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1. Organic farming has potential for the conservation of global biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Despite this, knowledge of the effects of organic farming systems on farmland biodiversity is limited in Asia, the worldwide leader in rice production.2. We conducted the first national-scale study to investigate the effects of three different rice farming systems (conventional, low-input and organic) and specific management practices (e.g. herbicide and insecticide applications, crop rotation and levee-vegetation management) on species richness and abundance of multiple taxonomic groups (plants, invertebrates, Pelophylax and Hyla japonica frogs, cobitid loaches and birds) in Japan during 2013-2015.3. Organic fields supported the highest richness and abundance of several taxonomic groups (native/Red List plants, Tetragnatha spiders, Sympetrum dragonflies and Pelophylax frogs), followed by low-input and conventional fields. We also found taxon-specific responses to specific management practices. For instance, plant richness and Tetragnatha and Sympetrum abundance increased with reduced herbicide and/or insecticide applications. Sympetrum and cobitid loach abundance increased in the absence of crop rotation, whereas H. japonica abundance increased with crop rotation. Pelophylax abundance increased with an increased height of levee vegetation.4. At spatial scales larger than single fields, waterbird richness and abundance were positively correlated with the proportion of organic rice fields, presumably due to increased prey abundance. Meanwhile, landbird richness and abundance were positively associated with annual precipitation and annual mean temperature, suggesting that such climate increases food availability. Synthesis and applications.We highlight the positive effects of organic and low-input farming for biodiversity relative to conventional farming in rice paddies. We also provide the scientific basis of the current agri-environmental schemes in Japan, subsidising organic and low-input farming for biodiversity. The | 1971 Journal of Applied Ecology KATAYAMA eT Al. Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article. How to cite this article: Katayama N, Osada Y, Mashiko M, et al. Organic farming and associated management practices benefit multiple wildlife taxa: A large-scale field study in rice paddy landscapes.

We studied the effects of habitat mosaics on butterfly assemblage on multiple spatial scales: landscape, landscape element, local habitat, and microhabitat, based on the transect counts conducted along a 3.84 km route. The transect route, including 21 local habitats, passed through two distinct areas: 1.65 km of a secondary deciduous Quercus forest and the grove of a shrine in Hiraoka, and 2.19 km of a mosaic of secondary deciduous Quercus forest, grassland, and farmland in Narukawa. The diversity of the landscape elements and species richness were higher in Narukawa than in Hiraoka; the landscape mosaic enhanced the species richness in Narukawa. However, the diversity indices and specialist species (univoltine tree feeder) were decreased in this mosaic landscape. The species richness at local habitats was also increased by the mosaic of microhabitats, such as the herbaceous layer, glade, and mantle in the local habitats, whereas it was decreased by an abundant shrub layer. The ratios of species richness to abundance in the local habitats were lower than expected based on random sampling from the total of Hiraoka and Narukawa. This means that local assemblages were non‐random samples from an assemblage on the landscape or regional scale, and were made up by the process of habitat selection of butterfly species in the assemblages on the landscape or regional scale. For conservation of butterfly assemblages, we recommend that woodlands should be kept without fragmentation, but with glades or small grasslands, and with clearance of the shrub layer along the path.