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Semi-natural habitats (SNHs) surrounding agricultural fields contribute significantly to biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. SNHs can be divided into large habitat patches such as contiguous patches of forests, and smaller, interspersed linear habitat types such as grassy field margins. Traditional small-holder agricultural farmlands in China, replete with rich linear habitats, are notably beneficial for biodiversity. However, as these farmlands undergo consolidation to enhance the efficiency of machinery, linear habitats are being removed, a process that could adversely affect biodiversity. Appropriate agri-environmental measures (AEM), such as the restoration of field margins via strategic planting, could serve as an effective countermeasure to maintain biodiversity in consolidated land. This paper discusses how biodiversity monitoring can aid in evaluating the impact of land consolidation and the efficacy of AEM in China, from species richness and species composition perspectives. The paper also discusses the function of linear habitats and how they interact with large habitat patches in promoting biodiversity, while noting that outcomes are likely to vary among taxa. Long-term, multiple-taxa and comprehensive assessments are recommended in further studies, and a collaborative approach that involves multiple stakeholders is essential to ensure a success implication of AEM in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Leaving 10% of the meadow uncut as a refuge is positive for the invertebrate community. • We experimentally investigated the effect on the vegetation. • Within-year rotational uncut refuges do not impact negatively the vegetationa s long as the refuges change location at each mowing event. • The refuge should not be placed at the same location for three consecutive years. Invertebrates inhabiting grasslands benefit from uncut grass refuges, yet effects on the plant community have not been properly quantified. We experimentally investigated the effects on the vegetation of two different types of refuges. While both consisted in not mowing 10–20% of a meadow area, they differed in their rotation frequency: (1) in within-year rotational refuges (WYRR), the location of the refuge within a meadow was changed at each mowing operation, usually twice a year; (2) in between-years rotational refuges (BYRR), the refuge changed location only between years. A third mowing regime without any refuge was included as control (C) for comparison. The study was conducted in thirty extensively managed meadows across the Swiss lowlands. The vegetation was sampled at two 1-m2 plots within each of the four strata defined by a stratified random design that accounted for the spatial location of the uncut refuge over the years. There were no overall significant negative effects of WYRR on plant species richness and composition at the meadow scale, although a small negative effect was detected locally (i.e. at the refuge scale) where a WYRR had been implemented more than once in the preceding three years. Leaving BYRR negatively impacted plant species richness (-11%), even reducing the number of indicator plant species by 22% (from 4.5 to 3.5 per 2 m2), regardless of when and where refuges were left uncut. A beta-diversity analysis revealed no difference at community level between the two refuge types and control meadows. Previous studies had evidenced positive effects of uncut refuges on herbivore and pollinator communities, while this study shows that the plant community is not affected as long as the location of the refuge is changed at each mowing operation. We thus recommend this measure for promoting biodiversity in extensively managed grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural intensification has a profound negative impact on farmland biodiversity worldwide. Birds closely associated with agricultural landscapes are a key indicator group for evaluating sustainability in land use. We identified key determinants of hatching success in northern lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) in agricultural landscapes of Estonia. In total, we monitored 133 nests to record the causes of nest failures on 85 field plots from three farming management types over two years. Hatching success as indicated by daily survival rate of nests was significantly lower in organic (94%) when compared to conventionally managed (98%) cultivated fields. We showed that this was mainly caused by increased nest predation by mammalian and avian predators in organic fields. Landscape elements, such as drainage ditches with tall vegetation decreased nest predation by mammalian predators. Depredation of nests by avian species was negatively related to the breeding density of lapwings, suggesting the effectiveness of their collective defense against raptors and corvids. We conclude that the hatching success for ground-breeding birds in arable fields is mainly affected by differences in nest predation. Agri-environment schemes, such as providing funding for organic farming, effectively increase the diversity and abundance of wild animals, while also increasing the number of nest predators as a side effect. The challenge is to control the abundance of mammalian and avian nest predators using different methods. Regional agricultural policy should support the retention of ditches with tall vegetation in agricultural landscapes that can effectively reduce nest predation by mammals. • Hatching success of lapwings was lower in organic than in conventionally managed fields. • Organic fields were associated with increased nest predation. • Drainage ditches with high vegetation were related to decreased nest predation by mammalian predators. • Nest predation by birds was negatively related to the breeding density of lapwings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture intensification is one of the most impacting drivers of European biodiversity decline. The Natura 2000 (N2000) network constitutes a key tool for conservation of species and natural habitats in Europe. Its action to counteract negative impacts of agriculture is mainly based on implementation of Agri-environment schemes (AES) in the N2000 sites. As economical resources are usually limited, spatial targeting is essential for such conservation policy. Here we evaluated whether AES distribution was in spatial coordination with species and habitat conservation states, and agriculture-driven pressures in the French N2000 network. Using the Pressure-State-Response framework, we tested the hypothesis that AES were mainly implemented in sites mostly exposed to pressures, having higher representativeness of species and habitats and higher degradation levels. We combined different sources of information (i.e., standard data forms of the N2000 policy, data collected by the observatory of rural development and national geographical information) to produce pressure, state and response spatial indicators. We declined the analysis per category of pressures related to agricultural activities and considered species and habitat vulnerability to each pressure category. We found limited spatial coordination between AES, pressure and state variables: only 37 % of the fitted models were significant. Significant relationships between AES implementation and agricultural intensification pressure were mostly negative. Considering all indicators, our hypotheses were disproven for more than half of the significant relationships. The results revealed a spatial mismatch between AES distribution and the ecological needs within the N2000 network, as more resources were devoted to sites less exposed to pressure. Our results raise the need of a more strategic approach for the N2000 policy. Indeed, the state of biodiversity conservation and the level of human pressures should be automatically considered a-priori of any implementation of management measures to effectively focus the efforts on the causes of current biodiversity crisis. • We assess agri-environmental schemes (AES) targeting in French Natura 2000 network. • AES distributions compared to agricultural pressures and biodiversity variables. • AES financial expenses and cover poorly target pressures and biodiversity. • More AES are implemented in Natura 2000 sites showing less agricultural pressures. • Better efficiency of N2000 policy needs strategic approaches for AES implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hedgerows are a semi-natural habitat that supports farmland biodiversity by providing food, shelter, and habitat connectivity. Hedgerow planting goals have been set across many countries in Europe and agri-environment schemes (AES) play a key role in reaching these targets. Passive acoustic monitoring using automated vocalisation identification (automated PAM), offers a valuable opportunity to assess biodiversity changes following AES implementation using simple, community-level metrics, such as vocal activity of birds and bats. To evaluate whether vocal activity could be used to indicate the effectiveness of AES following hedgerow planting in future result-based or hybrid schemes, we surveyed twenty-four hedgerows in England classified into a chrono-sequence of three age categories (New, Young, Old). We recorded 4466 h over the course of 30 days and measured bird and bat vocal activity using BirdNET for birds and Kaleidoscope for bats. Vocal activity of all birds, farmland birds, and bats were modelled with age and predictors of hedgerow, habitat, and weather conditions to assess changes occurring from hedgerow planting to maturity. We show an increase of vocal activity in Young and Old hedgerows compared to New ones and highlight elements of the surrounding landscape that should be considered when evaluating AES implementation on bird and bat communities. We found high BirdNET precision in community-level vocal activity and low precision of species-level observations, and we argue that vocal activity may be used in novel AES to link a result-based payment component to automated PAM results, incentivising biodiversity effective hedgerow planting and management by farmers and landowners. • Automated passive acoustic monitoring of vocal activity in hedges of different ages • Higher bird and bat vocal activity in older hedges compared to newly planted ones • Higher vocal activity in hedges more connected, more diverse, and with trees • Low precision in species ID but high precision in vocalisations ID by BirdNET • Automated ID useful to assess agri-environment schemes results at community level [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effects of the areal proportion, spatial distribution and plant composition (quality) of flower strips in agricultural landscapes on the size of honeybee colonies using individual-based models (BEESCOUT, BEEHAVE). For this purpose, we developed 25 landscape scenarios for an intensively used landscape (3 × 3 km) in Havelland (Brandenburg, Germany). In the scenarios, we varied areal proportion (0.22–1.04%), distribution (clustered vs. even) and quality (high vs. low pollen and nectar supply) of flower strips. Then, we simulated the response of honeybee colony size to the landscape scenarios over twelve years with 100 repetitions per scenario. Colony size increased with increasing areal proportion and more even distribution of flower strips. However, this was only true for flower strips of high quality, whereas low-quality flower strips did not benefit the honeybee colonies. Our approach can help to pinpoint optimal quality, areal proportion and distribution of additional food sources for honeybees provided by flower strips in agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildflower strips (WFS) are amongst the most commonly applied measures to promote pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests in agroecosystems. Their potential to enhance these functionally important insect groups may vary substantially with time since establishment of WFS. However, knowledge on their temporal dynamics remains scarce, hampering recommendations for optimized design and management. We therefore examined temporal dynamics