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
(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.
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- author
- Andersson, Georg K.S. LU ; Boke-Olén, Niklas LU ; Roger, Fabian LU ; Ekroos, Johan LU ; Smith, Henrik G. LU and Clough, Yann LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-10
- 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}}, }