| 1. |
- Hiron, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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Crop damage by granivorous birds despite protection efforts by human bird scarers in a sorghum field in western Kenya
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology. - : National Inquiry Services Center (NISC). - 0030-6525. ; 85, s. 153-159
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cereal crop damage from granivorous birds poses a serious food security problem for subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, farmers may rely on human 'bird scarers' to limit crop damage. Here we report feeding behaviour and crop damage patterns caused by Village Weavers Ploceus cucullatus and African Mourning Doves Streptopelia decipiens during four days in a 0.12 ha sorghum field protected by two full-time bird scarers in western Kenya. Despite the scarers' efforts, almost 60% of the seed was lost before harvest. Bird abundance was largely determined by the presence of the bird scarers, with seed loss patterns being a function of distance from these people. Throughout the day, an average of 18 weavers (maximum 120) was present on the crop in any five-minute period. The number of mud projectiles thrown at the birds per 15 min showed only minor diurnal fluctuations, further suggesting that seed eaters attacked the crop throughout the day. Village Weaver individuals took an average 16 seeds per visit, whereas dove individuals took 32 seeds (maximum 105 and 455, respectively). Our study illustrates that avian crop pests can be extremely persistent and, even with consistent diurnal bird scaring activity, severely damage a small crop field. Bird scarers need to be active throughout daylight hours and patrol both the centres and edges of fields to create maximum disturbance to foraging seed eating birds. Further research is needed in order to investigate effects of local-and landscape-level land use patterns on the feeding behaviour of crop pests and the effectiveness of crop protection measures.
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| 2. |
- Josefsson, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Improving scientific rigour in conservation evaluations and a plea deal for transparency on potential biases
- 2020
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Ingår i: Conservation Letters. - : Wiley. - 1755-263X. ; 13:5
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The delivery of rigorous and unbiased evidence on the effects of interventions lay at the heart of the scientific method. Here we examine scientific papers evaluating agri-environment schemes, the principal instrument to mitigate farmland biodiversity declines worldwide. Despite previous warnings about rudimentary study designs in this field, we found that the majority of studies published between 2008 and 2017 still lack robust study designs to strictly evaluate intervention effects. Potential sources of bias that arise from the correlative nature are rarely mentioned, and results are still promoted by using a causal language. This lack of robust study designs likely results from poor integration of research and policy, while the erroneous use of causal language and an unwillingness to discuss bias may stem from publication pressures. We conclude that scientific reporting and discussion of study limitations in intervention research must improve and propose some practices toward this goal.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Rosin, Zuzanna, et al.
(författare)
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Village modernization may contribute more to farmland bird declines than agricultural intensification
- 2021
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Ingår i: Conservation Letters. - : Wiley. - 1755-263X. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The central tenet of European farmland ecology is that agricultural intensification during the 20th century was largely responsible for dramatic declines in species abundances. However, during this time, human rural settlements were also undergoing radical changes through modernization, with undocumented biodiversity impacts in this important wildlife habitat. We performed the first ever large-scale study to disentangle the impact of these simultaneous processes on farmland bird diversity in 104 Polish villages. We show that modernized villages and their surrounding agricultural fields had 50-60% fewer birds than those in and around comparable older villages. The relative contribution of modernization versus agricultural intensification to predicted bird declines was 88% versus 12% for bird communities in villages and 56% versus 44% in surrounding croplands, with considerable variation among ecological species subgroups. These results challenge our current understanding of agricultural ecosystem ecology and how best to implement conservation measures costing billions of euros annually.
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| 5. |
- Aguilera Nuñez, Guillermo, et al.
