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Klaus VH, Jehle A, Richter F, Buchmann N, Knop E, Lüscher G. Additive effects of two agri-environmental schemes on plant diversity but not on productivity indicators in permanent grasslands in Switzerland. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 348:119416. [PMID: 37931438 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/08/2023]
Abstract
Different agri-environmental schemes (AES), such as ecological focus areas and organic farming, have been suggested to reduce the impact of intensive agriculture on the environment and to conserve or even restore farmland biodiversity. However, the effectiveness of such schemes, their ability to actually support biodiversity and associated trade-offs with agricultural production are still debated. We analysed a large dataset from the biodiversity monitoring in the Swiss agricultural landscape to assess the effects of two different grassland AES, i.e., extensively managed ecological focus areas (EFAs versus non-EFAs) and organic farming (versus conventional), on plant diversity, plant community composition and productivity indicators, i.e., weed abundance, forage value and nutrient availability. We also considered environmental factors, i.e., topography and soil conditions, which potentially modulate AES effects on biodiversity. We used in total 1170 plots in permanent grasslands, managed as meadows or pastures. Both AES had significant positive effects on plant diversity. However, EFAs increased plant richness considerably stronger (+6.6 species) than organic farming (+1.8 species). Effects of the two schemes were additive with organic EFA grasslands exhibiting highest plant diversity. Differences in topography partly explained AES effects on diversity as both AES were associated with differences in elevation and slope. Thus, future assessments of the effectiveness of AES need to consider the non-random placement of AES across heterogeneous landscapes. EFA grasslands revealed a considerably reduced agricultural productivity as shown by low forage values and low nutrient availability. Yet, the abundance of agricultural weeds, i.e., agriculturally undesired plant species, was lower in EFA compared to non-EFA grasslands. Productivity indicators were only weakly affected by organic farming and other than for plant diversity, productivity did not differ between organic and conventional EFA grasslands. The positive additive diversity effects of EFAs and organic grassland farming underline the potential of both AES to contribute to biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, though to a different extent. Comparing the effects of the two AES revealed that the lower the reduction in agricultural productivity associated with an AES, the smaller the gains in plant diversity, highlighting the inevitable trade-off between productivity and plant diversity in semi-natural grasslands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentin H Klaus
- Forage Production and Grassland Systems, Agroscope, Zürich, Switzerland; Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Andrew Jehle
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Franziska Richter
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Nina Buchmann
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Eva Knop
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Agricultural Landscape and Biodiversity, Agroscope, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Gisela Lüscher
- Agricultural Landscape and Biodiversity, Agroscope, Zürich, Switzerland
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Ecker KT, Meier ES, Tillé Y. Integrating spatial and ecological information into comprehensive biodiversity monitoring on agricultural land. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 2023; 195:1161. [PMID: 37676354 PMCID: PMC10485118 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-023-11618-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/08/2023]
Abstract
Biodiversity loss on agricultural land is a major concern. Comprehensive monitoring is needed to quantify the ongoing changes and assess the effectiveness of agri-environmental measures. However, current approaches to monitoring biodiversity on agricultural land are limited in their ability to capture the complex pattern of species and habitats. Using a real-world example of plant and habitat monitoring on Swiss agricultural land, we show how meaningful and efficient sampling can be achieved at the relevant scales. The multi-stage sampling design of this approach uses unequal probability sampling in combination with intermediate small-scale habitat sampling to ensure broad representation of regions, landscape types, and plant species. To achieve broad coverage of temporary agri-environmental measures, the baseline survey on permanent plots is complemented by dynamic sampling of these specific areas. Sampling efficiency and practicality are ensured at all stages of sampling through modern sampling techniques, such as unequal probability sampling with fixed sample size, self-weighting, spatial spreading, balancing on additional information, and stratified balancing. In this way, the samples are well distributed across ecological and geographic space. Despite the high complexity of the sampling design, simple estimators are provided. The effects of stratified balancing and clustering of samples are demonstrated in Monte Carlo simulations using modelled habitat data. A power analysis based on actual survey data is also presented. Overall, the study could serve as a useful example for improving future biodiversity monitoring networks on agricultural land at multiple scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Klaus Thomas Ecker
- Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Research, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
| | | | - Yves Tillé
- Institute of Statistics, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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Şekercioğlu ÇH, Fullwood MJ, Cerling T, Brenes FO, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR, Chamberlain P, Newsome SD. Using stable isotopes to measure the dietary responses of Costa Rican forest birds to agricultural countryside. Front Ecol Evol 2023. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1086616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/19/2023] Open
Abstract
How human modification of native habitats changes the feeding patterns and nutritional ecology of tropical birds is critical to conserving avian biodiversity, but tropical bird diets are laborious to investigate using the traditional methods of diet analysis. Stable isotope analysis provides a cost-effective and efficient proxy to identify general foraging patterns, especially when dietary shifts spanning multiple trophic levels have occurred due to ecosystem disturbance or transformation. To characterize the diets of forest bird species that persist in tropical agricultural countryside, we compared feather carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values of four species caught and radio-tracked in a 270 hectare forest reserve, smaller forest remnants (including mature forest, secondary forest, and riparian strips), and coffee plantations in mid-elevation (ca. 800–1,400 m) southern Costa Rica. Bird habitat choice had a significant effect on diet composition as revealed by δ13C and δ15N values. Three of the four species studied showed evidence of significantly reduced consumption of invertebrates in coffee plantations, with the isotope values of two species (Tangara icterocephala and Turdus assimilis) indicating, by comparison, nearly a doubling of invertebrate consumption in forest remnants. Our results suggest that coffee plantations are deficient in invertebrates preferred by forest generalist birds that forage in both native forest remnants and coffee plantations. In this region, typical of mountainous American tropics, small forest remnants and a larger forest reserve provide critical dietary resources for native forest birds that utilize the agricultural countryside.