of taxonomic and functional groups of bees and hoverflies in perennial WFS ranging from one to ≥6 years since sowing with a standardized species-rich seed mixture of flowering plants in 18 agricultural landscapes in Switzerland. The abundance of wild bees, honeybees and hoverflies declined after the second year by 89%, 62% and 72%, respectively. Declines in bee abundance and hoverfly species richness were linear and those of aphidophagous hoverflies exponential, while wild bee species richness peaked in the third year. Declines over time generally paralleled decreases in flower abundance (-83%) and flowering species richness (-61%) and an increase in grass cover (+70%) in WFS. Flowering plant species richness showed strong positive relationships with dominant crop-visiting wild bees and aphidophagous hoverflies. Furthermore, dominant crop-visiting wild bees, but not aphidophagous hoverflies, were positively related to the proportion of (semi-)open semi-natural habitat in the surrounding landscape (500 m radius), but negatively with forest. We conclude that the effectiveness of perennial WFS to promote pollinator diversity, crop-pollinating bees and aphidophagous hoverflies through foraging resources decreases after the first two to three years, probably due to a decline of diverse and abundant floral resources. Although older perennial WFS may still provide valuable nesting and overwintering opportunities for pollinators and natural enemies, our findings indicate that regular re-sowing of perennial WFS may be necessary to maintain adequate floral resource provisioning for effective pollinator conservation and promotion of crop pollination and natural pest control services in agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• What helps easter bunnies real world relatives?. • 20 years of direct European brown hare observations on large spatial scale. • Machine learning- and parametric-models. • Comparison of landscape- and weather-effects. • Top ranking for scattered woody vegetation. European brown hare populations have declined during the last decades. Agricultural intensification has been identified as a relevant driver of this process and agri-environment schemes have been implemented to foster biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Because species-specific outcomes of measures strongly depend on tailored design of the policy framework and the local management, while changing climate may pose additional challenges, policy and management need science-based information of which landscape composition should be promoted to achieve set biodiversity goals. Here, we used direct observations of European brown hares over 20 years for evaluating the effects of landscape composition and weather conditions on European brown hare density. For the first time, our analysis compared the estimates of machine learning (gradient boosting machine) and linear mixed models in terms of importance of a wide range of explanatory variables for European brown hare densities and effect trends. Scattered woody vegetation, as represented by the two variables transitional woodland-shrub and small woody features, was on top rankings among the predictors and greater proportions of these elements were accompanied by sharp increases of European brown hare density. Also warmer winter temperature had a positive effect. We conclude that promoting scattered woody vegetation in agricultural landscapes is a powerful tool for improving European brown hare habitat quality. Particularly with the increasing dynamic in agriculture due to climate change, incentives and regulations that create a long-lasting heterogeneity in the landscape composition through near-natural elements can support the population of this popular mammal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural intensification in recent decades has led to a major loss of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Special agri-environmental schemes aim at restoring and protecting biodiversity. In Central Europe, the common hamster Cricetus cricetus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a prominent victim of changes in agricultural management and land-use. After cereal-harvest, common hamsters are deprived from shelter and food sources and little is known on how individuals cope with these changes. We investigated how a population of common hamsters use agricultural landscapes after cereal harvest in 45 fields within a distribution hotspot of the common hamster in Central Germany. We recorded hamster burrow densities before and after cereal harvest in the winter cereals as well as in the two most important specialty crops in the study region, red cabbage and carrot. Common hamster burrows were more abundant in cereals than in the specialty crops before harvest. After cereal harvest, common hamster burrow densities decreased in cereal fields and increased in carrot but not red cabbage. Carrot fields thus provide alternative habitat for common hamsters after cereal harvest. Since many carrot cultivars are harvested in late autumn, these fields potentially provide a safe habitat for hamsters until hibernation. We recommend a targeted subsidizing of the cultivation of late harvest carrot cultivars in regions where common hamster conservation is a priority. These fields should be placed strategically and in sufficient quantities in focus landscapes. Other specialty crops could potentially also help in targeted protection schemes but whether and how they can benefit common hamsters after the cereal harvest needs further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers a novel empirical application for assessing the impact of agri-environment schemes (AES) on the performance of farms. The existing evidence about the impact of these schemes considering environmental and economic aspects equally is still limited. Therefore, our objective is to contribute to the literature on the impact evaluation of AES by considering three important aspects in our empirical analysis. First, the performance of farms is proxied by an indicator that incorporates environmental externalities into production activities. Second, our empirical analysis focuses on a sample of Bavarian dairy farms covering the period 2013–2018, thus, we can evaluate the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes in one of Germany's leading agricultural and forestry regions during the latest programming period. Finally, in an effort to increase robustness, we employ an improved version of the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index, which enables us to get around some of the shortcomings of the original index. The obtained results suggest that agri-environment payments have a limited effect on improving farm-level green productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Food webs are less diverse in homogeneous compared to heterogeneous landscapes. • Environmentally-friendly and organic management supported food web diversity. • Food web interactions with agri-environment schemes are seasonal. • Seed mixtures should include Trifolium spp. to support bumblebee diversity. • Seed mixtures should consist of species that provide flowers throughout the growing season. Plant and pollinator diversity have declined concurrently in Europe in the last half century. We studied plant–bumblebee food webs to understand the effects of two agri-environmental schemes (AES, organic farming and environmentally-friendly management practice) vs. conventional farming as control group, landscape structure (heterogeneous vs. homogeneous landscapes) and seasonality (June, July, and August) interactions using Estonian AES monitoring data. In the summer of 2014, we observed foraging bumblebees (20 species) on 64 farms that varied in agricultural management and landscape structure, yielding a total of 2303 flower visits on 76 plant species. We found that both management practice and landscape structure influenced the generality (redundancy in the use of flower resources) of food webs. In homogeneous landscapes, environmentally-friendly management practices, including restrictions on the application of glyphosates, enhancement of bumblebee habitats, such as permanent grassland field margins, the allocation of a minimum of 15% of arable land (including rotational grasslands) to legumes, contributed to a higher number of visited plant species (generality) in July, whereas organic farming did so in August. Therefore, both environmentally-friendly and organic management practices are needed to support plant–bumblebee food webs in agricultural landscapes. Food web generality and diversity (Shannon index) are affected by a significant interaction between landscape structure and seasonality: food web diversity varied in homogeneous landscapes between the three different survey months, whereas food webs were more diverse in heterogeneous landscapes. We did not find any significant interaction effect of management, landscape structure and seasonality on linkage density and vulnerability. A full list of the most visited plant species by bumblebees based on species-specific flower visitation was also assembled. In homogeneous landscapes, resource limitation is an issue for bumblebees in certain time periods. For supporting bumblebees in the agricultural landscapes, avoiding resource limitation is important and this can be secured with a combination of AES management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing landscape complexity can mitigate negative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity by offering resources complementary to those provided in arable fields. In particular, grazed semi-natural grasslands and woody elements support farmland birds, but little is known about their relative effects on bird diversity and community composition. In addition, the relative importance of local habitat versus landscape composition remains unclear. We investigated how the presence of semi-natural grasslands, the number of woody elements and the composition of the wider agricultural landscape affect bird species richness, true diversity (exponential Shannon diversity) and species composition. Bird communities were surveyed four times on 16 paired transects of 250 m each with 8 transects placed between a crop field and a semi-natural grassland and 8 transects between two crop fields with no semi-natural grasslands in the vicinity. The number of woody elements around transects was selected as an important predictor in all models, having a positive effect on species richness and true diversity, while the local presence of semi-natural grasslands was not selected in the best models. However, species richness and true diversity increased with increasing cover of ley and semi-natural grasslands, whereas species composition was modified by the coverage of winter wheat at the landscape scale. Furthermore, bird species richness, true diversity and species composition differed between sampling dates. As bird diversity benefited from woody elements, rather than from the local presence of semi-natural grasslands as such, it is important to maintain woody structures in farmland. However, the positive effect of grassland at the landscape scale highlights the importance of habitat variability at multiple scales. Because species richness and true diversity were affected by different landscape components compared to species composition, a mosaic of land-use types is needed to achieve multiple conservation goals across agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Targeted conservation and promotion of wild bees in agroecosystems requires understanding of relationships between different groups of bees and available floral resources across land-use types during the season and at the landscape scale. Here, we quantified floral resource amount and diversity across habitat types at different times during the season at the scale of entire landscapes (500 m radius) across 20 different agricultural landscapes. Moreover, we examined whether floral resource metrics obtained from these high-resolution floral resource maps are more suitable to assess and predict abundance and species richness of different bee pollinator