(författare)
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Agriculturally Improved and Semi-Natural Permanent Grasslands Provide Complementary Ecosystem Services in Swedish Boreal Landscapes
- 2024
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Ingår i: Agronomy. - 2073-4395. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Permanent grasslands cover more than a third of European agricultural land and are important for a number of ecosystem services. Permanent grasslands used for agriculture are broadly separated into agriculturally improved and semi-natural grasslands. High cultural and natural values linked to semi-natural grasslands are well documented. However, in boreal and hemi-boreal agricultural landscapes, less information is available about the areal coverage of improved permanent grasslands and their role for ecosystem service provision and biodiversity. In Sweden, grasslands are administratively separated into semi-natural (i.e., land that cannot be ploughed) or arable (i.e., improved temporary or permanent grassland on land that can be ploughed). We used data from a large-scale environmental monitoring program to show that improved permanent grassland (i.e., permanent grasslands on arable fields) may be a previously unrecognised large area of the agricultural land use in Sweden. We show that improved permanent grasslands together with semi-natural grasslands are both comparable but also complementary providers of a range of ecosystem services (plant species richness, plant resources for pollinators and forage amount for livestock production). However, as expected, semi-natural grasslands with the highest-level AESs (special values) show high species richness values for vascular plants, plants indicating traditional semi-natural management conditions and red-listed species. Improved permanent grasslands on arable fields are likely an underestimated but integral part of the agricultural economy and ecological function in boreal landscapes that together with high nature value semi-natural grasslands provide a broad range of ecosystem services.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Berg, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing agri-environmental schemes for semi-natural grasslands during a 5-year period: can we see positive effects for vascular plants and pollinators?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 28, s. 3989-4005
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An important function of agri-environmental schemes (AES) is to change management of pastures to better conserve biodiversity. However, the effects of most AES on biodiversity are poorly understood, especially when it comes to effects of AES management over time. The main aim of this study is to investigate if the species richness and abundance of grassland specialists of vascular plants and two important insect pollinator groups (bumblebees and butterflies) differ over time (5 years) in pastures with AES management (two value levels; general values and special values) and pastures without AES management. We also investigate if local vegetation characteristics and landscape composition relate to species richness in semi-natural grasslands. Using data from more than 400 sites we found that species richness of vascular plants (grassland specialists) was higher in pastures with AES management (for special and general values) compared to those without AES, which implies that these schemes do have value of the conservation of plant diversity. However, species richness and abundance of butterflies (grassland specialists) and bumblebees (all species) did not differ significantly among the three AES categories. We found no evidence that the type of AES management caused any changes in species richness of plants, butterflies or bumblebees during the 5 year period of our investigation. It appears that AES management that encourages uniform and minimum levels of grazing can have both positive and negative effects on biodiversity. For example, pollinators may benefit from a lower grazing intensity that could increase flower richness and heterogeneity in vegetation height. However, low grazing intensity may lead to increased cover of trees and shrubs, which can have negative effects for both insect pollinators and vascular plants. The effects of landscape composition were weak and only species richness of bumble bees were associated with landscape composition. Designing management regimes to maintain suitably heterogeneous vegetation layer, and continued long-term monitoring of biodiversity will be critical for safeguarding culturally and functionally important semi-natural grasslands.
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| 8. |
- Berg, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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Linking occurrence and changes in local abundance of farmland bird species to landscape composition and land-use changes
- 2015
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Ingår i: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-8809 .- 1873-2305. ; 204, s. 1-7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Changes in agricultural policies have caused dramatic changes in land-use in agricultural landscapes. To investigate whether such changes in land-use relate to temporal changes in bird communities a repeated inventory (1994 and 2004) of farmland birds was made in 212 point-count sites in south-central Sweden.Distinct changes in abundance of several species over the study period were recorded, abundance of the 16 studied species decreased by 23%. The decline was significant for eight species, while two species increased significantly. Persistence and colonisation models suggested similar species-habitat relationships as the snapshot models, i.e. eight of the 12 associations were in line with what could be expected from the snapshot models. Occurrence of nine species was linked to land-use whereas six species displayed links between changes in occurrence and changes in land-use. In line with previous studies positive effects of short rotation coppice and negative effects of autumn-sown crops were found, while set-asides showed fewer effects than expected. In the snapshot models several species showed links to landscape characteristics such as amount of forest (negative for five species) and landscape heterogeneity (positive for six species). The evidence for effects of the landscape variables on persistence/colonisation was more restricted.The results suggest that both land-use changes and the landscape setting may cause local changes in abundance of farmland birds, even for species displaying a general decline in numbers between years, the effects of land-use changes being, however, strongly species specific. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Eggers, Sönke, et al.
(författare)
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Do biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments inform stakeholders how to simultaneously conserve biodiversity and increase ecosystem service provisioning in grasslands?
