Linking Arable Crop Occurrence with Site Conditions by the Use of Highly Resolved Spatial Data

Abstract

Agricultural land use is influenced in different ways by local factors such as soil conditions, water supply, and socioeconomic structure. We investigated at regional and field scale how strong the relationship of arable crop patterns and specific local site conditions is. At field scale, a logistic regression analysis for the main crops and selected site variables detected, for each of the analyzed crops, its own specific character of crop–site relationship. Some crops have diverging site relations such as maize and wheat, while other crops show similar probabilities under comparable site conditions, e.g., oilseed rape and winter barley. At the regional scale, the spatial comparison of clustered variables and clustered crop pattern showed a slightly stronger relationship of crop combination and specific combinations of site variables compared to the view of the single crop–site relationship.

High Spatial-Temporal Resolution Data across Large Scales Are Needed to Transform Our Understanding of Ecosystem Services

“…Aguilar-Fernández et al [19] demonstrate that local landscape conditions (e.g., land cover, management, climate) are important determinants of ESs in tropical rangelands. Stein et al [20] focus on food production in Germany, evidencing that arable crop patterns are partially determined by the local site. Ye et al [21] support this, arguing that land cover is a major factor in determining ESs.…”