Increasing crop heterogeneity enhances multitrophic diversity across agricultural regions
(2019) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116(33). p.16442-16447- Abstract
Agricultural 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.... (More)
Agricultural 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.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019-08-13
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Biodiversity, Complementation, Crop mosaic, Farmland, Landscape, Multitaxa
- in
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- volume
- 116
- issue
- 33
- pages
- 6 pages
- publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:31358630
- scopus:85070590480
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.1906419116
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 96647333-7c3c-4ee6-af10-01a03d85668f
- date added to LUP
- 2019-08-30 12:46:27
- date last changed
- 2024-05-07 14:29:43
@article{96647333-7c3c-4ee6-af10-01a03d85668f,
abstract = {{<p>Agricultural 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.</p>}},
author = {{Sirami, Clélia and Gross, Nicolas and Baillod, Aliette Bosem and Bertrand, Colette and Carrié, Romain and Hass, Annika and Henckel, Laura and Miguet, Paul and Vuillot, Carole and Alignier, Audrey and Girard, Jude and Batáry, Péter and Clough, Yann and Violle, Cyrille and Giralt, David and Bota, Gerard and Badenhausser, Isabelle and Lefebvre, Gaëtan and Gauffre, Bertrand and Vialatte, Aude and Calatayud, François and Gil-Tena, Assu and Tischendorf, Lutz and Mitchell, Scott and Lindsay, Kathryn and Georges, Romain and Hilaire, Samuel and Recasens, Jordi and Solé-Senan, Xavier Oriol and Robleño, Irene and Bosch, Jordi and Barrientos, Jose Antonio and Ricarte, Antonio and Marcos-Garcia, Maria Ángeles and Miñano, Jesús and Mathevet, Raphaël and Gibon, Annick and Baudry, Jacques and Balent, Gérard and Poulin, Brigitte and Burel, Françoise and Tscharntke, Teja and Bretagnolle, Vincent and Siriwardena, Gavin and Ouin, Annie and Brotons, Lluis and Martin, Jean Louis and Fahrig, Lenore}},
issn = {{0027-8424}},
keywords = {{Biodiversity; Complementation; Crop mosaic; Farmland; Landscape; Multitaxa}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{08}},
number = {{33}},
pages = {{16442--16447}},
publisher = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
series = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}},
title = {{Increasing crop heterogeneity enhances multitrophic diversity across agricultural regions}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906419116}},
doi = {{10.1073/pnas.1906419116}},
volume = {{116}},
year = {{2019}},
}