- 2020
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Ingår i: Biological Conservation. - : Elsevier BV. - 0006-3207 .- 1873-2917. ; 245
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two key stakeholders primarily important for nature conservation are farmers (and their lobby groups) and conservationists. Both have substantial inputs into environmental strategies and policies calling for biodiversity conservation aimed to directly increase ecosystem services. The scientific literature concurs that as biological diversity increases so do ecosystem functions and services in grasslands. While the evidence for this is strong, the majority comes from controlled small-scale biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments. Thus, it is unclear whether the scientific basis for implementing BEF relationships into practice is sufficiently evidenced. Here we explore the applicability of findings from BEF experiments to the conservation and management of temperate grassland, a widespread and potentially highly biodiverse habitat. While we acknowledge that BEF research can reveal insights into fundamental mechanisms, the saturation of biodiversity effects at low levels and unrealistic (management) treatments widely impede the applicability of these experimental results to permanent grasslands. Additionally, the integration of BEF research results into practice is considerably hampered by experimental studies not answering stakeholders' crucial questions, e.g. is there evidence of biodiversity conservation potentials? Thus, stakeholders do not have a strong evidence base for taking decisions for the addressed management goals, except intensive production in (species-poor) temporary grasslands. If BEF work is to inform stakeholders future research needs to overcome unrealistic management, missing stakeholder involvement and ineffective communication. A new generation of applied BEF experiments employing applied, multi-actor approaches is needed to facilitate the relevance of BEF research for nature conservation, agriculture and land management.
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| 11. |
- Elofsson, Katarina, et al.
(författare)
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Ecological compensation of stochastic wetland biodiversity : National or regional policy schemes?
- 2023
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Ingår i: Ecological Economics. - : Elsevier. - 0921-8009 .- 1873-6106. ; 204
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to compare policy schemes for ecological compensation applied at national and regional levels, using exploited inland wetlands as an example. We study whether uncertainty, due to natural variability and measurement difficulties, motivates compensation that is carried out in the same region as that of the exploited site, or whether it rather motivates nationwide compensation schemes. For this purpose, we develop an empirical, chance-constrained programming model of cost-effective wetland management. The model is spatially differentiated and accounts for heterogeneity in wetland quality across wetland types and regions. Wetland quality is defined by three alternative biodiversity indices: species richness, population-weighted species richness, and red-listed species richness, estimated from voluntarily reported data on breeding bird species observations. Results show that regional schemes are more expensive, in particular if the policy maker dislikes uncertainty and wants to prioritize uncommon species. Contrary to expectations from the theoretical analysis, regional schemes would lead to a higher risk-adjusted level of biodiversity at the national level. However, regionalization also implies that targets cannot be achieved if a high safety margin is imposed. Trading ratios are robust to the choice of wetland quality index.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Glimskär, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainable Grazing by Cattle and Sheep for Semi-Natural Grasslands in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Agronomy. - 2073-4395. ; 13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite their importance for biodiversity and other ecosystem services, many semi-natural grasslands deteriorate or have even disappeared due to insufficient grazing and neglect. Preservation of grassland habitats depends on a good understanding of sustainable grazing management as well as effective agricultural policy measures that ensure long-term economic sustainability for the farmer. Through meta-evaluation and synthesis of previous investigations and discussion of scientific literature, we aimed to evaluate factors that determine the extent to which cattle and sheep in Sweden graze semi-natural grasslands instead of more productive land and what this means for biodiversity and sustainability. We also aimed to propose which practises and policy measures may be the most cost-effective to promote habitat quality and the sustainable use of grasslands. Results from a nationwide survey of Swedish farmers' attitudes towards agri-environmental payment schemes are discussed in relation to farm characteristics and other factors influencing the use of cattle and sheep for sustainable grazing. This study supports recommendations by environmental economists that payments should be targeted more strongly at the most valuable grasslands, emphasising the need for a more detailed and nuanced framework for classifying grasslands in Europe. A comparison with independent estimates of the area of agricultural land from nation-wide, sample-based monitoring shows that the data from official statistics normally used for nationwide evaluations are partly biased and of insufficient quality, underscoring the need for more sophisticated and precise methods for monitoring both overall trends and detailed environmental effects related to the preservation of semi-natural grasslands.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Glimskär, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Årsrapport för Regional miljöövervakning i landskapsrutor 2022
- 2023
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Denna årsrapport avser de uppdrag som SLU har haft från Länsstyrelsen i Örebro län m.fl. länsstyrelser under år 2022, att utföra miljöövervakning med riktad metodik för småbiotoper, gräsmarker och våtmarker i ett stickprov av landskapsrutor. År 2022 är det andra året av länsstyrelsernas löpande uppdrag med datainsamling som gäller för programperioden 2021-2026. Miljöövervakningen utförs inom ramen för tre så kallade gemensamma delprogram inom regional miljöövervakning: Småbiotoper i åkerlandskapet Gräsmarkernas gröna infrastruktur Vegetation och ingrepp i våtmarker
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| 18. |
- Glimskär, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Årsrapport för Regional miljöövervakning i landskapsrutor 2023
- 2023
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Denna årsrapport avser de uppdrag som SLU har haft från Länsstyrelsen i Örebro län m.fl. länsstyrelser från och med år 2021, att utföra miljöövervakning med riktad metodik för småbiotoper, gräsmarker och våtmarker i ett stickprov av landskapsrutor. År 2021 var det första året av länsstyrelsernas löpande uppdrag med datainsamling för programperioden 2021-2026, och det är till största delen en direkt fortsättning på verksamheten under föregående period, 2015-2020. Miljöövervakningen utförs inom ramen för tre så kallade gemensamma delprogram inom regional miljöövervakning:Småbiotoper i åkerlandskapetGräsmarkernas gröna infrastrukturVegetation och ingrepp i våtmarker
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| 19. |
- Hiron, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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Are farmsteads over-looked biodiversity hotspots in intensive agricultural ecosystems?
