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

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

Developing a documentation system for evaluating the societal impact of Science

Delivered at the CRIS2014 Conference in Rome; published in Procedia Computer Science 33 (Jul 2014).Contains conference paper (8 pages) and presentation (19 slides).The evaluation of research beyond scientific impact is increasingly required, but has not yet been widely applied. One reason is that data necessary for the evaluation of the societal impact of science are often not available in sufficient quantities or suitable form. This paper describes first results from a research project that develops improved documentation to serve evaluation beyond scientific impact. Firstly, we refer to the need to do this, and to the specific challenges for data assessment in this area. Secondly, we describe the concept for documenting achievements of research beyond scientific impact with a research information system that integrates the relevant parts of research proposals and reports. This enables data to be provided without causing additional effort for scientists, and makes them usable for scientists, research funding agencies and research institutions for different purposes, including evaluation. Compatibility of the system with interoperability standards (e.g. CERIF) is also taken into account. The concept is currently being developed and tested from the user perspectives of scientists, research funding agencies and evaluators

Use of topographic variability for assessing plant diversity in agricultural landscapes

The relationship between plant diversity and topographic variability in agricultural landscapes was investigated, with the aim of determining whether sampling landscape units of 1 km(2) (LUs) across a gradient of topographic variability is more efficient than a random design for assessing the range of biodiversity in climatically and biogeographically homogenous areas called sub-regions. Representative plant species data from the Swiss biodiversity monitoring programme were analyzed covering a broad environmental gradient of four altitudinal belts and seven biogeographic regions. The focus of the study laid on agricultural areas but the whole dataset was as well analyzed to put the agricultural LUs in a general context. Plant species lists of LUs were used to calculate two diversity components: ECOrichness, the number of ecological plant types per LU (as a measure of beta diversity) and AGROrichness, the number of species of conservation importance for agriculture. Mixed regression models were used to analyse the effects of topographic variability on the two plant diversity components, including sub-regions (areas with the same combination of altitudinal belt and biogeographic region) as random factor. These analyses were performed for the whole dataset (419 LUs within 22 sub-regions) and for the focal subset of 187 agricultural LUs within 13 sub-regions. ECOrichness increased significantly with topographic variability for both the general and the agricultural dataset. The partial correlations within the sub-regions revealed consistent trends for the agricultural LUs but some inconsistencies for the whole dataset. For the monitoring of agricultural LUs the sampling along a gradient of topographic variability is therefore suggested as an efficient means for assessing the range of plant species diversity within sub-regions. Compared to other measures of landscape heterogeneity like habitat heterogeneity, sampling LUs along topographic variability is cheap and easily applied and it was demonstrated to work over large environmental gradients

An assessment of landscape-level indicators as coarse-filter measures of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems

International audienc

European farm scale habitat descriptors for the evaluation of biodiversity

<p>Habitat descriptors are cost effective biodiversity indicators demanded by stakeholders and required for regional and global biodiversity monitoring. We mapped 195 farms of different types in twelve case study regions across Europe and tested 18 habitat descriptors for scientific validity, information content and ease of interpretation. We propose a core set consisting of (i) four descriptors to measure structural composition and configuration of farms (Habitat Richness, Habitat Diversity, Patch Size, and Linear Habitats), (ii) three descriptors addressing specific habitat types (Crop Richness, Shrub Habitats, and Tree Habitats) and (iii) one interpreted descriptor (Semi-Natural Habitats). As a set, the descriptors make it possible to evaluate the habitat status of a farm and to track changes occurring due to modified land use and/or management, including agri-environmental measures. The farm habitat maps can provide ground truth information for regional and global biodiversity monitoring.</p

European farm scale habitat descriptors for the evaluation of biodiversity

Habitat descriptors are cost effective biodiversity indicators demanded by stakeholders and required forregional and global biodiversity monitoring. We mapped 195 farms of different types in twelve case studyregions across Europe and tested 18 habitat descriptors for scientific validity, information content andease of interpretation. We propose a core set consisting of (i) four descriptors to measure structural compositionand configuration of farms (Habitat Richness, Habitat Diversity, Patch Size, and Linear Habitats),(ii) three descriptors addressing specific habitat types (Crop Richness, Shrub Habitats, and Tree Habitats)and (iii) one interpreted descriptor (Semi-Natural Habitats). As a set, the descriptors make it possibleto evaluate the habitat status of a farm and to track changes occurring due to modified land use and/ormanagement, including agri-environmental measures. The farm habitat maps can provide ground truthinformation for regional and global biodiversity monitoring

Impacts of river water consumption on aquatic biodiversity in life cycle assessment-a proposed method, and a case study for europe

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Measuring Farmland Biodiversity

About one-third of the world\u2019s land surface is used for farming, a fact that bears important implications for biodiversity. In Europe, for instance, an estimated 50 percent of all wild species are reliant on agricultural habitats, while agricultural productivity often depends on the presence or absence of particular species. Despite this close coupling, surprisingly little is known about the status and evolution of farmland biodiversity. A team of European and African researchers, hoping to fill this gap in information, recently invented and piloted a new toolbox called the BioBio indicator set, which measures 23 different instances of biodiversity across a variety of farm types and scales in Europe. Applications were also tested in Tunisia, Ukraine, and Uganda, where they proved a feasible starting point for adaptation to the agricultural context of different countries