groups, including rare species and important crop pollinators, sampled in these agricultural landscapes compared to traditional land-cover metrics. Floral resource availability shifted from flower-rich woody vegetation early in the season to herbaceous vegetation such as grasslands and crops later in the season, which was associated with a ten-fold decline in overall floral resource availability. Forest edges had highest per-area floral contributions in spring, whereas floral diversity of grasslands, in particular if extensively managed, was continuously high. Total wild bee species richness, as well as rare species richness and abundance of important crop pollinators, increased with floral resource availability and/or diversity contributed by forest edges and floral diversity of permanent grasslands. Rare bee richness was also positively related to floral resource amount provided by crops. Total bee richness and important crop pollinator abundance, but not rare bee richness, were positively related to overall floral resource amount, but not floral diversity, in the landscape. Floral resource maps based on floral resource supply by major habitat types early or late in the season predicted wild bee species richness (R 2 =0.61) better than traditional descriptors of landscape composition such as proportion of semi-natural habitat. The pronounced temporal shifts in floral resource availability for pollinators from woody towards herbaceous vegetation during the season highlights the importance of taking a landscape-scale perspective on pollinator conservation. Our findings indicate that both rare bees and important crop pollinators benefit from complementary floral resources of forest edges and grasslands in agroecosystems. This reveals a potential synergy between the conservation of endangered species and the landscape scale management to promote pollination services. Our study also highlights that floral resource maps are useful tools in supporting more targeted pollinator conservation and pollination service management at the landscape level. • Floral resource complementarity across habitats during the season supports bees. • Pronounced floral resource shifts from woody to herbaceous vegetation during season. • Floral resources of forest edges and grasslands key for rare bees and crop pollinators. • Floral resource maps better predict wild bees than landscape composition. • Functional resource maps are useful tools for targeted pollinator conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We applied an ecological-economic modelling procedure to analyse the impact of organic versus conventional management of meadows on endangered bird and butterfly species in Saxony, Germany. Applying the modelling procedure enables us to focus on two aspects that hitherto have been neglected in analysing the impact of organic farming on biodiversity. (1) Possible differences in the timing of land use between organic and conventional farming, and (2) differences in the uptake of agri-environment schemes (AES) by organic and conventional farmers. We found that for the species considered the difference in the impact of conventional and organic farming is minor, because in our case study region the timing of land use on most areas with organic farming is very similar to the timing on areas with conventional farming. We also found that in comparison with conventional farmers, organic farmers generally face lower opportunity costs when implementing AES measures. Additionally, organic farmers are offered lower payments for such measures. These factors influence organic farmers' decisions to take part in AES, which in turn has an important impact on biodiversity conservation. In order to better conserve species it may be necessary to adapt the payment structure of AES with respect to organic farming. • Ecological-economic model assesses conventional and organic meadow management. • We studied endangered birds and butterflies, timing of land use and AES uptake. • Without AES the impact of organic and conventional management is largely identical. • Organic farmers choose AES measures avoided by conventional farmers and vice versa. • AES need to reflect differing cost structures to maximise biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Perennial wildflower strips are valuable overwintering habitats for arthropods. • Distinct overwintering dynamics of arthropod taxa during flower strip succession. • Ploughing of annual wildflower strips reduces arthropod overwintering by 59%. • Ploughing reduced carabid and spider overwintering by 67% and 69%, respectively. • Annual ploughed wildflower strips may act as ecological trap for arthropods. Abstract Wildflower strips (WFS) are increasingly commonly adopted measures to promote biodiversity in agro-ecosystems. While their effectiveness in providing floral and other food resources for pollinators and natural enemies has been relatively well studied, much less is known about the value of different types of WFS as overwintering habitat for different functional arthropod groups. Here, we examined arthropod overwintering in WFS of different age compared to winter wheat fields. Moreover, we addressed the largely unexplored question to what extent non-permanent WFS may act as sink or ecological trap, if they attract high numbers of overwintering arthropods but only a low proportion of them survive and successfully emerge due to ploughing of strips during overwintering. Overwintering of all studied arthropod groups including potential pest natural enemies spiders, carabid beetles, staphylinid beetles and different families of pollinating flies was higher in WFS compared to winter wheat crops. Overwintering increased in WFS compared to wheat fields irrespective of WFS age, except for 4 year old WFS in the case of carabid beetles and 1 year old WFS in the case of spiders. While WFS age positively affected spider overwintering, numbers of overwintering pollinating flies and staphylinid beetles did not change significantly with WFS age. Moreover, carabid beetles tended to decline in the four years old WFS compared to younger ones. Ploughing of annual WFS during overwintering significantly reduced the number of successfully emerging arthropods by 59% on average. Detrimental effects were strongest for carabid beetles and spiders (reductions by 67% and 69%, respectively) to their numbers in ploughed WFS being similar to winter wheat fields. Reductions were less severe for pollinating flies and staphylinid beetles (both 47%), with higher numbers emerging from annual WFS compared to winter wheat fields even after ploughing of WFS. We conclude that perennial WFS are valuable overwintering habitats for a range of arthropod taxa across functional groups in arable cropping systems. Distinct responses of different arthropod taxa to WFS age highlight the importance of managing perennial WFS of various successional stages in order to promote overwintering of a broad variety arthropods in agro-ecosystems. Our study raises concerns, however, that annual WFS ploughed during the overwintering period are poor overwintering habitats for arthropods and may even act as ecological traps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study reviews the evolution of environmental land management and agri-environment schemes (AES) offered to farmers in England between 1979 and 2015 from the perspective of their potential to deliver landscape-scale, i.e. cross farm boundary, environmental benefits. The review uses population conservation theory, which underpinned the recommendations in the Lawton report (Lawton et al., 2010), to identify eight characteristics of these schemes with this potential. These characteristics form a framework which is used to assess the potential landscape-scale impacts of Countryside Stewardship, the AES recently introduced in England. The Mid Tier of Countryside Stewardship provides financial assistance to facilitators to help farmers organise and manage Farmer Groups. A Farmer Group must consist of four or more neighbouring farmers, who between them farm over 2,000 ha. Each member of a Farmer Group is required to submit an individual application, but each application must demonstrate that it "go[es] beyond [the environmental benefits that] could be delivered by individual holdings acting in isolation". After the 2017 round, 98 Farmer Groups had been funded, involving 1915 farmer members, covering 451,064 ha. Primarily because of this innovation, Countryside Stewardship is considered to be the most landscape-scale orientated AES offered to farmers in England. A consideration of the evolution towards landscape-scale attributes in environmental land management schemes leads into a discussion of how future changes to four key AES characteristics – identified in the review – may influence how the landscape-scale dimension develops in the next generation of AES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Reducing hedgerow trimming frequency benefits macro-moths and shrub/tree-feeders (all moths species combined). • Abundance of four nationally-declining moth species was higher on hedgerows left untrimmed for at least three years. • Increasing woodland amount and connectivity may enhance moth abundance and diversity. • Arable fields adjacent to hedgerows may have a negative impact on hedgerow-dependent moths. • Moth conservation in farmland requires a multi-scale management approach. Abstract Hedgerows provide valuable habitats and corridors for many species in farmland, yet a lack of appropriate management may threaten their benefits to biodiversity. Although agri-environment scheme (AES) prescriptions on hedgerow management have the potential to reverse the detrimental effect of over-trimming on wildlife, their effectiveness has rarely been addressed. The aims of the study were to (i) assess moth responses to trimming regimes; and (ii) investigate the influence of the surrounding landscape on moth assemblages. We specifically tested the effectiveness of the trimming regime recommended by the targeted AES that was implemented on farms near greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) colonies since it represented the most sympathetic hedgerow management option among English AES options. We sampled adult micro- and macro-moths along 64 hedgerows located within 20 English farms using light traps, and classified moths into two guilds reflecting their larval food preferences, namely grass/herb- and shrub/tree-feeders. Our results suggest that reducing trimming has a positive impact on macro-moth species richness as well as on shrub/tree-feeder abundance and species richness. It also benefited four moth species that are significantly declining in Britain. Furthermore, while the proportion of woodland at a large spatial scale (3.0 km radius around the sampling sites) was positively associated with the abundance of macro-moths and grass/herb-feeders, woodland connectivity had a positive effect on the species richness of grass/herb- and shrub/tree-feeders at large and medium (1.5 km radius) scales, respectively. Both the abundance and species richness of macro-moths and the abundance of shrub/tree-feeders were negatively affected by the presence of arable fields adjacent to hedgerows. Overall, these findings reveal the wider biodiversity benefits of targeted AESs focusing on habitat improvement for R. ferrumequinum , and the importance of woodland in the wider landscape. We therefore strongly recommend implementing a multi-scale management approach (i.e. from field to landscape) through the use of adequate AES prescriptions to conserve moths in agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paying landowners for conservation results rather than paying for the measures intended to provide such results is a promising approach to biodiversity conservation. However, key roadblocks to the widespread implementation of such result-based payment schemes are the frequent difficulties in monitoring target species for whose presence a landowner is supposed to receive a remuneration. Until recently, the only conceivable monitoring approach would be monitoring techniques involving qualified experts investigating