Search results for "Semi-natural habitat"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
The interplay of landscape composition and configuration: new pathways to manage functional biodiversity and agroecosystem services across Europe
2019
Managing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity and ecosystem services is a key aim of a sustainable agriculture. However, how the spatial arrangement of crop fields and other habitats in landscapes impacts arthropods and their functions is poorly known. Synthesising data from 49 studies (1515 landscapes) across Europe, we examined effects of landscape composition (% habitats) and configuration (edge density) on arthropods in fields and their margins, pest control, pollination and yields. Configuration effects interacted with the proportions of crop and non-crop habitats, and species’ dietary, dispersal and overwintering traits led to contrasting responses to landscape variables. O…
Systematic targeting of management actions as a tool to enhance conservation of traditional rural biotopes
2017
Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs), which are biologically and culturally valuable habitats maintained by low-intensity grazing and mowing, are a core element of biodiversity in Europe. During the last decades, TRBs have faced severe habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural modernization. Despite their well-known critical state, their conservation remains inadequate, thus raising a need to advance TRB conservation via spatial land-use planning. In this study we analyze a national GIS database on TRBs in order to examine how the current TRB network can be complemented in terms of conservation value based on known ecological characteristics. Given different target scenarios for the a…
Contrasting responses of vascular plants and bryophytes to present and past connectivity in unmanaged grasslands
2022
AbstractThe area of semi-natural grasslands has decreased dramatically causing many grassland specialist species to persist in small habitat fragments. Furthermore, ecological communities once shaped by disturbances related to traditional agriculture now face the impacts of modern agriculture and urbanization. Many of the species have become endangered due to the combined effects of habitat destruction and degradation. We studied the responses of vascular plants and bryophytes to present and past connectivity in semi-natural grasslands, while accounting for the effects of local environmental conditions. We conducted vegetation surveys in 33 fragmented, unmanaged dry grasslands in Southwest …
Landscape scale and local crop protection intensity affect the abundance of the codling moth and its predation and parasitism in apple orchards
2017
International audience; One important feature that may explain variation in pest abundance and pest biocontrol in crops is the land-use intensity in the landscapes. We report results from three studies in which we tried to address this question by assessing whether amount of semi-natural habitat and/or pesticide use at both local and landscape scales affected the abundance of codling moth, its parasitism and predation of sentinel eggs in commercial apple orchards of south-eastern France. Our results indicate that in this landscape there is indeed a significant effect of the pesticide use intensity at both the local and the landscape scales on these variables
Current agri-environmental policies dismiss varied perceptions and discourses on management of traditional rural biotopes
2017
Abstract Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are threatened habitats that host significant biodiversity and several ecosystem services, and depend on active management such as low-intensity grazing. The current study explores private landowners’ decision-making on TRB management and abandonment within a social-ecological system framework. We provide insight into supporting resilience of TRB systems in the face of agricultural modernization. Using a mixed methods approach with content analysis and Q analysis, we demonstrate that TRB management fosters cultural, biological, aesthetic, and utilitarian values. These are reflected in different ways through conservationist’s, profit-oriented farmer…
Current agri-environmental policies dismiss varied perceptions and discourses on management of traditional rural biotopes
2017
Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are threatened habitats that host significant biodiversity and several ecosystem services, and depend on active management such as low-intensity grazing. The current study explores private landowners’ decision-making on TRB management and abandonment within a social-ecological system framework. We provide insight into supporting resilience of TRB systems in the face of agricultural modernization. Using a mixed methods approach with content analysis and Q analysis, we demonstrate that TRB management fosters cultural, biological, aesthetic, and utilitarian values. These are reflected in different ways through conservationist's, profit-oriented farmer's, lands…