Farmland biodiversity and agricultural management on 237 farms in 13 European and two African regions

Gisela Lüscher (1, 2) , Youssef Ammari (3) , Aljona Andriets (4) , Siyka Angelova (5) , Michaela Arndorfer (6) , Debra Bailey (1) , Katalin Balázs (7) , Marion Bogers (8) , Robert G. H. Bunce (8) , Jean Philippe Choisis (9) , Peter Dennis (10) , Mario Díaz (11) , Tetyana Dyman (4) , Sebastian Eiter (1) , Wendy Fjellstad (12) , Mariecia Fraser (13) , Jürgen K. Friedel (6) , Salah Garchi (3) , Ilse Geijzendorffer (14) , Tiziano Gomiero (15) , Guillermo González-Bornay (13) , Yana Guteva (5) , Felix Herzog (1) , Philippe Jeanneret (1) , Rob H. G. Jongman (16) , Maximilian Kainz (17) , Norman Kwikiriza (18) , María Lourdes López Díaz (13) , Gerardo Moreno (19) , Pip Nicholas-Davies (13) , Charles Nkwiine (20) , Julius Opio (20) , Maurizio G. Paoletti (21) , László Podmaniczky (22) , Philippe Pointereau (23) , Fernando Pulido (13) , Jean-Pierre Sarthou (24) , Manuel K. Schneider (1) , Tahar Sghaier (13) , Norman Siebrecht (17) , Siyka Stoyanova (5) , Sebastian Wolfrum (17) , Sergiy Yashchenko (13) , Harald Albrecht (13) , András Báldi (25) , Márta Belényesi (13) , Jacinto Benhadi-Marin (13) , Theo Blick (26) , Serge Buholzer (27) , Csaba Centeri (28) , Norma Choisis (29) , Gérard Cuendet (30) , Hendrika J. de Lange (13) , Sylvain Déjean (31) , Christo Deltshev (13) , Darío J. Díaz Cosín (32) , Wenche Dramstad (12) , Zoltán Elek (13) , Gunnar Engan (12) , Konstantin Evtushenko (13) , Eszter Falusi (33) , Oliver-D. Finch (13) , Thomas Frank (6) , Federico Gavinelli (13) , David Genoud (29) , Phillipa K. Gillingham (34) , Viktor Grónás (13) , Mónica Gutiérrez (13) , Werner Häusler (13) , Xaver Heer (13) , Thomas Hübner (13) , Marco Isaia (13) , Gergely Jerkovich (10) , Juan B. Jesus (13) , Esezah Kakudidi (18) , Eszter Kelemen (22) , Nóra Koncz (13) , Eszter Kovacs (22) , Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki (25) , Luisa Last (27) , Toshko Ljubomirov (6) , Klaus Mandery (13) , Josef Mayr (6) , Atle Mjelde (13) , Christoph Muster (13) , Juri Nascimbene (15) , Johann Neumayer (13) , Francisco Javier Ortiz Sánchez (13) , Marie-Louise Oschatz (6) , Susanne Papaja-Hülsbergen (17) , Mauro Paschetta (13) , Mark Pavett (13) , Céline Pelosi (35, 36) , Károly Penksza (13) , Reidun Pommeresche (13) , Victor Popov (13) , Volodymyr Radchenko (13) , Nina Richner (13) , Susanne Riedel (37) , John Scullion (13) , Daniele Sommaggio (21) , Ottó Szalkovszki (13) , Erich Szerencsits (27) , Dolores Trigo (13) , Jim Vale (10) , Ruud van Kats (13) , Angel Vasilev (13) , Andrew E. Whittington (13) , Jerylee Wilkes-Allemann (13) , Tommaso Zanetti (21)

1 Institute for Sustainability Sciences ISS
2 Institute of Evolutionary Biology & Environmental Sciences
3 INRGREF - Institut National de Recherche en Génie Rural Eaux et Forêts
4 Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University
5 Institute of Plant Genetic Resources K.Malkov
6 BOKU - Universität für Bodenkultur Wien = University of Natural Resources and Life [Vienne, Autriche]
7 Institute of Environmental and Landscape Management
8 WUR - Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen]
9 DYNAFOR - Dynamiques Forestières dans l'Espace Rural
10 IBERS - Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences
11 Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology
12 The Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute
13 Independent
14 IMBE - Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale
15 Unipd - Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua
16 Alterra
17 TUM - Technische Universität Munchen - Technical University Munich - Université Technique de Munich
18 MUK - Makerere University Kampala
19 University of Extremadura
20 Department of Soil Science
21 Department of Biology
22 Institute of Environmental & Landscape Management
23 Solagro - Association Solagro
24 AGIR - AGroécologie, Innovations, teRritoires
25 MTA Centre for Ecological Research
26 Senckenberg Research Institute
27 Agroscope
28 Szent István University
29 Chercheur indépendant
30 Institut de Génie de l'environnement EPFL
31 CREN Midi-Pyrénées - Conservatoire Régional des Espaces Naturels Midi-Pyrénées
32 UCM - Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid [Madrid]
33 ALTERRA - Alterra Green World Research
34 nstitute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Science
35 ECOSYS - Ecologie fonctionnelle et écotoxicologie des agroécosystèmes
36 Université Paris-Saclay
37 Tänikon Research Station ART

Farmland is a major land cover type in Europe and Africa and provides habitat for numerous species. The severe decline in farmland biodiversity of the last decades has been attributed to changes in farming practices, and organic and low-input farming are assumed to mitigate detrimental effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity. Since the farm enterprise is the primary unit of agricultural decision making, management-related effects at the field scale need to be assessed at the farm level. Therefore, in this study, data were collected on habitat characteristics, vascular plant, earthworm, spider, and bee communities and on the corresponding agricultural management in 237 farms in 13 European and two African regions. In 15 environmental and agricultural homogeneous regions, 6–20 farms with the same farm type (e.g., arable crops, grassland, or specific permanent crops) were selected. If available, an equal number of organic and non-organic farms were randomly selected. Alternatively, farms were sampled along a gradient of management intensity. For all selected farms, the entire farmed area was mapped, which resulted in total in the mapping of 11 338 units attributed to 194 standardized habitat types, provided together with additional descriptors. On each farm, one site per available habitat type was randomly selected for species diversity investigations. Species were sampled on 2115 sites and identified to the species level by expert taxonomists. Species lists and abundance estimates are provided for each site and sampling date (one date for plants and earthworms, three dates for spiders and bees). In addition, farmers provided information about their management practices in face-to-face interviews following a standardized questionnaire. Farm management indicators for each farm are available (e.g., nitrogen input, pesticide applications, or energy input). Analyses revealed a positive effect of unproductive areas and a negative effect of intensive management on biodiversity. Communities of the four taxonomic groups strongly differed in their response to habitat characteristics, agricultural management, and regional circumstances. The data has potential for further insights into interactions of farmland biodiversity and agricultural management at site, farm, and regional scale.

Mots clés: agricultural management; arable crop; bee; biobio; earthworm; grassland; habitat diversity; permanent crop; spider; tunisia; uganda; vascular plant

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Gisela Lüscher, Youssef Ammari, Aljona Andriets, Siyka Angelova, Michaela Arndorfer, et al.. Farmland biodiversity and agricultural management on 237 farms in 13 European and two African regions. Ecology, 2016, 97 (6), pp.1625-1625. ⟨10.1890/15-1985.1⟩. ⟨hal-01692268⟩