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biological Conservation. - : Elsevier BV. - 0006-3207 .- 1873-2917. ; 159, s. 332-342
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Farmland biodiversity continues to decline because changes in modern agriculture have led to the degradation and loss of key habitats. One farmland habitat that has received little attention during development of conservation measures is farmsteads. We use bird count data from a survey conducted at over 600 sites in 3725 km(2) agricultural landscapes in southern Sweden to investigate the importance of farmsteads as potential sources of biodiversity in simplified landscapes. We found that farmsteads, on average, had more bird species and individuals than semi-natural pastures and infield infield non-crop islands, probably due to a larger area of non-field habitats at farmstead sites. Presence of farm animals was an important predictor of bird diversity and numbers at farmsteads while variables associated with arable land-use intensification had limited effect. Old farmsteads with no current active farming, on average, had low bird numbers. We found no effect of agricultural intensification at the landscape level on alpha diversity at farmstead sites. Rather, species richness and abundance of birds tended to increase as landscapes became characterized by more intensive agriculture with larger fields. Farmsteads are widespread in simplified agricultural landscapes and may provide habitat to a range of farmland species. Applying conservation measures to farmsteads and local surroundings that increase the availability of safe nest-sites and good foraging grounds for birds could be implemented through publicity driven schemes. This combined with other agri-environment schemes in the surrounding landscape could enhance the amount of critical resources for farmland birds. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Hiron, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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Consequences of bioenergy wood extraction for landscape-level availability of habitat for dead wood-dependent organisms
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 198, s. 33-42
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Stumps and slash resulting from forest clearcutting is used as a source of low-net-carbon energy, but there are concerns about the consequences of biofuel extraction on biodiversity. Logging residues constitute potentially important habitats, since a large part of forest biodiversity is dependent on dead wood. Here we used snapshot field data from a managed forest landscape (25 000 ha) to predict landscape scale population changes of dead wood dependent organisms after extraction of stumps and slash after clearcutting. We did this by estimating habitat availability for all observed dead wood dependent beetles, macrofungi, and lichens (380 species) in the whole landscape. We found that 53% of species occurred in slash or stumps. For most species, population declines after moderate extraction (<= 30%) were small (<10% decline) because they mainly occur on other dead wood types. However, some species were only recorded in slash and stumps. Red listed species were affected by slash and stump extraction (12 species), but less often than other species. Beetles and fungi were more affected by stump extraction, while lichens were more affected by slash extraction. For beetles and lichens, extraction of a combination of spruce, pine and birch resulted in larger negative effects than if only extracting spruce, while for fungi tree species had little effect. We conclude that extensive extraction decreases the amount of habitat to such extent that it may have negative consequences on species persistence at the landscape level. The negative consequences can be limited by extracting only slash, or only logging residues from spruce stands. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 22. |
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| 23. |
- Hiron, Matthew
(författare)
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From fields to landscapes : effects of agricultural land use and landscape heterogeneity on farmland birds
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Farmland biodiversity has declined because of agricultural intensification. Agri-environment schemes (AESs) seem to have limited effect in stopping and reversing declines. Reasons for this lack of effect could be: (1) failure to target important habitats, (2) the effects of schemes are strongly context-dependent, and (3) the effects are measured at the wrong spatial scale. Evidently, we still need more information about the relationships between agricultural land use and biodiversity at local and landscape scale. I investigated how patterns in habitat-specific abundance and species richness of farmland birds related to land use in 37 arable field dominated landscapes (25 km²). The aim of the study was to establish if agricultural land uses, non-crop habitats and AESs are linked to high species diversity or abundance of birds in open plains of southern Sweden. First, I found a clear switch in crop-specific densities (from autumn- to spring-sown) of a farmland specialist species, the skylark (Alauda arvensis), during the breeding season and this temporal change depended on region. Second, I found that farmsteads had higher species richness and abundance of birds compared to semi-natural pastures and infield non-crop islands. The presence of farm animals increased bird diversity and abundance at farmsteads. Furthermore, densities of non-crop nesters at farmsteads increased with increased average field size of the landscape, showing that farmsteads are especially important bird habitats in arable plains. Third, I showed that payments for AESs target important habitats for birds in the region. AESs for cultivated grasslands, semi-natural pastures and management of landscape elements with nature-culture values related positively to species richness or abundance of birds. Landscape level uptake of organic farming did show effects on local species richness depending on the composition of the landscape. Fourth, I showed that heterogeneity of crop cover at the 25 km² scale did not relate to species richness (with the possible exception of field-nesters in the most simplified landscapes). Total species richness of field-nesting species declined in heterogeneous landscapes with more non-crop cover. Farmland plains are important for farmland birds, but variation in species richness there can be found at the beta and gamma levels rather than at the alpha level. My study shows that, biodiversity patterns need to be considered at different spatial scales when designing and evaluating conservation management in farmland.