the presence of target species on-site. With the rise of remote sensing technologies and the increased capabilities and decreased costs of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), opportunities for technological monitoring have entered the scene. We analysed the costs of monitoring yellow flower coverage as an indicator for an ecological target of a hypothetical result-based payments scheme and then compared the costs for expert monitoring against UAV-assisted monitoring. We identified the underlying cost structure and cost components of both monitoring approaches and used a scenario analysis to identify the influence of factors like the costs of UAVs and analysis, area size, and monitoring frequency. We found that although expert monitoring is currently the lowest-cost monitoring approach, cost developments in the future will likely render UAV-assisted monitoring more cost-effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual biodiversity measures in agricultural landscapes such as flower strips are reported to promote the diversity and abundance of pollinating insects. Those biodiversity measures can be important food sources increasing the amount and continuity of pollen and nectar supply besides sometimes also offering nesting and hibernation sites. Still little is known about combined effects of biodiversity measures at the landscape scale and their long-term impact on pollinator population development. We used the agent-based simulation model BumbleBEEHAVE to investigate, if biodiversity measures have a positive effect on bumblebee populations at landscape scale in terms of the number of colonies per hectare. For this purpose, we chose Bombus terrestris , the most common bumblebee species in Germany, as target species. We used three real landscapes located in different regions of Germany as landscape settings for the simulations. The landscapes had strongly different farming systems regarding crop diversity and rotations and, consequently, different spatial structure and areal proportions of land-use types and semi-natural habitats. Between 2017 and 2020, distinct combinations of biodiversity measures, such as flower strips, flowering headland and fallows, were established by farmers on different areal proportions of the three landscapes. The biodiversity measures differed in plant-seed mixtures and, thus, the pollen and nectar supply by plants. We simulated the development of bumblebee colonies in the landscapes with and without the implemented biodiversity measures over eight years (four years in a twice repetition). We found that the implementation of biodiversity measures had a significant positive effect on the number of colonies. Further analysis showed that the pollen and nectar supplied by biodiversity measures had positive effects in all three landscapes, while the effect of additional nesting habitat differed among landscapes. Mass-flowering crops had little to no significant effect on the number of bumblebee colonies, whereas semi-natural habitats had a markedly positive effect. Our study underlines that not only biodiversity measures are likely to affect the bumblebee population, but that the overall landscape composition, particularly proportion of semi-natural habitats, is also important. So, to achieve high effectiveness of biodiversity measures, landscape context may be taken into account. • Agent-based modelling allows to assess and to optimize the implementation of biodiversity measures in different landscape context. • Simulation models show positive effects of biodiversity measures as food and nesting habitats on bumblebee colonies in agricultural landscapes. • Effectiveness of additional nesting habitat provided by biodiversity measures depends on landscape composition. • Semi-natural habitats are important food resources and nesting sites for bumblebee colonies. • Mass-flowering crops have little to no effect on simulated bumblebee colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although positive effects on biodiversity of woody features in agricultural landscapes are widely recognized, questions remain as to which landscape context to prioritize their implementation and in what proportion. To investigate the response of farmland biodiversity to small woody features (SWF) density in different landscape compositions (cropland, grassland, mixed), we analyzed fine-resolution data from standardized monitoring schemes on 111 birds, 22 bats, and 25 bush cricket's species, at national scale (relying on 3772, 834 and 727 monitoring points) over the period 2015–2019, in metropolitan France. We used Generalized Additive Mixed Models to analyze population and community responses, through different metrics (abundance, species diversity, and functional composition). We found a positive response exhibited by the three taxa to SWF, more especially in cropland where the SWF density is the lowest relative to grassland and mixed landscapes. Also, our results suggested a non-linear response common to the three taxa, with an increased benefit up to at least 6 % of SWF density in cropland, and beyond for most of the metrics but to a lesser extent (e.g., maximum abundance reached at 7–12 % SWF). We note, however, that some species among farmland bird specialists are negatively impacted by SWF. Overall, we emphasize the benefits to promote woody features in agricultural landscapes, notably in cropland, to support biodiversity and its associated ecosystem functions. Our study provides crucial empirical evidence to the recommendations from previous studies and the relevance of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 to dedicate at least 10 % of farmland to high-diversity landscape features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-environment measures such as flower strips are considered fundamental instruments to reduce farmland biodiversity loss. Their effect on associated ecosystem services, such as biocontrol of crop pests, has received increased attention in recent discussions on the ecological intensification of agriculture, to create a win-win situation for biodiversity and production. However, studies of flower strips are rarely compared to the status quo, namely permanent field margins. We assessed the impact of two different field margin types (pre-existing grassy field margins vs. perennial flower strips) and distance decay effects from the field margins towards field centres on two major cereal pests (cereal leaf beetles and cereal aphids), their natural enemies (predators and aphid parasitoids) and crop yield on five conventional farms in Germany. Proximity to both types of field margin enhanced the enemy-to-pest ratio for cereal leaf beetles but not for aphids. However, the parasitism rate for aphids was higher next to grassy strips than next to flower strips. Yield also tended to be higher adjacent to flower strips (although not significantly) and showed no variation with distance to the field margin. Our findings paint a more nuanced picture than most previous studies: whilst field margins generally had a positive impact on one of the studied biocontrol agents, flower strips do not outperform the standard grassy margins currently in place. To promote biocontrol services, we recommend protecting existing, permanent grassy strips through the EU Common Agricultural Policy as a cost-effective alternative to flower strips. • Field margins boosted biocontrol of cereal leaf beetles, but not aphids, in conventional cereals. • Ratio of enemies to cereal leaf beetles declined with distance from the margin. • Flower strips did not outperform grassy strips for most biocontrol parameters. • Yield tended to be higher adjacent to flower strips, but not significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Extensification of intensive grassland may enhance ecosystem services and biodiversity. • Timing of the first mowing affects ecosystem services and biodiversity in grasslands. • LUI as a predictor for ecosystem services can be improved by including more variables. Abstract In order to halt further biodiversity loss in the agricultural landscape, measures for grassland management extensification have been proposed and implemented. Apart from biodiversity conservation and enhancement, these measures are expected to affect a range of ecosystem services delivered by these grasslands. It is well-known that grasslands have the potential to contribute to the delivery of multiple ecosystem services, but there generally is a trade-off between provisioning services and regulating services, which is strongly linked to grassland management. This study investigated the effect of the extensification of grassland management on multiple ecosystem service and biodiversity indicators. To do so, two sets of grasslands in Flanders with varying management types were monitored: a regular, intensive management, a meadow bird management and a botanical management. For every monitored grassland, a land use intensity index was calculated and linked to the ecosystem service and biodiversity indicators. The results showed that biomass yield, forage quality, soil mineral N content and number of plant species differed among the various management types and that increasing land use intensity resulted in higher biomass yields, forage quality and soil mineral N content and in a lower number of plant species. However, it was observed that other factors such as the timing of the first cut affected these variables as well. A literature review was subsequently performed to quantify the link between land use intensity of other temperate grasslands and the same response variables. Results of the literature review confirmed the trends that were found in the monitoring data, but an additional effect of manure and slurry application on soil carbon stock was noted. Taken together, the results suggest that the impact of grassland management in terms of fertilization, mowing and grazing on the selected ecosystem service delivery and biodiversity indicators can be predicted, but that other management components should be considered as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Biodiversity responses to land use intensity were investigated at the landscape scale (1 km2 plots). • Bird species richness strongly declined when natural areas covered less than 20% of agricultural areas. Butterfly species richness showed a hump-shaped curve. • Intensively managed permanent grasslands had no positive effect on birds and butterflies. • Biodiversity promotion areas, part of the Swiss Agri-environment scheme, promoted bird and butterfly populations. Abstract Although today there is ample evidence that biodiversity is affected by agricultural land use intensification, little is known about how species respond to different land use intensity gradients at landscape scale. To properly describe the relationship between biodiversity and land use intensity, intensity indicators need to account for land cover, management intensity, and be assessed at landscape scale. The study was conducted in 91 landscapes of 1 km2 in Switzerland. Three different land use intensity indicators were calculated: indicator 1 was defined as the ratio between agricultural and natural area; indicator 2 as the ratio between arable land and permanent grassland; and indicator 3 as the ratio between agricultural area and biodiversity promotion areas (BPA, i.e. wildlife-friendly managed areas under Swiss agri-environment schemes). Species richness and abundance of birds and butterflies were used as biodiversity indicators and trait-based community indices were used to describe bird community changes. Overall, we found that birds were affected by landscape composition and agricultural management, while butterflies were mainly affected by agricultural management. Specifically, from natural (e.g. forest dominated) to agriculture-dominated landscape, bird species richness showed a sharp decrease when 80% or more of the landscape was farmed. Butterfly species richness followed a hump-shaped curve. None of the species groups was significantly correlated with the proportion of arable land versus permanent grassland. Yet species richness of birds and butterflies