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Neff F, Korner-Nievergelt F, Rey E, Albrecht M, Bollmann K, Cahenzli F, Chittaro Y, Gossner MM, Martínez-Núñez C, Meier ES, Monnerat C, Moretti M, Roth T, Herzog F, Knop E. Different roles of concurring climate and regional land-use changes in past 40 years' insect trends. Nat Commun 2022; 13:7611. [PMID: 36509742 PMCID: PMC9744861 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35223-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2022] [Accepted: 11/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Climate and land-use changes are main drivers of insect declines, but their combined effects have not yet been quantified over large spatiotemporal scales. We analysed changes in the distribution (mean occupancy of squares) of 390 insect species (butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies), using 1.45 million records from across bioclimatic gradients of Switzerland between 1980 and 2020. We found no overall decline, but strong increases and decreases in the distributions of different species. For species that showed strongest increases (25% quantile), the average proportion of occupied squares increased in 40 years by 0.128 (95% credible interval: 0.123-0.132), which equals an average increase in mean occupancy of 71.3% (95% CI: 67.4-75.1%) relative to their 40-year mean occupancy. For species that showed strongest declines (25% quantile), the average proportion decreased by 0.0660 (95% CI: 0.0613-0.0709), equalling an average decrease in mean occupancy of 58.3% (95% CI: 52.2-64.4%). Decreases were strongest for narrow-ranged, specialised, and cold-adapted species. Short-term distribution changes were associated to both climate changes and regional land-use changes. Moreover, interactive effects between climate and regional land-use changes confirm that the various drivers of global change can have even greater impacts on biodiversity in combination than alone. In contrast, 40-year distribution changes were not clearly related to regional land-use changes, potentially reflecting mixed changes in local land use after 1980. Climate warming however was strongly linked to 40-year changes, indicating its key role in driving insect trends of temperate regions in recent decades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Neff
- grid.417771.30000 0004 4681 910XAgroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Fränzi Korner-Nievergelt
- grid.419767.a0000 0001 1512 3677Swiss Ornithological Institute, Seerose 1, 6204 Sempach, Switzerland
| | - Emmanuel Rey
- info fauna, Avenue de Bellevaux 51, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Albrecht
- grid.417771.30000 0004 4681 910XAgroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Kurt Bollmann
- grid.419754.a0000 0001 2259 5533Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Fabian Cahenzli
- grid.424520.50000 0004 0511 762XDepartment of Crop Sciences, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland
| | | | - Martin M. Gossner
- grid.419754.a0000 0001 2259 5533Forest Entomology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland ,grid.5801.c0000 0001 2156 2780Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Carlos Martínez-Núñez
- grid.417771.30000 0004 4681 910XAgroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Eliane S. Meier
- grid.417771.30000 0004 4681 910XAgroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zürich, Switzerland
| | | | - Marco Moretti
- grid.419754.a0000 0001 2259 5533Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Tobias Roth
- grid.6612.30000 0004 1937 0642Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, 4051 Basel, Switzerland ,Hintermann & Weber AG, Austrasse 2a, 4153 Reinach, Switzerland
| | - Felix Herzog
- grid.417771.30000 0004 4681 910XAgroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Eva Knop
- grid.417771.30000 0004 4681 910XAgroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zürich, Switzerland ,grid.7400.30000 0004 1937 0650Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
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