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| 24. |
- Hiron, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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Hybrid bioacoustic and ecoacoustic analyses provide new links between bird assemblages and habitat quality in a winter boreal forest
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 2665-9727. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Resident birds in boreal forests can serve as indicators of habitat quality and are often species of conservation interest, particularly in multifunctional forests also used for timber production. To make informed forest management decisions, we must first understand which structural features provide habitats useful for resident birds. This is particularly true in winter, an understudied and critical season for their survival. The objective of this study was to establish reliable methods for monitoring bird presence and activity during winter, and to use these methods to evaluate the relative importance of stand structural features to make inferences about which features support and increase winter survival potential. Using a hybrid bioacoustic and ecoacoustic approach, we tested the ability of acoustic recordings to identify links between bird diversity and components of structural complexity, and compared these results to those from the traditional point count method. We conducted a vegetation survey, point count surveys and collected acoustic recordings from December 2019–February 2020 in 19 sites in a Swedish boreal forest. First, we compared species richness values derived from point counts and bioacoustic monitoring methods. Bioacoustic species richness was significantly higher than point count richness, although only when the time spent identifying species from recordings exceeded the time spent conducting point counts in the field. Next, we demonstrated that bioacoustic species identification yields additional metrics of bird activity that point counts cannot. We tested the response of these metrics, and point count metrics, to variables of structural heterogeneity and complexity of our sites. Almost all bioacoustic metrics increased significantly with increasing structural complexity, while point count richness and abundance did not, indicating that automated recording is more effective in identifying forest patches of high quality in winter. Lastly, using an ecoacoustic approach, we calculated six of the most common acoustic indices and tested if any could effectively reflect the bird-structure relationships described above. Two indices showed significant positive relationships to bioacoustic metrics, demonstrating their potential as biodiversity assessment proxies that respond to differences in habitat quality. This is the first winter acoustic study to monitor bird assemblages in detail; it employed both bioacoustic and multi-index ecoacoustic approaches, which provided evidence that automated acoustic recording can be an effective and superior method for monitoring resident forest birds.
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| 25. |
- Hiron, Matthew
(författare)
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Permanent grasslands in Europe: Land use change and intensification decrease their multifunctionality
- 2022
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Ingår i: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-8809 .- 1873-2305. ; 330
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Permanent grasslands cover 34% of the European Union's agricultural area and are vital for a wide variety of ecosystem services essential for our society. Over recent decades, the permanent grassland area has declined and land use change continues to threaten its extent. Simultaneously, the management intensity of permanent grasslands increased. We performed a systematic literature review on the multifunctionality of permanent grasslands in Europe, examining the effects of land use and management on 19 grassland ecosystem service indicators. Based on the evidence in 696 out of 70,456 screened papers, published since 1980, we found that both land use change and intensification of management decreased multifunctionality. In particular, preventing conversion of permanent grasslands to croplands secured the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. A lower management intensity was associated with benefits for biodiversity, climate regulation and water purification, but impacted the provision of high-quality animal feed. Increasing the number of species in the sward enhanced multifunctionality of permanent grassland without significant trade-offs such as losses in production. Our review covered many aspects of land use, management and ecosystem services, but we also identified areas with no or only few studies. The most prominent gaps were related to comparisons between permanent and temporary grasslands, and effects of management practices on the provision of cultural values, and on erosion and flood control. We suggest that, despite apparent changes in human dietary preferences, the protection of permanent grasslands in Europe must be prioritised. At the same time, considering the need to reduce ruminant livestock's contribution to climate change, the time seems ripe to increase support for low-intensity grassland management to optimise the provision of essential ecosystem services from Europe's permanent grasslands.