significantly changed with the proportion of BPA: the lower the proportion of BPA, the lower the observed richness. Finally, when the proportion of agricultural land increased, populations of migratory birds and hedge/tree breeders decreased. We conclude that to further promote farmland biodiversity, natural areas, such as forests, hedges and waterbodies, should cover at least 20% of the agricultural landscapes and the proportion of BPA should be increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines farmers’ motivations for voluntary unsubsidised practices that benefit the environment. It identifies amongst a group of English farmers the amount of unsubsidised environmental activities on mainly arable land, and explores the extent to which motivations are extrinsic and intrinsic for undertaking this unsubsidised activity. Using responses from a national survey in England of 1,345 farmers, in-depth face-to-face interviews with 60 farmers and an analysis of existing agri-environment scheme data, the extent to which subsidised and unsubsidised environmental activity is undertaken on arable land was identified. Furthermore, it was also possible to identify and compare the motivations behind subsidised and unsubsidised environmental activity and to understand the interaction between these two types of activity at the farm scale. The research found that around 25% of all environmental activity undertaken on arable farms in England is unsubsidised, although some of this activity sits alongside subsidised activity. There were clear differences between the motivations for undertaking subsidised and unsubsidised environmental activities. Financial reasons dominated farmers’ motivations for engaging in subsidised agri-environment scheme practices, whilst agronomic and environmental motivations were of greater importance for unsubsidised activity. Data analysis also revealed over-subscription in agri-environment schemes, with a considerable amount of environmental activity occurring without payment. From a policy perspective it is helpful to understand motivations for existing unsubsidised environmental activity as this can inform the design of advice and message framing to encourage uptake of more widespread voluntary environmental behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In agricultural landscapes, sown flower strips can benefit pollinators and pollination of nearby plants, but their impact on pollination in the wider landscape is poorly studied. We evaluated effects on reproductive success of field bean ( Vicia faba ) and woodland strawberry ( Fragaria vesca ) using data from two study systems, both including study sites (1 km radius) with (flower strip sites) or without flower strips (control sites). To assess whether flower strips enhance pollination in the wider landscape, we compared the reproductive success between plants growing in field borders (> 160 m to nearest flower strip) at flower strips sites and control sites. We also tested if flower strips reallocate pollination functions in the landscape. We did this by comparing the reproductive success of plants at flower strip sites, growing adjacent to the flower strips with plants growing in a more distant field border at the same site (> 160 m). Finally, we tested if these potential effects depended on the heterogeneity of the landscape. In field borders without an adjacent flower strip, plant reproductive success was unaffected by the presence of a flower strip at the site, and increased with increasing landscape heterogeneity independently of site type (flower strip vs. control). In contrast, adjacent to the flower strips, reproductive success declined with increasing landscape heterogeneity, resulting in a positive net effect of adjacent flower strips in homogeneous landscapes and a negative effect in heterogeneous landscapes. Our results show that while decreasing landscape heterogeneity may impair pollination in homogeneous landscapes, this can be locally mitigated by sowing flower strips. However, in heterogeneous landscapes, flower strips may instead reduce pollination of adjacent plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Corncrake Crex crex breeds mainly in managed grasslands in Europe. Agri-environment schemes (AES) were introduced in many European countries to protect broods from earlier and more frequent mowing. In order to assess the efficacy of these AES on the scale of regional populations, we obtained information on current AES options for Corncrakes in 33 countries and administrative regions within the European Union (EU) and European free Trade Association (EFTA) using a questionnaire. Options suitable for Corncrake conservation were available in 18 regions, but coverage of the regional Corncrake populations was highly variable. Coverage with AES was high in selected western regions, but low throughout eastern Europe where most Corncrakes breed. The various suitable options together covered only 6.2% of the total Corncrake population inside the EU and EFTA. While AES were effective at restoring Corncrake populations in Scotland, no evidence was found for effects on populations in other EU regions.Limited coverage of Corncrake populations in countries holding the largest populations, as well as its low breeding-site fidelity suggest that the Corncrake’s future is not secured by the current extent of AES. If current farming practices in eastern European countries become more intensive as expected, the species’ future may be at risk. Besides developing AES which are more attractive to farmers and better targeting the requirement of Corncrakes, conservation of farmland birds in Europe should pay more attention to continent-wide changes of breeding conditions in order to be successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High Nature Value (HNV) farmland is declining in the EU, with negative consequences for biodiversity conservation. Agri-environment schemes implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy have addressed this problem, with recent proposals advocating direct support to HNV farming systems. However, research is lacking on the economics of HNV farming, which makes it difficult to set the level and type of support that ensure its sustainability. In this paper, we focused on a Special Protection Area for steppe bird conservation, analysing how economic incentives, biophysical and structural features govern the choice of farming system. We found that persistence of the traditional farming system important for steppe birds was associated with economic incentives, resistance to change, and good quality soils, whereas a shift to specialised livestock production systems was favoured by higher rainfall and less fragmented farms. A supply curve built using the choice model predicted that the proportion of traditional farming increased from 20% to 80% of the landscape, when economic incentives increased from about 100€/ha to 160€/ha. Overall, our study highlights the dependence of HNV farming systems on economic incentives, and provides a framework to assess the effects of alternative policy and market scenarios to sustain farmland landscapes promoting biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinators are sensitive to agricultural intensification at both local and landscape scales. High configurational landscape heterogeneity due to small fields and a high amount of field boundaries is hypothesized to enhance farmland biodiversity. Here, we investigated the effects of organic vs. conventional farming in large- vs. small-scale agricultural landscapes on wild bee communities and their floral resources to improve conservation schemes for pollinators. We sampled bees in Central Germany at the field boundaries of 18 pairs of conventionally and organically managed winter wheat fields along the former iron curtain using pan traps and trap nests. Around traps, we surveyed species richness and flower cover of insect-pollinated forbs. Compared to conventional farming, organic farming was related to higher insect-pollinated forb species richness and flower cover in the field boundaries, presumably due to the lack of herbicide use. Interestingly, small-scale agriculture did not counteract the loss of floral resources under conventional management, as the difference to organic management was even larger in Western small-scale agriculture. Organic farming, but not small-scale agriculture, enhanced species richness of solitary bees, which is in line with their small home ranges. In contrast, bumblebees benefitted only from small-scale agriculture, which matches with their high dispersal ability. Despite similar levels of abundance and diversity of trap-nesting bees in the two landscape types, brood cell parasitism was also higher in small-scale agriculture. Both organic farming and small-scale agriculture directly and indirectly supported different groups of wild bees, suggesting long-term benefits for conservation. Agri-environment schemes should acknowledge the so far neglected benefits of small-scale agriculture for biodiversity and its potential services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased use of annual payments to land managers for ecological outcomes indicates a growing interest in exploring the potential of this approach. In this viewpoint, we drew on the experiences of all schemes paying for biodiversity outcomes/results on agricultural land operating in the EU and EFTA countries with the aim of reviewing the decisive elements of the schemes’ design and implementation as well as the challenges and opportunities of adopting a results-based approach. We analysed the characteristics of results-based schemes using evidence from peer-reviewed literature, technical reports, scheme practitioners and experts in agri-environment-climate policy. We developed a typology of the schemes and explored critical issues influencing the feasibility and performance of results-based schemes. The evidence to date shows that there are at least 11 advantages to the results-based approach not found in management-based schemes with similar objectives, dealing with environmental efficiency, farmers’ participation and development of local biodiversity-based projects. Although results-based approaches have specific challenges at every stage of design and implementation, for many of these the existing schemes provide potential solutions. There is also some apprehension about trying a results-based approach in Mediterranean, central and eastern EU Member States. We conclude that there is clear potential to expand the approach in the European Union for the Rural Development programming period for 2021–2028. Nevertheless, evidence is needed about the approach’s efficiency in delivering conservation outcomes in the long term, its additionality, impact on the knowledge and attitudes of land managers and society at large, development of ways of rewarding the achievement of actual results, as well as its potential for stimulating innovative grassroots solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies show that agri-environment schemes (AES) are likely to be more effective if they are designed at the landscape scale. However, this requires spatial coordination of environmental management across multiple farm holdings and collaboration among governmental and other actors, including, possibly, groups of farmers. In this study we analyse alternative approaches to spatial coordination and collaboration. Through case studies from five EU member states in North West Europe we analysed collaborative governance arrangements, from the perspective of the distribution of governance tasks among collaborating actors and changes to these over time. Of these governance tasks, spatial coordination had our particular interest. The collaborative governance arrangements were shaped in various ways. In four out of five case studies a group of farmers had become involved in the performance of more governance tasks over time. In all cases a professional(ized) organisation (governmental organisation or a group of farmers) was responsible for spatial coordination, possibly due to the complexities inherent to a landscape approach. In relation to the