Does increasing crop heterogeneity benefit species diversity? Cross-taxon congruence across a gradient of agricultural landscapes

The congress theme reflected that landscape ecology is a meeting point - where pattern and process meet people and action - seen as a way of thinking when dealing with European landscapes. We wanted to put emphasis on the integration of pattern and process as a biophysical component of landscape ecology with people and action, bringing in the social and cultural approaches. This requires a true interaction of natural and social sciences, and of science, policy and practice. Therefore the congress was an opportunity to reflect on the state of the art of landscape ecology today. Furthermore, the challenge of the congress was what the future directions are of landscape ecology as a social relevant approach for science, policy and practice

Managing landscape spatio-temporal heterogeneity for biodiversity conservation

Although the concept of biodiversity emerged 30 years ago, patterns and processes influencing ecological diversity have been studied for more than a century. Historically, ecological processes tended to be considered as occurring in local habitats, spatially homogeneous and temporally at equilibrium. However, the increasing recognition of environmental heterogeneity and its role for biodiversity resulted in the emergence of landscape ecology, whose major goal is to understand how spatial and temporal heterogeneity influence biodiversity. To achieve this goal, researchers came to realize that a fundamental issue revolves around how they choose to conceptualize and measure heterogeneity. Indeed, observed landscape patterns and their apparent relationship with biodiversity often depend on the scale of observation and the model used to describe the landscape. Due to the strong influence of island biogeography, landscape ecology has been focusing primarily on spatial heterogeneity and the role of patch structure, patch context and mosaic heterogeneity for biodiversity. More recently, the increasing recognition of the role of temporal scale has led to the development of new conceptual frameworks acknowledging that landscapes are not only heterogeneous but also dynamic and that species and ecosystems respond to environmental changes with time lags. The current challenges now remain to truly integrate both spatial and temporal dimensions in studies on biodiversity and to understand how complex interconnections between social and ecological processes shape socio-ecological landscapes, maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services

RO4 : Nouveaux horizons pour l’écologie des paysages

L’écologie des paysages est une discipline relativement récente qui s’est considérablement développée au cours des trente dernières années (Turner and Gardner, 2015). Les paysages font aujourd’hui l’objet d’un intérêt institutionnel et politique important et croissant, ce qui contribue à renforcer la place de cette discipline. Par ailleurs, la disponibilité de nouvelles données spatialisées et les évolutions des questionnements ouvrent de nouveaux horizons scientifiques qui nécessitent de mieux organiser la communauté des chercheurs en écologie des paysages. Dans ce texte, nous rappelons les fondements et objectifs de l’écologie des paysages. Nous donnons quelques exemples de cette place plus grande offerte aux paysages dans le cadre des politiques environnementales et des accords internationaux sur le climat et le développement durable. Puis nous abordons brièvement des exemples des nouvelles questions scientifiques auxquelles l’écologie des paysages cherche à répondre. Enfin, nous concluons sur le rôle que le groupe thématique d’écologie des paysages de la SFE pourra jouer dans ces dynamiques

Effect of farmland heterogeneity on multiple ES spatial variability and trade-offs

Congrès international : « EcoSummit 2016 - Ecological Sustainability : Engineering Change » à Montpellier, France (29 Aout – 1er Septembre 2016) : 0072 Soil C, a double-win for food security and climate mitigation in low input agriculture : Lessons from temperate and tropical regions. Farmland heterogeneity has a true positive effect on biodiversity-in particular bee, bird, plant, spider. Positive effect on biological control -due to linear semi-natural elements. No effect on pollination and production. Complex interactions : Farmland heterogeneity Semi-natural percentage Practices Agricultural policies should start considering field configuration while maintaining semi-natural habitats and agrochemical reduction

Effects of fire frequency on savanna butterfly diversity and composition: A preliminary study