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| 26. |
- Hiron, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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Species contributions to single biodiversity values under-estimate whole community contribution to a wider range of values to society
- 2018
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A major task for decision makers is deciding how to consider monetary, cultural and conservation values of biodiversity explicitly when planning sustainable land use. Thus, there is a great need to understand just what "valuing" biodiversity or species really means, e.g. regarding how many and which species are important in providing ecosystem services or other values. Constructing ecosystem-level indices, however, requires weighting the relative contribution of species to the different values. Using farmland birds, we illustrate how species contribute to different biodiversity values, namely utilitarian (pest seed predation potential), cultural (species occurrence in poetry), conservational (declines and rarity) and inherent (all species equal) value. Major contributions to each value are often made by a subset of the community and different species are important for different values, leading to no correlations or, in some cases, negative correlations between species' relative contributions to different values. Our results and methods using relative contributions of species to biodiversity values can aid decisions when weighing different values in policies and strategies for natural resource management. We conclude that acknowledging the importance of the range of biodiversity values that are apparent from different perspectives is critical if the full value of biodiversity to society is to be realised.
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| 27. |
- Hiron, Matthew
(författare)
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The Effects of Nitrogen Fertilisation on Plant Species Richness in European Permanent Grasslands: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- 2022
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Ingår i: Agronomy. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-4395. ; 12
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nitrogen fertilisation is a common form of agricultural intensification, aimed at increasing biomass, which can affect plant species diversity and ecosystem functioning. Using a systematic review and meta-analysis of nitrogen fertilisation studies in European permanent grasslands, we asked: (i) what relationship form exists between nitrogen application rate and change in plant diversity, compared to zero fertilisation controls; and (ii) how grassland, management and study characteristics affect this relationship. Meta-analysis of 34 control-treatment effects from 14 studies conducted across nine European countries revealed a negative linear relationship between nitrogen fertilisation rate and change in plant species richness, equivalent to approximately 1.5 species/m(2) lost for every 100 Kg ha(-1) yr(-1) of nitrogen added. Fertilisation induced reductions in plant species richness were greater when defoliation rates were lower. We found some evidence that grasslands with a higher baseline plant diversity lost more species when fertilised compared to more species poor grasslands, although uncertainty was high. Due to the diverse grassland types included in the analysis, the variability in fertilisation-driven changes in plant diversity was high. We identified several remaining limitations to our understanding, including uncertainty about non-linear effects, which could aid efforts to optimise the trade-off of plant diversity and increasing grassland yields.
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| 28. |
- Hiron, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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The relationship of bird diversity to crop and non-crop heterogeneity in agricultural landscapes
- 2015
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Ingår i: Landscape Ecology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0921-2973 .- 1572-9761. ; 30, s. 2001-2013
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Habitat heterogeneity is often assumed to benefit farmland biodiversity. Increasing heterogeneity of non-crop habitats is often too costly in terms of agricultural production. It has been suggested that increased crop heterogeneity could mitigate the negative effects of intensification on biodiversity while still maintaining high production levels.We investigated if habitat-specific species pools of two groups of farmland birds, field-nesting and non-crop-nesting species, were related to landscape-level heterogeneity of crop and non-crop cover. We analysed total number of species (gamma diversity) and average local species richness (alpha diversity) in landscapes and related these two biodiversity measures to four components of landscape heterogeneity (compositional and configurational heterogeneity of crop and non-crop cover).We selected 30 farmland landscapes (each 25 km(2)) in Sweden that largely broke up correlated relationships between crop and non-crop heterogeneity and between compositional and configurational heterogeneity. Estimates of species richness (alpha and gamma diversity) were calculated with bird survey data from specific habitats within landscapes (farmsteads and arable fields) and then related to measures of landscape heterogeneity.No measure of landscape species richness was associated with landscape-scale crop cover heterogeneities. However, gamma diversity of both bird groups was negatively related to the compositional and configurational heterogeneity of non-crop land-use in the landscapes, respectively.Our results suggest that: (i) crop heterogeneities are not related to habitat-specific richness of farmland birds, (ii) heterogeneity effects of habitat complementarity in general are weak and (iii) relationships between diversity and heterogeneity in landscapes are dependent on the biodiversity measure used.
