Optimizing biodiversity gain of European agriculture through regional targeting and adaptive management of conservation tools

Concepción, Elena D.; Aneva, Ina; Jay, Marion; Lukanov, Simeon; Marsden, Katrina; Moreno, Gerardo; Oppermann, Rainer; Pardo, Adara; Piskol, Stephan; Rolo, Víctor; Schraml, Antonia; Dı́az, Mario

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108384

Cited by 50 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The evidence for higher diversity and abundance of organisms in landscapes where the agricultural area is subdivided into smaller fields stems from studies using existing differences in field size between landscapes. These include both contrasts across the former political border dividing Europe into East and West (Batáry et al., 2017; Šálek et al., 2018) and the general variation in mean field size within regions in Europe (Concepción et al., 2020; Hass et al., 2018; Konvicka, Benes, & Polakova, 2016; Martin et al., 2019; Sirami et al., 2019; Skórka, Lenda, Moroń, & Tryjanowski, 2013; Zellweger‐Fischer et al., 2018) and North America (Fahrig et al., 2015; Monck‐Whipp, Martin, Francis, & Fahrig, 2018), covering multiple taxa and controlling for field‐scale management intensity. The effect sizes are significant, since moving from a field size of 1–6 hectares has a similar negative effect on farmland biodiversity as the difference observed when moving from 35% to 0% seminatural habitat cover in the surrounding landscape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field sizes and the future of farmland biodiversity in European landscapes

Clough

Kirchweger²,

Kantelhardt

2020

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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Lower diversity of plant and animal farmland species are usually reported where cropland has been aggregated into larger fields, which raises prospects of curbing declines in European farmland biodiversity and associated ecosystem services by halting trends to field size increases associated to agricultural intensification, without having to set aside arable land for conservation. Here, we consider the factors underlying trade-offs between farmer income and biodiversity as mediated by field size at local and landscape scales, and how these trade-offs may be overcome. Field sizes are still increasing, facilitated by increasing farm sizes and land consolidation. Decreases in working time and fuel expenses when fields are larger, uptake of larger machinery and subsidies favoring larger farms provide incentives to manage land in larger units, putting farmland biodiversity further at risk. Yet, field size-mediated ecological-economic trade-offs are largely ignored in policy and research. We recommend internalizing the ecological effects of changes in landscape-scale field size into land consolidation scheme design, ensuring that EU Common Agricultural Policy post-2020 rewards farmers that maintain and recreate fine-grained landscapes where these are essential for farmland biodiversity targets, and reducing economic-ecological trade-offs by stimulating agricultural research and innovation for economically efficient yet biodiversity-friendly farming in fine-grained landscapes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field sizes and the future of farmland biodiversity in European landscapes

Clough

Kirchweger²,

Kantelhardt

2020

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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show abstract

“…The conservation of unique landscape elements such as isolated trees, stone walls, streams or ponds; field margin management and thus adjustment of field sizes; water management; and agrochemical use are common to all farming systems, but minimum amounts to ensure minimum landscape complexity differ between systems and, geographically, within systems (details in Díaz et al, 2006;Concepción & Díaz, 2019;Concepción et al, 2020). Several eco-schemes should include elements already addressed by the enhanced conditionality (see above), and should aim at promoting the restoration of these elements at landscape scales when insufficient, improving semi-natural elements and habitats to cover up to 10-20% of both farms and landscapes (Concepción & Díaz, 2019;Concepción et al, 2020;BioGEA project, 2020;Garibaldi et al, 2020). Other eco-schemes should be specific to particular systems, such as fallow management in arable crops, maintenance of grass cover in woody and mixed crops, management of stocking rates in extensive grazing systems and pastures or flood control in rice fields.…”

Section: Using the Complementarity Of The Cap Conservation Instruments To Achieve Regional Goals At Landscape Scalesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Objectives of Spanish Agriculture: Scientific Guidelines for their Effective Implementation under the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2030

Dı́az

Concepción

Morales

et al. 2021

Ardeola

Self Cite

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“…Similar AES's already exist in the United Kingdom and Switzerland (Concepción et al 2020). In Germany, there are AES's whose primary goal is to provide diverse pastures in which to produce an outcome that is monitored on indicator species as well as other groups of species (Zabel & Roe 2009, Kaiser et al 2010, Concepción et al 2020). The French AES called "Flowering meadows" hopes to establish and conserve diverse, nature-related grasslands with dicotyledonous plants and wildflowers with a minimum species number of 20, including the required indicator species.…”

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The new cycle of VP-AEM in Hungary (Häring et al 2005, Agriculture andRural Development 2016) contains similar parts into resultoriented projects and emphasises protecting the field margins. Together with the "greening" of the common agricultural policy, it could provide significant beneficial effects to small game species (European Comission 2019, Concepción et al 2020, which should be monitored in the future. *…”

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agri-environment schemes do not support Brown Hare populations due to inadequate scheme application

Újhegyi

Keller

Patkó³

et al. 2021

Acta Zool. Acad. Sci. Hung.

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The goal of many agri-environment schemes (AES) is to increase biodiversity in agroecosystems. AES effects are often measured on invertebrates and birds; mammals as indicator species are infrequently targets of such researches. Our goal was to evaluate the local-scale effects of the Hungarian Agri-Environmental Measures (AEM) on the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus), which shows decreasing population trends across Europe. We compared hare abundances and their dropping numbers in AEM and control agricultural arable and grassland fields of 17 game management units in two seasons. We also examined the quality of arable fields based on their margin width and vegetation cover. We found that margin quality was higher in AEM than in the control fields. Control grasslands had higher vegetation quality than the AEM grasslands. We found a significant difference in hare counts between AEM and control arable fields in spring but no difference in autumn. The dropping densities did not differ in any season, treatment category or agroecosystem type. We conclude that the AEM program (2009-2014) in Hungary was not effective for the hare, and this might have been caused by the inadequate or weak application of AEM practices. We provide recommendations for future AEM programs to enhance biodiversity.

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Optimizing biodiversity gain of European agriculture through regional targeting and adaptive management of conservation tools

Cited by 50 publications

References 28 publications

Field sizes and the future of farmland biodiversity in European landscapes

Field sizes and the future of farmland biodiversity in European landscapes

Environmental Objectives of Spanish Agriculture: Scientific Guidelines for their Effective Implementation under the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2030

Agri-environment schemes do not support Brown Hare populations due to inadequate scheme application

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