Modelling land-use sustainability using farmland birds as indicators

Gottschalk, Thomas K.; Dittrich, Ralf; Diekötter, Tim; Sheridan, Patrick J.; Wolters, Volkmar; Ekschmitt, Klemens

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2009.05.008

Cited by 38 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Cost calculations or simulation models may be applied to assess the economic effects of landscape elements in predefined landscape scenarios (Kapfer et al 2003, Heissenhuber et al 2004, Gottschalk et al 2010. However, approaches that optimise landscape element configurations in the context of agricultural land use seem to be limited to only a few cases (e.g.…”

Section: The Representation Of Landscape Elements In the Economic Scimentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing the maintenance and establishment of orchard meadows at farm and landscape levels applying a spatially explicit integrated modelling approach

Schönhart

Schauppenlehner

Schmid

et al. 2011

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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Landscape elements can enhance the ecological and social value of agricultural landscapes. Orchard meadows are traditional landscape elements in Central Europe, but have deteriorated for decades due to their adverse economic effects. We apply an integrated modelling framework to assess the farm profitability of orchard meadows as well as the effectiveness of measures in the Austrian agri-environmental programme to maintain existing and establish new sites. The model results indicate that current market prices for fruits and harvest productivity levels are not sufficient to support the maintenance of existing sites. The model results also indicate that the agri-environmental measures are effective in maintaining orchard meadows, but are insufficient to make all existing sites profitable or support further establishments. Consequently, alternative policy options will aim at increasing harvest efficiencies (e.g. harvest mechanisation co-operatives), at adding value to orchard fruits (e.g. fruit processing options), and at reducing labour costs by improving seasonal labour availability.landscape structure assessment, landscape element analysis, integrated modelling analysis, orchard meadows (streuobstwiesen), Austria, cultural landscapes,

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Section: The Representation Of Landscape Elements In the Economic Scimentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing the maintenance and establishment of orchard meadows at farm and landscape levels applying a spatially explicit integrated modelling approach

Schönhart

Schauppenlehner

Schmid

et al. 2011

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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“…Figure S1. Characterization of the German farmland by Hoffmann & Kiesel (2007) and Gottschalk et al (2010). Table S1.…”

Section: Supporting Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased energy maize production reduces farmland bird diversity

et al. 2013

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Producing energy crops as an alternative to fossil fuels in order to reduce CO 2 emissions will lead to large-scale changes in agricultural landscapes. Here, we quantify the potential impact of an increase in maize fields on the diversity of farmland birds by means of high resolution (25 9 25 m) land-use scenarios. We generated scenarios in which the area of maize production in Germany increases from presently 2.6 to 2.9, 3.6 and 4.3 million ha, corresponding to the energy crop production targets of the German Renewable Energy Act for the years 2020, 2035 and 2050. To test the mitigating potential of conservation measures, each scenario was generated in a standard version and a landscape protection version, with the latter excluding valuable farmland areas from being converted into maize fields. Nine species of farmland birds belonging to the governmental indicator scheme for sustainable land-use in Germany were modelled for the six nation-wide scenarios. The models predicted that only the Northern Lapwing and the Little Owl might profit from extended maize production. Despite this, the total number of breeding pairs of the indicator species was predicted to decline by about 0.4 million breeding pairs in the most intensive scenario. Protection of valuable farmland did not mitigate these negative effects in the models. Our findings suggest that increased production of energy crops conflicts with conservation of biological diversity.

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“…There are some indications that crop diversity might benefit farmland biodiversity including natural enemies of insect pests (Rusch et al 2013;Palmu et al 2014) and farmland birds (Donald, Green & Heath 2001;Gottschalk et al 2010), which are the focus of this study. In particular, the structural heterogeneity of cropped fields, by providing diverse resources, may potentially contribute to biodiversity through effects of habitat complementation (for species needing several habitats) and niche differentiation (for species with different habitat requirements) supporting more species and also more individuals (Fahrig et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of the farmland bird community to crop diversification in Sweden: does the CAP fit?

Josefsson

Berg

Hiron

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Crop diversification has been introduced as an environmental strategy in the 'Greening' of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2015-2020. The primary target of crop diversification is soil and ecosystem resilience, but claims for potential benefits for farmland biodiversity are also common. However, understanding of relationships between the number (compositional heterogeneity) and spatial arrangement (configurational heterogeneity) of crop fields and biodiversity is generally poor, making such claims relatively unfounded. 2. In this study, we monitored crop and farmland bird diversity on 178 farms across Sweden's main agricultural areas. From a pre-implementation assessment, we show that >97% of the assessed farms would not be required to change their management under the CAP crop diversification measure (minimum of three crops for farms with 30+ ha), suggesting that this measure has generated little change on Swedish farms. 3. While accounting for non-crop elements and farming system (conventional or organic), we show that crop structural diversity (i.e. the management and vegetation structure of crops) rather than crop diversity senso lato positively affected richness of non-crop breeding bird species with stronger effects in arable, compared with forest-dominated landscapes. No such effects were observed among field-nesting farmland bird species. 4. Organic farming had little influence on farmland birds with positive effects only in the most arable-dominated landscapes and for field-nesting species only. In forest-dominated landscapes, organic farms even held lower field-nester densities compared with conventional farms, possibly due to the dominance of grasslands on organic farms that in these landscapes support lower densities of field-nesting species compared with cereals. 5. Policy implications. Our study illustrates the importance of a consideration of structural instead of species diversity of crops for biodiversity, in this case farmland birds. We also underline the absence of such a distinction in current EU Common Agricultural Policy Greening, while simultaneously setting levels on crop diversification too low resulting in little to no change in landscape-scale crop diversity on Swedish farmland. We recommend that future efforts to manage farmland biodiversity should include ways of increasing the structural diversity of crops at the scale of farms and landscapes.

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Modelling land-use sustainability using farmland birds as indicators

Cited by 38 publications

References 38 publications

Analysing the maintenance and establishment of orchard meadows at farm and landscape levels applying a spatially explicit integrated modelling approach

Analysing the maintenance and establishment of orchard meadows at farm and landscape levels applying a spatially explicit integrated modelling approach

Increased energy maize production reduces farmland bird diversity

Sensitivity of the farmland bird community to crop diversification in Sweden: does the CAP fit?

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