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| 29. |
- Hultgren, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Quality and Compliance with Animal Welfare Legislation at Swedish Cattle and Sheep Farms
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Conflicts between different goals can obstruct progress in sustainability, but interests may also coincide. We evaluated relationships between environmental quality and animal welfare on Swedish farms with grazing livestock, using publicly available databases. Data were collected from 8700 official animal welfare inspections on 5808 cattle farms and 2823 inspections on 2280 sheep farms in 2012-2017. Compliance with three animal-based checkpoints was modeled using logistic regression, including a random farm effect to account for repeated inspections. Compliance was regressed on semi-natural grassland area, participation in the National Meadow and Pasture Inventory, Agri-Environmental Scheme (AES) grassland payments, presence of indicator plant species, and the presence of Natura 2000 habitats. Cattle farms complied more often if they received AES payments for grasslands of special values compared with if they did not apply for them (OR = 1.55-1.65; p <= 0.0001) and there was a similar tendency for cattle farms that applied for but were denied such payments (OR = 1.29; p = 0.074). There was also a strong tendency for Natura 2000 habitats on cattle farms to be associated with higher compliance (OR = 1.36; p = 0.059). These results suggest a direct or indirect causal effect of biodiversity on cattle welfare. The same associations could not be shown in sheep.
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| 30. |
- Josefsson, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Grass buffer strips benefit invertebrate and breeding skylark numbers in a heterogeneous agricultural landscape
- 2013
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Ingår i: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-8809 .- 1873-2305. ; 181, s. 101-107
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The loss of non-crop habitat is often suggested to be a key driver of biodiversity decline on arable land. Grass buffer strips on cereal field edges, to reduce erosion and agro-chemical runoff into surface water, could be useful to mitigate this diversity loss as they are often assumed to provide refuge and food for invertebrates, small mammals and birds. Evidence for this idea is, however, scarce and it remains unclear whether densely vegetated buffer strips benefit biodiversity in structurally complex landscapes of North- ern Europe. Here, we examined whether buffer strips affected breeding skylark Alauda avensis numbers and its main food supply (i.e. beetles Coleoptera and spiders Arachnida) on cereal fields in a heteroge- neous agricultural landscape of south-central Sweden. We also examined whether buffer strip effects on skylark density depended on seasonal sward height differences between sowing regimes (spring- vs. autumn-sown) as they presumably influence seasonal invertebrate accessibility. Fields with buffer strips supported on average 0.51 ± 0.26 more skylark territories per hectare up to 100 m into the field and boosted invertebrate activity densities compared to fields without buffer strips. These effects were most apparent early in spring, but persisted throughout the sampling period, and were similar among spring and autumn sown fields. Thus, our results provide evidence to suggest that buffer strips target multiple environmental objectives on cereal fields in heterogeneous farmland. Future research should work to identify buffer strip management practices that further increase their value to biodiversity at the local scale, and investigate how they affect farmland biodiversity in different landscape types at larger spatial scales for more efficient implementation across Europe.
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| 31. |
- Josefsson, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Sensitivity of the farmland bird community to crop diversification in Sweden: does the CAP fit?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 54, s. 518-526
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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 diver- sification is soil and ecosystem resilience, but claims for potential benefits for farmland biodi- versity 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 Swe- den’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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| 32. |
- Ranius, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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The evolutionary species pool concept does not explain occurrence patterns of dead-wood-dependent organisms: implications for logging residue extraction
- 2019
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 191, s. 241-252
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Emulation of natural disturbances is often regarded as a key measure to make forestry biodiversity-oriented. Consequently, extraction of logging residues is assumed to have little negative effect in comparison to extraction of dead wood mainly formed at natural disturbances. This is consistent with the evolutionary species pool hypothesis, which suggests that most species are evolutionary adapted to the naturally most abundant habitats. We tested this hypothesis for dead-wood-dependent macrofungi, lichens, and beetles in a boreal forest landscape in central Sweden, assuming that species are adapted to conditions similar to today's unmanaged forest. No occurrence patterns, for the species groups which we investigated, were consistent with the hypothesis. Overall, stumps and snags had the highest habitat quality (measured as average population density with equal weight given to each species) and fine woody debris the lowest, which was unexpected, since stumps were the rarest dead-wood type in unmanaged forest. We conclude that the evolutionary species pool concept did not explain patterns of species' occurrences, and for two reasons, the concept is not reliable as a general rule of thumb: (1) what constitute habitats harbouring different species communities can only be understood from habitat-specific studies and (2) the suitability of habitats is affected by their biophysical characteristics. Thus, emulation of natural disturbances may promote biodiversity, but empirical studies are needed for each habitat to understand how natural disturbances should be emulated. We also conclude that stump extraction for bioenergy is associated with larger risks for biodiversity than fine woody debris extraction.
