Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Landscape-scale diversity of plants, bumblebees and butterflies in mixed farm-forest landscapes of Northern Europe : Clear-cuts do not compensate for the negative effects of plantation forest cover

Andersson, Georg K.S. LU orcid ; Boke-Olén, Niklas LU ; Roger, Fabian LU ; Ekroos, Johan LU ; Smith, Henrik G. LU and Clough, Yann LU (2022) In Biological Conservation 274.
Abstract

To assess the biodiversity consequences of contemporary land-use trends in Northern Europe, where agriculture is being replaced by forestry, we need a better knowledge of the contributions of constituting habitats to biodiversity. Here, we use purposefully collected data from 87 sites to model how agricultural habitats, including semi-natural pastures, sown temporary grassland (leys), cereal crops, and forest habitats comprising both mature production forests and clear-cuts, contribute to landscape-scale diversity of plants, bumblebees and butterflies in boreonemoral Sweden. At the local scale, species richness was highest in semi-natural pastures, intermediate in cereal crops and leys and lowest in forest. In clear-cuts, species... (More)

To assess the biodiversity consequences of contemporary land-use trends in Northern Europe, where agriculture is being replaced by forestry, we need a better knowledge of the contributions of constituting habitats to biodiversity. Here, we use purposefully collected data from 87 sites to model how agricultural habitats, including semi-natural pastures, sown temporary grassland (leys), cereal crops, and forest habitats comprising both mature production forests and clear-cuts, contribute to landscape-scale diversity of plants, bumblebees and butterflies in boreonemoral Sweden. At the local scale, species richness was highest in semi-natural pastures, intermediate in cereal crops and leys and lowest in forest. In clear-cuts, species richness was similarly high to that in semi-natural pastures. Countryside species-area models show that at a landscape scale, the high local richness in clear-cuts was more than offset by the low species richness encountered in forest. At landscape scale, semi-natural pastures, and in the case of plants also cereal crops, were major contributors of unique species. Leys and semi-natural pastures were both important contributors to bumblebee diversity. The effect of the surrounding landscape composition on local diversity was weak, suggesting that area-based approximations of landscape-scale species richness were reasonable. We conclude that clear-cuts constitute habitats for open-land species but cannot maintain landscape-scale diversity in the face of agricultural abandonment when open land is replaced by even-aged production forests. Maintaining farmland, in particular semi-natural pastures but also cereals and leys, is therefore critical to maintaining the landscape-scale species richness of plants and insects in forestry-dominated areas.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Countryside species area relationship, Farmland afforestation, Grassland ley, High nature value farmland, Pollinator diversity, Semi-natural grassland
in
Biological Conservation
volume
274
article number
109728
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85138772743
ISSN
0006-3207
DOI
10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109728
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)
id
4311f500-6871-4b2b-aeb4-232916e48210
date added to LUP
2022-10-31 16:27:30
date last changed
2022-11-07 10:05:42
@article{4311f500-6871-4b2b-aeb4-232916e48210,
  abstract     = {{<p>To assess the biodiversity consequences of contemporary land-use trends in Northern Europe, where agriculture is being replaced by forestry, we need a better knowledge of the contributions of constituting habitats to biodiversity. Here, we use purposefully collected data from 87 sites to model how agricultural habitats, including semi-natural pastures, sown temporary grassland (leys), cereal crops, and forest habitats comprising both mature production forests and clear-cuts, contribute to landscape-scale diversity of plants, bumblebees and butterflies in boreonemoral Sweden. At the local scale, species richness was highest in semi-natural pastures, intermediate in cereal crops and leys and lowest in forest. In clear-cuts, species richness was similarly high to that in semi-natural pastures. Countryside species-area models show that at a landscape scale, the high local richness in clear-cuts was more than offset by the low species richness encountered in forest. At landscape scale, semi-natural pastures, and in the case of plants also cereal crops, were major contributors of unique species. Leys and semi-natural pastures were both important contributors to bumblebee diversity. The effect of the surrounding landscape composition on local diversity was weak, suggesting that area-based approximations of landscape-scale species richness were reasonable. We conclude that clear-cuts constitute habitats for open-land species but cannot maintain landscape-scale diversity in the face of agricultural abandonment when open land is replaced by even-aged production forests. Maintaining farmland, in particular semi-natural pastures but also cereals and leys, is therefore critical to maintaining the landscape-scale species richness of plants and insects in forestry-dominated areas.</p>}},
  author       = {{Andersson, Georg K.S. and Boke-Olén, Niklas and Roger, Fabian and Ekroos, Johan and Smith, Henrik G. and Clough, Yann}},
  issn         = {{0006-3207}},
  keywords     = {{Countryside species area relationship; Farmland afforestation; Grassland ley; High nature value farmland; Pollinator diversity; Semi-natural grassland}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Biological Conservation}},
  title        = {{Landscape-scale diversity of plants, bumblebees and butterflies in mixed farm-forest landscapes of Northern Europe : Clear-cuts do not compensate for the negative effects of plantation forest cover}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109728}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109728}},
  volume       = {{274}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}