare Species in China

“…Autochory has a short dispersal distance, dispersed by gravity or plants themselves, and tends to be utilized by rare plants in stressful environments [47]. Alien plants tend to have multiple dispersal modes for long-distance dispersal to extend habitats [47], whereas rare plants tend to have fewer or shorter dispersal strategies for maintaining and adapting to stable and stressful environments [48].…”