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| 33. |
- Rosin, Zuzanna, et al.
(författare)
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Reduced biodiversity in modernized villages: A conflict between sustainable development goals
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 57, s. 467-475
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite large conservation efforts to halt the loss of farmland biodiversity in Europe, negative population trends are still observed, especially for common species. Old villages and human settlements are biodiversity hotspots and important breeding habitats for farmland birds, but recent requirements for energy saving measures and improved living comfort have changed their architecture and habitats. Consequently, modernization of villages may negatively affect bird diversity due to the loss of nesting and foraging sites. We investigated how the abundance and diversity of birds breeding in 104 Polish villages varied in relation to the degree of modernization as estimated by the proportion of new and renovated homesteads. Abundance of building-nesting species, but not tree-nesting species, declined by 50% across a gradient of old to highly modernized villages. The contribution of new versus renovated houses to the observed decline was similar. Synthesis and applications. Rural modernization may have a dramatic effect on abundance of birds nesting on buildings, thus may be an important and overlooked contributor to farmland bird population declines in Europe. Villages and rural properties fall outside of current conservation policy as they are neither protected areas nor agricultural lands (where agri-environmental schemes can be applied). The observed conflict between sustainability goals such as increased building energy efficiency and biodiversity conservation suggests that sustainable rural development should better link modernization with conservation measures, for example, by constructing nesting sites when renovating and building new houses. The challenge is to design modern buildings that are both energy-efficient and biodiversity-friendly to generally improve quality of life for rural communities and to halt or reduce farmland bird declines in rural landscapes. Designers and architects can find inspiration from traditional architecture and add a variety of nest-box types.
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| 34. |
- Wahlund, Lotten, et al.
(författare)
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Virtuella stängsel: ett flexibelt verktyg för skötsel av naturbetesmarker
- 2023
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Variation i livsmiljöer knutna till åker- och betesmark har identifierats som avgörande för en varierad flora och fauna i jordbrukslandskapet och särskilt viktiga för den biologiska mångfalden är gräsmarker som betas. Idag sköts många gräsmarker homogent med antingen för högt eller lågt betestryck, vilket kan leda till att marker betas för intensivt eller att de växer igen. Att skapa variation inom en betesmark genom optimerad och kontrollerad styrning av betestrycket utifrån naturvårdsbehov kräver stor arbetsinsats. För att främja den biologiska mångfalden i jordbrukslandskapet finns ett stort behov av flexibla lösningar för skötsel av värdefulla betesmarker. Virtuella stängsel, en teknik där betesdjuren hägnas in digitalt med hjälp av GPS-halsband som avger ljudsignaler och elstötar om djuren går utanför en definierad GPS-gräns (virtuell stängselgräns) skulle kunna underlätta för en mer flexibel och skräddarsydd skötsel av gräsmarker med höga naturvärden. Syftet med studien var att undersöka möjligheten att med hjälp av virtuell stängselteknik hägna in nötkreatur och styra betestrycket i en naturbetesmark. Tekniken testades på sju kvigor under sju veckor från maj-juli 2022. Flera olika virtuella stängselgränser introducerades och flyttades inom en befintlig hage med konventionellt elstängsel runt. Djuren lärde sig snabbt att associera ljudsignalen med de virtuella gränserna och anpassade sin vistelseyta utifrån dessa. Detta avspeglades även i resultatet från vegetationsmätningar som visade på en variation i gräshöjd i olika delar av hagen. Virtuell stängselteknik kan därför vara ett snabbt, flexibelt och effektivt verktyg för skötsel och styrning av betestryck. Vi ser många möjliga naturvårdstillämpningar för tekniken i Sverige men fler studier kring specifika skötselåtgärder bör prioriteras för att få mer kunskap om teknikens fulla potential.
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