change of schemes over time, we argue that adaptive collaborative governance, incorporating learning, monitoring and evaluation in the governance arrangements, is key to effective agri- environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loss of key forage plants and a narrow pollen diet have both been implicated in the decline of wild bees over the past 70 years. These ideas have been studied extensively in recent years in bumblebees ( Bombus spp.), but have rarely been investigated in other bee groups, due in part to a lack of detailed ecological data for many species of wild bee. Chambers (1968) extensively documented pollen preferences in bees from the genus Andrena collected in Bedfordshire, UK, during the 1940s, before the period of rapid agricultural intensification following the Second World War. This extensive dataset allows for the importance of diet breadth in modifying the response of bees to environmental change to be investigated in a common and widespread but understudied genus of bees. We compared the pollen preferences of a suite of Andrena species collected in the 1941–1949 period with a similar suite of Andrena species collected between 1985 and 2016. Relative diet breadth was consistent across studied species between the historical and contemporary period. However, dietary composition changed with a shift away from Rosaceae and towards Brassicaceae. The reduction in the collection of Rosaceae pollen was more pronounced in spring-flying than summer-flying Andrena , which may be due to a reduction in the length and quality of hedgerow habitats and hence spring-flowering woody Rosaceae present in the countryside, and an increase in the availability of the mass-flowering crop oilseed rape ( Brassica napus ). Both historical and contemporary diet breadth were significant positive predictors of how frequently Andrena species are encountered on contemporary farmland, with those species with a relatively wider diet present on the majority of farms. These findings support the idea that inherent differences in diet breadth mediate the ability of bee species to respond to changes in resource availability resulting from agricultural intensification. A more detailed understanding of species-level characteristics can help improve our understanding of why seemingly similar species respond very differently to environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensification of agriculture has been one of the major drivers for biodiversity loss in recent decades. Pollinators, which serve an important role in pollinating crops as well as wild plants, have shown a decline in species richness. Flower strips can be used to support pollinators in agro-ecosystems, however the question remains as to how their design can be optimized in order to best benefit pollinators. Increasing plant species diversity has been shown to be beneficial for pollinators, and it is often suggested that functional traits are driving this relationship. Therefore, increasing plant functional diversity could be a tool to support pollinator abundance and diversity. As experimental evidence on this relationship is scarce, we developed a field study with experimental sown flower strips with four functional diversity levels, based on multiple flower traits and with equal plant species richness. We monitored vegetation development, as well as the flower-visiting pollinator community and their interaction networks with flowers. We were able to create a functional diversity gradient while controlling for plant species richness and evenness. However, in contrast to our expectations, pollinator species richness and evenness were not influenced by functional diversity, and increasing functional diversity even resulted in lower flower visitation rates. Network stability metrics showed no effect or negative relationships with functional diversity. We conclude that increasing functional diversity was not the key for supporting pollinators in wildflower strips. Our results also suggest that, for a constant amount of flower resources, increasing plant functional diversity and thus decreasing redundancy of potential pollinator feeding niches, decreases the amount of flower resources present per feeding niche. As pollinator species tended to have less overlap in their feeding niches in flower strips with increased functional diversity, this may lead to a reduction of flower resources available for pollinator species with a more specialized feeding niche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas (PAs) are vital for conserving biodiversity, but many PA networks consist of fragmented habitat patches that poorly represent species and ecosystems. One possible solution is to create conservation landscapes that surround and link these PAs. This often involves working with a range of landowners and agencies to develop large-scale conservation initiatives (LSCIs). These initiatives are being championed by both government and civil society, but we lack data on whether such landscape-level approaches overcome the limitations of more traditional PA networks. Here we expand on a previous gap analysis of England to explore to what extent LSCIs improve the representation of different ecoregions, land-cover types and elevation zones compared to the current PA system. Our results show the traditional PA system covers 6.37% of England, an addition of only 0.07% since 2001, and that it is an ecologically unrepresentative network that mostly protects agriculturally unproductive land. Including LSCIs in the analysis increases the land for conservation more than tenfold and reduces these representation biases. However, only 24% of land within LSCIs is currently under conservation management, mostly funded through agri-environment schemes, and limited monitoring data mean that their contribution to conservation objectives is unclear. There is also a considerable spatial overlap between LSCIs, which are managed by different organisations with different conservation objectives. Our analysis is the first to show how Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) can increase the representativeness of conservation area networks, and highlights opportunities for increased collaboration between conservation organisations and engagement with landowners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable funding has been allocated to conservation management of non-crop habitat in agricultural landscapes, particularly field margin habitat such as hedgerows. Evaluation of the biodiversity benefits of non-crop habitat has lagged behind implementation, however, especially in the United States where this habitat has the potential to supply important resources for both common and rare species of birds. We examined the effects of woody field margin vegetation on winter and breeding season avian communities at 103 fields, row crops, and orchards in California's Central Valley, one of the most intensively-farmed landscapes on Earth. We found that margins with hedgerows, treelines or remnant riparian habitat harbored 2–3 times as many bird species, significantly greater species evenness, and 3–6 times higher maximum total abundances of birds than bare or weedy margins. The effect of margin type on richness was modulated by water year, whereas the effect of margin type on maximum total abundance was modulated by adjacent crop type. At the landscape scale, hedgerow and riparian margins that were further from woodland harbored greater species richness; a result that supports our recommendation for targeted development of hedgerows in simplified agricultural landscapes. These results demonstrate that non-crop woody habitats, both planted and remnant native patches, increase the biodiversity value of farms, providing support for policies to preserve remaining habitat and incentivize installation of woody hedgerows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensification of agriculture and associated loss of habitat heterogeneity is a key driver of global declines in insect pollinators. Pollinators utilise different habitats to meet resource requirements throughout their life-span and it is widely accepted that their conservation requires a landscape-scale approach. Information on the mechanisms driving insect pollinators at the landscape scale is, however, lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, this novel study explores how pollinators utilise different habitats within a landscape and how utilisation changes over the season. Floral resources and insect pollinators (i.e. bumblebee, butterflies and hoverflies) were monitored during peak pollinator activity periods on a wide range of agricultural and semi-natural habitats in an intensive grassland landscape. The availability of key foraging resources differed between semi-natural habitats and this was strongly linked to their utilisation by pollinators. Floral resources were most abundant and diverse in road verges, riparian buffer strips and open scrub. These were key habitats for butterflies, with road verges and buffer strips also being important for hoverflies and bumblebees. The relative value of semi-natural habitats in providing floral resources changed throughout the season. Pollinators appeared to respond to changes in key floral resources, dynamically using different semi-natural habitats to meet their requirements. Maintaining landscape heterogeneity and improving the quality of semi-natural habitats to ensure resource diversity and continuity is fundamental to pollinator conservation. Regionally targeting agri-environment spending could result in the simplification of agricultural landscapes with consequences on insect pollinators and biodiversity as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that the current system of agri-environment management in the European Common Agricultural Policy is ineffective at conserving biodiversity in part because it promotes fragmentation instead of collaboration of actors, thus hindering coordinated biodiversity management. Actor fragmentation is reinforced by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in three ways: (1) through targeting individual farmers; (2) by creating confusion around coordination roles for increasing numbers of actors; and (3) by failing to engage with barriers to collaboration among farmers. Our findings draw on empirical evidence collected through multi-stakeholder workshops in Germany and Sweden. Our argument adds a different dimension to accepted explanations for the ineffectiveness of CAP for biodiversity management. Traditionally, explanations have focussed on low levels of farmer uptake of relevant measures, or the lack of ecological knowledge informing such measures. The level of actor fragmentation identified here suggests that a fundamental rethink of farmland biodiversity management is needed. We propose a new research agenda to identify more effective governance approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Payments to compensate land owners for land use measures which are beneficial to biodiversity conservation but costly to them have become a prominent policy instrument. A key question in the design of such payment schemes is for how long the land owners shall commit themselves to carry out biodiversity-enhancing land use measures, i.e. the length of contracts. From an ecological perspective, longer contracts seem better as they ensure that an area stays a suitable habitat for a longer time. However, with longer contracts land owners are likely to demand a higher annual compensation payment if they give up for a longer time their right to manage their land in a way they prefer. We analyse with a conceptual ecological-economic model how the cost-effectiveness of short versus long contract lengths depends on different ecological and economic parameters. We demonstrate the practical relevance of the model by applying it to the case of butterfly conservation in a region in Germany. Our results suggest that for the case study a 5-year contract is more cost-effective than a 10-year contract. Overall, we find that when deciding about the contract length economic parameters (for example the budget size where high