Vascular plants diversity in short rotation coppices: a reliable source of ecosystem services or farmland dead loss?

Abstract

Short rotation coppices (SRCs) are a relatively new type of crop stand that is usually established on agricultural land in intensively used landscapes. However, SRCs also offer services other than the production of renewable energy. We evaluated the more complex significance of SRCs by including the other important potential ecosystem services of these stands. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the ecosystem services and disservices of SRCs by inductive (bottom-up) methods moving from the species-level to the ecosystem services on the basis of the spontaneous vascular plants diversity in SRCs. We also compared the plant-diversity-based potential ecosystem services and disservices of field SRCs, crops and forests in the same landscape in southwestern Slovakia. It was found that SRCs had an intermediate vascular plants species composition between those of forest ecosystems and agroecosystems. Among the ten evaluated ecosystem services and disservices, considering the sum of the positive and negative evaluations, SRCs had an intermediate position between the forests and arable-land vegetation. When comparing the ecosystem services of the SRCs with those of the forest ecosystems and agroecosystems, the SRCs achieved the best rating for species richness, remediation and collectables. SRCs had the worst rating for providing pasture and had the highest proportion of toxic and allergenic plants. Interestingly, SRCs achieved positive values in ecosystem services and mainly recorded the worst values in the ecosystem disservices. The direct utilization of these services and the economic balance of ecosystem services and disservices require further study.

Water Management of Czech Crop Production in 1961–2019

“…On the other hand, rapeseed can be considered as a non-erosive crop that is capable of providing relatively large benefits even to soils with high salinity and relatively high sodium content [20]. The increasing acreage of rapeseed and the planting of new types of crops such as fast-growing woody plants for biomass are directly related to EU support for renewable resources and the parameters of its Common Agricultural Policy [21]. This support is increased for the last programming period.…”

Short rotation coppice in Belgium

“…Cultural ES are discussed in section 4.3. Support soil biodiversity (Schrama et al, 2016;Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019;Volk et al, 2004) Phytoremediation of polluted soils Fehér et al, 2020;Laureysens et al, 2004;Meiresonne, 2016) Soil compaction during harvesting (Kahle & Janssen, 2020;Souch et al, 2004;Vanbeveren et al, 2015;Virano Riquelme et al, 2021) Damage to soils during uprooting (Kahle et al, 2013;Wachendorf et al, 2017) Above-ground biodiversity Support insect diversity Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019;Verheyen et al, 2014) Support vertebrate animal diversity (Dochy, 2011;Giordano & Meriggi, 2009;Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019;Zitzmann et al, 2021) Support plant diversity (Baum et al, 2012;Dochy, 2011;Fehér et al, 2020;Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019;Verheyen et al, 2014) Conservation of native genetic material (Fehér et al, 2020) Indirect biodiversity loss because of indirect land use change (Fehér et al, 2020;Njakou Djomo et al, 2015b) Water cycle Water purification (De Somviele et al, 2009) Increased water use (Bloemen et al, 2017;Meiresonne, 2006) Agriculture Pasture and animal feed (Fehér et al, 2020) Foster natural pest control (Verheyen et al, 2014) Edible and medicinal plants (Fehér et al, 2020) Wind protection…”

“…Willows and poplars are known for their resistance to high levels of metal pollution in the soil and their ability to absorb and fix these metals in their biomass Fehér et al, 2020). Therefore, SRC with willow and poplar is often looked at as a possibility to remediate polluted soils.…”

“…SRC can increase biodiversity in an agricultural landscape. The fauna and flora diversity in an SRC is generally higher than for land under intensive arable farming but generally lower than in forests or natural grasslands (Dauber et al, 2011;Fehér et al, 2020;Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019;Verheyen et al, 2014;Zitzmann et al, 2021). Because SRC evolves from a bare plain to a young forest during each rotation, it can provide (partially and temporarily) a good habitat for many different species over time and space (Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019).…”

“…The biodiversity of plants (Baum et al, 2012;Dochy, 2011;Fehér et al, 2020;Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019), insects Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019;Verheyen et al, 2014) and soil organisms is also higher under SRC than under annual agriculture (Schrama et al, 2016;Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019;Verheyen et al, 2014;Volk et al, 2004). Yet it is often mainly generalists that do well in an SRC, and they contribute little to the conservation of endangered or rare species (Dochy, 2011;Vanbeveren & Ceulemans, 2019).…”