Fire plays a major role in many biomes, is widely used as a management tool and is likely to be affected by climate change. For effective conservation management, it is essential to understand how fire regimes affect different taxa, yet responses of invertebrates are particularly poorly documented. We tested how different fire frequencies influence savanna butterfly diversity and composition by using a long-term savanna fire experiment initiated in 1954 in the Kruger National Park (South Africa). We compared butterfly abundance, species richness and community composition across three fire frequencies: high (burnt annually), medium (burnt triennially) and low (burnt twice in 60 years). Plots with high fire frequency hosted higher abundance than medium- or low-frequency plots. Fire frequencies did not affect species richness, but they led to distinct communities of butterflies. Our findings suggest that, in view of the three fire frequencies tested, a spatial diversity of fire frequencies may increase butterfly diversity at the landscape level in wet savannas. Managers may need to promote a greater diversity of fire frequencies by increasing fire frequency in some areas to provide habitat for species requiring high fire frequency, and by decreasing fire frequency in a large proportion of the landscape to provide fire refuges. This study provides new insights for butterfly conservation in savannas and highlights several knowledge gaps, which further studies should address for insect responses to be given adequate consideration in fire management strategies.Conservation implications: A spatial diversity of fire frequencies may increase butterfly diversity. Managers may need to promote a greater diversity of fire frequencies by increasing fire frequency in some areas to provide habitat for species requiring high fire frequency, and by decreasing fire frequency in other areas to provide fire refuges

Diversité végétale des prairies : Définition

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Impacts of global change on species distributions: obstacles and solutions to integrate climate and land use

Aim The impact of multiple stressors on biodiversity is one of the most pressing questions in ecology and biodiversity conservation. Here we critically assess how often and efficiently two main drivers of global change have been simultaneously integrated into research, with the aim of providing practical solutions for better integration in the future. We focus on the integration of climate change (CC) and land-use change (LUC) when studying changes in species distributions. Location Global. Methods We analysed the peer-reviewed literature on the effects of CC and LUC on observed changes in species distributions, i.e. including species range and abundance, between 2000 and 2014. Results Studies integrating CC and LUC remain extremely scarce, which hampers our ability to develop appropriate conservation strategies. The lack of CC-LUC integration is likely to be a result of insufficient recognition of the co-occurrence of CC and LUC at all scales, covariation and interactions between CC and LUC, as well as correlations between species thermal and habitat requirements. Practical guidelines for the study of these interactive effects include considering multiple drivers and processes when designing studies, using available long-term datasets on multiple drivers, revisiting single-driver studies with additional drivers or conducting comparative studies and meta-analyses. Combining various methodological approaches, including time lags and adaptation processes, represent further avenues to improve global change science. Main conclusions Despite repeated claims for a better integration of multiple drivers, the effects of CC and LUC on species distributions and abundances have been mostly studied in isolation, which calls for a shift of standards towards more integrative global change science. The guidelines proposed here will encourage study designs that account for multiple drivers and improve our understanding of synergies or antagonisms among drivers

Increasing crop heterogeneity enhances multitrophic diversity across agricultural regions

International audienceAgricultural landscape homogenization has detrimental effects on biodiversity and key ecosystem services. Increasing agricultural landscape heterogeneity by increasing seminatural cover can help to mitigate biodiversity loss. However, the amount of seminatural cover is generally low and difficult to increase in many intensively managed agricultural landscapes. We hypothesized that increasing the heterogeneity of the crop mosaic itself (hereafter “crop heterogeneity”) can also have positive effects on biodiversity. In 8 contrasting regions of Europe and North America, we selected 435 landscapes along independent gradients of crop diversity and mean field size. Within each landscape, we selected 3 sampling sites in 1, 2, or 3 crop types. We sampled 7 taxa (plants, bees, butterflies, hoverflies, carabids, spiders, and birds) and calculated a synthetic index of multitrophic diversity at the landscape level. Increasing crop heterogeneity was more beneficial for multitrophic diversity than increasing seminatural cover. For instance, the effect of decreasing mean field size from 5 to 2.8 ha was as strong as the effect of increasing seminatural cover from 0.5 to 11%. Decreasing mean field size benefited multitrophic diversity even in the absence of seminatural vegetation between fields. Increasing the number of crop types sampled had a positive effect on landscape-level multitrophic diversity. However, the effect of increasing crop diversity in the landscape surrounding fields sampled depended on the amount of seminatural cover. Our study provides large-scale, multitrophic, cross-regional evidence that increasing crop heterogeneity can be an effective way to increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes without taking land out of agricultural production

Can increasing crop heterogeneity improve synergies between ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in European and North-American farmlands?

Can increasing crop heterogeneity improve synergies between ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in European and North-American farmlands?. 27. International Congress for Conservation Biology. 4. European Congress for Conservation Biolog

Déprise agricole et biodiversité – le cas des paysages méditerranéens

International audienc