budgets favour long contract lengths) and ecological parameters (for example species colonisation rates where high rates favour short contract lengths) need to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ongoing concern regarding the observed decline in pollinator populations. Managing agricultural landscapes through agri-environment schemes (AES) supports biodiversity and could counteract pollinator population declines. We investigated whether alterations to current AES grassland mowing regimes would increase the abundance and species richness of wild bees and hoverflies. Furthermore, we investigated the response of different nesting and feeding guilds of wild bees and hoverflies, respectively, to these regimes. The three experimental mowing regimes were: (i) first cut not before 15 June, before the beginning of summer (Swiss AES management, control meadows); (ii) first cut delayed until 15 July (delayed meadows); (iii) as for control meadows but leaving 10–20% uncut as a refuge (refuge meadows). The rationale behind the delayed and refuge mowing regimes was extending the availability of floral resources for pollinators, while also providing refugia for species that may be directly impacted by mowing. Hoverflies and wild bees were collected in 2014 and 2015, respectively, using pan-trapping and sweep-netting, once before and once after the first cut. The two collecting methods showed contrasting results. While there was no difference in the abundance or richness of wild bees between the meadows when using pan traps, following the first cut, sweep-netting resulted in a higher abundance and richness of wild bees in delayed and refuge meadows compared to control meadows. Pan-trapping detected a higher abundance of hoverflies in delayed compared to refuge meadows, whereas sweep-netting detected a higher abundance in delayed and refuge compared to control meadows, after the first cut. Saprophagous hoverflies were more abundant in the control and delayed than refuge meadows following the first cut, when sampled with pan traps. Predatory hoverflies were more abundant and species rich in delayed and refuge compared to control meadows following the first cut, when sampled by sweep-netting. Our study demonstrates that simple alterations to a common AES grassland mowing regime can enhance populations of pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests. Furthermore, the contrasting response of the life-history guilds indicates that promoting heterogeneous management practices within the landscape is important for supporting diverse communities, and maintaining key ecosystem services such as pollination and biocontrol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the introduction of agri-environmental schemes, no general increase of farmland biodiversity in Europe has been observed. Farmers take decisions about the implementation of agri-environmental schemes at the farm scale, and it is thus highly relevant to assess the relationship between farm management and biodiversity at this scale to increase the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes. The present study quantifies to what extent and with which practices farmers can influence biodiversity on their farm and to what extent conditions outside farmers’ control may mediate biodiversity. We grouped 27 variables into four variable sets: (1) ecological compensation (mainly semi-natural habitats), (2) in-field options (e.g. no growth regulator, insecticide and herbicide treatment), and (3) farm characteristics, which can be influenced by farmers (e.g. land-use types) as well as (4) farm settings, which cannot be influenced by farmers (e.g. altitude). As biodiversity metrics, plant, grasshopper, butterfly and bird richness and abundance of farmland target species were assessed on 133 farms of the Swiss Central Plateau from 2009 to 2011. Variance partitioning and generalised linear mixed models were used to analyse the impact of each variable set on farmland species diversity. Our results provide evidence that farmers can indeed positively influence biodiversity by ecological compensation and in-field options. The variables of the ecological compensation set explained the highest proportion in the variation of plant richness and butterfly abundance. We found a significant positive relationship between in-field options and plant abundance. Our study illustrated that the effects of biodiversity-related farming practices differ between species and biodiversity metrics. Conditions outside farmers’ control explained a high variation in grasshopper and bird diversity. One variable within the set of farm settings, the degree of consolidation, had a significant negative impact on five out of eight biodiversity metrics (plant, butterfly and bird richness; plant and bird abundance). We demonstrate that farmers can substantially enhance biodiversity on their farms and provide knowledge on how such biodiversity improvements can be achieved by farmers. Further, we highlight the value of new biodiversity-related management practices such as in-field options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious soil erosion occurred in the South Downs National Park, southern England in the years 1982–2006 and details of around 400 sites are contained in a database. In 2010 we revisited 85 of the most serious sites where erosion of >10 m 3 ha −1 y −1 had been recorded in order to assess land use change and any conservation measures undertaken. At 79% of the sites land use change had resulted in a reduction in the risk of erosion, most notably at 28 sites with a shift to permanent grass from winter cereals. At only 21% of sites was the risk of erosion unchanged. Twenty two farmers responsible for 66 of the sites were interviewed. Land management practices had changed on all of the fields of interest to this study since the time of the serious erosion events, to those which have the potential to lower soil erosion risk. Sixteen interviewees claimed that erosion was a motivating reason for changing their practices, due to either experiencing on or on- and off-farm impacts firsthand (12), having knowledge or suspicion of serious erosion having occurred on their land prior to their management (three), or having no knowledge of any serious erosion on their land but just wanting to reduce overall erosion risk (one). Amongst the main changes reported are changes of land use from winter cereals to grass or to overwinter stubble which have undoubtedly reduced the risk of erosion. However, some changed practices claimed by farmers, such as along-the-contour-working, earlier sowing and the use of rollers may be of little value. Furthermore, deeper analysis of farmers’ motivations regarding changes in land management practices suggests a complex picture in which a range of socio-economic influences come into play over time including financial incentives offered by agri-environmental schemes which were found to be an important driver of change. Future changes in farming economics may therefore undermine the reduction in erosion risk in the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-environmental measures (AEMs) are the main instrument of the Common Agricultural Policy to protect farmland biodiversity, but their effectiveness is questioned. In the Netherlands, AEMs have been implemented by farmers' collectives since 2016, with the goal to improve the spatial targeting and coordination of measures, and thereby increase their effectiveness. The objective of this paper is to assess the effects of two AEMs, bird plots and field margins, on the abundance of seven cropland bird species targeted by the Dutch agri-environmental policy, and on their total abundance and species richness. The study was carried out in four farmers' collectives in the provinces of Groningen, Drenthe and Flevoland in the Netherlands. We assessed how bird abundance and species richness measured on AEM plots and control plots were related to management and landscape factors. Furthermore, we assessed whether bird abundance and species richness measured on AEM plots were related to the spatial concentration of other AEM plots in landscapes surrounding AEM plots. With regard to plot management, we found a significant positive effect of field margins on skylarks, yellowhammers, common linnets, common kestrels, total bird abundance and species richness. Bird plots had a significant positive effect on skylarks and total bird abundance. However, western yellow wagtails, northern lapwings and Eurasian oystercatchers did not benefit from the two studied measures, likely because the vegetation in the bird plots and field margins is too high and dense for these species. Landscape factors, such as landscape openness, had contrasting effects on the analysed species, due to their different habitat requirements. Hence, there are no optimal landscapes for all target species, which underlines the need for a fine scale spatial targeting of measures based on species habitat requirements. Furthermore, the spatial concentration of other AEM plots in the landscape surrounding AEM plots had a significant effect for only two species (yellowhammer and western yellow wagtail), and this effect was negative. Thus, our results suggest that - for the studied species and landscapes - the type of measures and landscape in which they are taken are more important than their spatial concentration. • Measures benefit four of seven species, total abundance and species richness. • Field margins benefit a larger number of species than bird plots. • Alternative measures are needed for species breeding and foraging on bare soil. • Contrasted habitat requirements of species impose choices on policy targets. • The type and location of measures seem more important than their concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action to address biodiversity declines and climate change must be taken on farmland which covers half of all habitable land on Earth. European governments have predominantly invested in agri-environment schemes (AES) which pay farmers to change their management to the benefit of the environment. We conducted the first UK-based comparison of the cost-effectiveness of this approach with an alternative strategy of land purchase where organisations are contracted to manage government-owned land for nature. We took a novel approach to estimating the costs of paying farmers in an AES to create and manage habitat using results from a choice experiment conducted amongst 118 arable farmers in England. We estimated the costs of land purchase, and its subsequent management, based on the literature. Given equal annual spend, we estimated the benefit delivered by each strategy for a suite of environmental outcomes (bullfinches, lapwings, yellowhammers and climate mitigation) and explored how relative cost-effectiveness varied with budget, discount rate and timescale. We found AES were more cost-effective if budgets for environmental policies do not increase and where the environmental outcome is expected to decline rapidly without action in the next 50 years. However, if budgets were to increase considerably to reflect the scale of the biodiversity and climate crises, land purchase would deliver more biodiversity and climate mitigation in the longer term. The cost-effectiveness of the land-purchase strategy was sensitive to fluctuations in land prices which presents a challenge to policymaking which also must consider the impacts on farming communities of large-scale changes in land ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government has pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Ambitious targets have been set to plant nearly a million hectares of new woodland in the UK by 2050 to meet these net-zero commitments. More than 70% of UK's land is used for agricultural production and to meet these targets the Climate Change Committee has estimated that by 2050 approximately 21% of agricultural land will be required for tree planting, agroforestry and the extension of farm hedges. Achieving this creates a potential conflict between land for food production and land for carbon sequestration. However, trees and woodlands, when integrated