Indicators for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: a pan‐European study

Abstract

Summary 1.In many European agricultural landscapes, species richness is declining considerably. Studies performed at a very large spatial scale are helpful in understanding the reasons for this decline and as a basis for guiding policy. In a unique, large-scale study of 25 agricultural landscapes in seven European countries, we investigated relationships between species richness in several taxa, and the links between biodiversity and landscape structure and management. 2. We estimated the total species richness of vascular plants, birds and five arthropod groups in each 16-km 2 landscape, and recorded various measures of both landscape structure and intensity of agricultural land use. We studied correlations between taxonomic groups and the effects of landscape and land-use parameters on the number of species in different taxonomic groups. Our statistical approach also accounted for regional variation in species richness unrelated to landscape or land-use factors. 3. The results reveal strong geographical trends in species richness in all taxonomic groups. No single species group emerged as a good predictor of all other species groups. Species richness of all groups increased with the area of semi-natural habitats in the landscape. Species richness of birds and vascular plants was negatively associated with fertilizer use. 4. Synthesis and applications. We conclude that indicator taxa are unlikely to provide an effective means of predicting biodiversity at a large spatial scale, especially where there is large biogeographical variation in species richness. However, a small list of landscape and land-use parameters can be used in agricultural landscapes to infer large-scale patterns of species richness. Our results suggest that to halt the loss of biodiversity in these landscapes, it is important to preserve and, if possible, increase the area of semi-natural habitat.

The concept of green infrastructure and urban landscape planning: a challenge for urban forestry planning in Belgrade, Serbia

“…Landscape metric parameters such as the number and size of NSN landscape elements, which indicate the inteniForest 11: 491-498 493 sity of fragmentation, define the value of biodiversity at the landscape level (Fahrig 2003). The size metric of landscape elements strongly correlates with "species richness and the occurrence and abundance of some species" (McGarigal & Marks 1995) and can be interpreted as a spatial indicator of the biodiversity level (Billeter et al 2008, Kumar et al 2006). However, this metric has several limitations, among which is that it cannot illustrate spatial properties and the distribution of elements across the analysed landscape (Botequilha Leitao et al 2006).…”

Impacts of agricultural land-use changes on biodiversity in Taihu Lake Basin, China: a multi-scale cause–effect approach considering multiple land-use functions

“…A number of studies identified positive relations between numbers of species and area of semi-natural habitat (Bruun 2000;Steffan-Dewenter and Tscharntke 2001;Kremen et al 2002;Dormann et al 2007;Hendrickx et al 2007;Billeter et al 2008). For instance, Billeter et al (2008) analysed the share of natural elements (% area) in 25 agricultural landscapes distributed across seven European countries (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Estonia), and concluded that the largest contribution to total species richness of vascular plants, birds and five arthropod groups comes from natural and semi-natural habitats and is directly influenced by their area in most agricultural landscapes.…”

“…At farm and landscape levels many studies (e.g. Herzog et al 2006;Billeter et al 2008;Kleijn et al 2009) have been based on empirical species abundance data. At higher levels using cause-effect relationships is a major approach (e.g.…”

“…For instance, Billeter et al (2008) analysed the share of natural elements (% area) in 25 agricultural landscapes distributed across seven European countries (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Estonia), and concluded that the largest contribution to total species richness of vascular plants, birds and five arthropod groups comes from natural and semi-natural habitats and is directly influenced by their area in most agricultural landscapes. Further, looking at landscape structure in a broader sense, landscape fragmentation has negative impacts on habitat suitability and biodiversity (Noss 1990;Di Giulio et al 2009).…”

“…A wide variety of studies have used annual nitrogen input per site in kg N ha -1 year -1 (referred to as N input) as one of the key indicators of agricultural intensity or land-use intensity (Schmitzberger et al 2005;Dormann et al 2007;Hendrickx et al 2007;Billeter et al 2008;Kleijn et al 2009). Schmitzberger et al (2005) and Kleijn et al (2009) used N input as a single indicator, because fertiliser use is generally correlated with yield and other variables characterising farming (e.g.…”