into farming systems, can be multifunctional and play a significant role in helping farmers adapt and become more resilient in the face of climate change. Over the last 100 years numerous government policies and incentive schemes have endeavoured to encourage more tree planting activities amongst farmers and landowners with varying degrees of success. This paper reviews the role of policy in determining the presence of trees in the UK's agricultural landscape over the past 100 years. We quantify the current extent of woodland and tree cover and aim to put the UK's net-zero tree planting targets in the context of historical agricultural land use patterns. We evaluate drivers behind the current extent of trees, woodland and agroforestry on UK farms and identify key elements of success in current and previous policies and incentive schemes to help inform future policy mechanisms for the UK to meet its tree planting targets. Farmers are increasingly under pressure to deliver a wide range of environmental goals as well as producing food. The effectiveness of financial incentives to influence tree planting is dependent on the pre-existing interest and values of the farmer or landowner and grants alone may not be sufficient to encourage farmers to plant trees. Scheme complexity, bureaucracy and insufficient payment rates are barriers to the success of woodland grants and agri-environment schemes. Simplicity is important to encourage uptake, however oversimplification of schemes can lead to unintended consequences. Advice and guidance are key elements in the successful adoption of any new land management methods. A key to future progress will be scheme flexibility to enable farmers to choose to plant trees where it best suits local conditions, to align policy tools with farmer values and to ensure that farmers and landowners have the knowledge and support to make these decisions. • The effectiveness of financial incentives to influence tree planting depends on the pre-existing interest and values of the farmer or landowner. • Key to future progress will be enabling farmers to choose to plant trees where it best suits local conditions. • Tree planting grants co-designed with stakeholders, ensuring barriers are considered are likely to have improved uptake. • Scheme simplicity and flexibility are important, but care is needed that a simplification of schemes does not allow for undesirable outcomes. • Policy tools need to be aligned with farmer values and tailored high-quality advice and guidance available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use policy in England is encouraging tree planting on farms to meet decarbonisation targets. This could be delivered through woodland creation, hedgerow planting or agroforestry. All three approaches could provide co-benefits for wild bee populations and crop pollination services, by increasing nesting and floral resources, but their relative effectiveness has not been studied at a landscape scale. We simulated six tree planting scenarios and used a validated process-based model to predict their effect on bumblebee abundance and pollination service to two common mass-flowering crops (oilseed rape and field beans) in a representative 10x10km agricultural landscape in England, UK. Two levels of planting intensity were studied: one representing the tree cover that would be achieved by 2035 if the 2020 woodland creation rate continues and another reflecting UK Government ambitions (threefold increase in planting rate). Hedgerow planting and woodland were predicted to give the biggest increase bumblebee abundance. Silvoarable agroforestry using fruit trees or willow was predicted, on average, to give the biggest increase in crop pollination service. However, the magnitude of increase was highly variable and hedgerow creation (which is more dispersed across the landscape) provided a more consistent increase in crop pollination services. Agroforestry with poplar (which offers less floral resource) and woodland creation (which concentrates tree planting in fewer locations) were only effective at enhancing landscape-level crop pollination at high planting intensity. Future land management policy should promote fruit tree and willow-based agroforestry as multifunctional tree planting measures in arable contexts, whilst continuing to encourage hedgerow planting and woodland creation for their role in promoting abundance and diversity of pollinators. Hedgerow planting may be needed alongside agroforestry to help stabilise pollination service through a crop rotation cycle. • We modelled the impact of different farmland tree-planting scenarios on bumblebees. • We simulated planting intensities based on current rates and UK Government ambitions. • Hedgerows and woodland produced the greatest increase in bumblebee abundance. • Fruit tree and willow agroforestry produced the greatest increase in crop visitation. • Hedgerows produced a smaller increase in crop visitation but over a larger area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades there is a growing body of literature on how to enhance farmers’ participation in voluntary subsidised agri-environmental programmes. However, additional unsubsidised agri-environmental measures that farmers perform are often ignored. The willingness to perform these measures may give a better insight into farmers’ motivation for agri-environmental measures than subsidised measures because it likely depends only on farmers’ intrinsic motivation and not on extrinsic factors such as a financial compensation. In this study we used an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to investigate which factors are associated with farmers’ intention to perform unsubsidised agri-environmental measures. Our results demonstrate that attitude, perceived social norms and perceived personal ability are significantly associated with farmers’ intention to perform these measures. However, self-identity is the most dominant predictor of farmers’ intentions. Furthermore we found that Environmental Cooperatives (ECs) positively influence farmers’ willingness to perform additional unsubsidised measures by means of facilitation and group pressure. We conclude that in order to increase farmers’ willingness to perform agri-environmental measures, self-identity should be addressed by means of e.g. benchmarking instruments in combination with commitment making or labelling of environmental friendly identities. Also, ECs are more important for unsubsidised measures than previously assumed – we recommended that they change their focus to include unsubsidised as well as subsidised conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has shown difficulties in meeting its environmental objectives, namely in supporting biodiversity-friendly farming systems that remain under pressure to intensify or abandon. Proposals to address this have ranged from increasing the focus on highly tailored and targeted agri-environment schemes, to promoting broad-brush policies such as those recently implemented in the Greening of the CAP. Both options have been criticised due to questionable cost-effectiveness. Alternatives based on agri-environment policies oriented to support conservation-relevant farming systems have been suggested, but they have faced operational difficulties related primarily to obtaining the necessary data to define farming system typologies. Here we investigated whether a simplified approach based on a coarse farming system typology built from incomplete data on land-use and livestock, such as that available in CAP paying agencies, could be used to infer on a wider range of conservation-relevant farm management practices and, ultimately, to select the farming systems qualifying for premium payments. Based on data collected by a farm-survey on a High Nature Value farmland area in southern Portugal, we show that some farming systems are consistently associated with conservation-relevant practices related to the use of herbicides, stubble grazing, creation of wildlife plots and early cereal harvest. The traditional system involving the rotational production of cereals and sheep grazing on fallows showed the most favourable balance of land uses and farm management practices with positive conservation effects. Results underlined the potential of farming systems as a framework for developing agri-environment policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity declines in agricultural landscapes represent a major conservation challenge. In the UK, some agricultural landscapes contain high pond densities, but many farmland ponds have become terrestrialised since the 1960s, with input of organic material resulting in a decrease in the size and depth of ponds that eventually transform into wet woodland habitats. Pond management, including removal of overhanging scrub and sediment, has proven highly effective in enhancing freshwater biodiversity. However, the implications of this management for farmland bird assemblages are unknown. Bird surveys were undertaken at recently managed, open, macrophyte-dominated and at highly terrestrialised, macrophyte-free ponds in the intensively cultivated farmland of North Norfolk, UK. The diversity, abundance and composition of bird assemblages visiting these ponds were compared to determine responses to pond management by tree and mud removal. Avian species richness, abundance and bird-visit frequencies were all higher at open farmland ponds. The observed patterns of bird occurrence were best explained by management-induced reductions in tree shading that resulted in aquatic macrophyte-dominance likely associated with high emergent invertebrate prey abundance. Moreover, we predict that open-canopy ponds offer greater habitat heterogeneity than overgrown ponds, allowing diversified bird use. Overgrown, terrestrialised ponds were preferred by some woodland bird species. Gamma diversity across the entire pondscape exceeded all individual pond alpha diversity measures by an order of magnitude, suggesting distinct variation in the bird assemblages visiting farmland ponds during different successional stages. Pond management that generates a mosaic of pond successional stages, including open-canopy, macrophyte-dominated ponds, could help to address the long-term decline of farmland birds. We strongly advocate increased agro-ecological research in this field, combined with greater emphasis on ponds and pond management options in agri-environment schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of transhumance of livestock herds to Alpine summer pasture has experienced pronounced changes over recent decades due to the general process of agricultural intensification in productive areas and abandonment of farming in marginal areas. Instead of moving lactating cows to summer pastures raising replacement heifers recently gained much importance. Here, we analysed the impact of these changes in dairy farming on butterfly diversity inhabiting Alpine summer pastures in the eastern Italian Alps. We sampled butterflies (Lepidoptera) in 16 Alpine summer pastures that were either grazed by lactating cows (n = 11) or replacement heifers (n = 5) at two distances from the farm building. Butterflies were classified according to their mobility. Our results showed a distance effect on total butterfly species richness only in pastures grazed by lactating cows indicating a stronger impact on vegetation structure and composition nearby the farm building. Abundance of butterflies was higher with increasing distance from the farm building. In contrast to mobile butterflies, sedentary species reacted more strongly to disturbance induced by grazing livestock. Moreover, butterfly composition differed slightly between pastures grazed by lactating cows and heifers. Our results indicate that the widespread adoption of heifer grazing induces a shift in butterfly diversity and composition likely caused by the different behaviour of grazing livestock. In order to benefit butterfly diversity in Alpine summer pastures, we suggest that future agri-environment schemes should provide extra support for summer farming of lactating cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]