Flower strips, conservation field margins and fallows promote the arable flora in intensively farmed landscapes: Results of a 4-year study

Wietzke, Alexander; Albert, Klara; Bergmeier, Erwin; Sutcliffe, Laura M. E.; Waveren, Clara-Sophie van; Leuschner, Christoph

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2020.107142

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Basically, the plant communities of the surveyed SRC and all other investigated habitat types were dominated by widespread, common and non-threatened plant species. In our study region, the presence of species of conservation concern was not expected, since the establishment potential for these species is limited due to many decades of intensive agricultural use [66][67][68]. However, in many other studies on SRC in different regions of Germany and in other European countries [22][23][24][25][26]29,33,54,55,69], these woody crops did not prove to be a habitat of major importance for rare or threatened plant species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Short-Rotation Coppice Managed According to Ecological Guidelines—What Are the Benefits for Phytodiversity?

Zitzmann

Rode

2021

Forests

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In recent years, the impact of short-rotation coppice (SRC) on biodiversity has been a regular subject of research and ecological guidelines have been developed to make biomass cultivation on SRC more compatible with biodiversity concerns. However, since these guidelines are only implemented voluntarily by farmers, there are barely any SRC that are managed according to ecological guidelines. Consequently, knowledge about their importance for farmland biodiversity and about the impact of different measures for increasing biodiversity remains scarce. Therefore, three experimental SRC, which are managed according to ecological guidelines and thus include stands of different tree species (varieties of poplar (Populus) and willow (Salix), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), silver birch (Betula pendula)) and different growth-stages within the same site, were investigated with regard to their importance as habitat for vascular plants. Species numbers and species composition were compared with the following habitat types: afforestations (AFO), young (HE-Y) and old hedges (HE-O), field margins (FM) and arable land (AL). Furthermore, different stand types (i.e., stands with different tree species and growth-stages, headlands, clearings) within these SRC were surveyed and compared. Species numbers of SRC were similar to HE-Y, AFO and FM and significantly higher than in AL and HE-O. The composition of plant communities in SRC differed considerably from the other farmland habitats, especially from AL, HE-O and FM. Within the SRC, most stand types had similar species numbers. Only the non-harvested poplar stands were particularly species-poor. Harvesting led to increased species numbers. This increase was significant for the poplar stands but only moderate for the willow stands. With regard to their species composition, the different stand types differed considerably in many cases. We conclude that SRC, which are managed according to ecological guidelines, can be an additional measure to promote phytodiversity in agricultural landscapes as they contain relatively high species numbers (of mainly common and adaptable species) and support distinct plant communities that differ from other farmland habitats. Therefore, measures such as the cultivation of different tree species or sectional harvesting could be offered as agri-environmental schemes to further increase the ecological sustainability of biomass production on SRC.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Short-Rotation Coppice Managed According to Ecological Guidelines—What Are the Benefits for Phytodiversity?

Zitzmann

Rode

2021

Forests

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“…This notion is particularly widespread among plant ecologists, as abandonment frequently reduces plant diversity (Öckinger et al ., 2006; Dengler et al ., 2014; but see Baur et al ., 2006). However, a high value of fallows has also been found in other studies, though depending on the study area and the taxon investigated (Schmidt et al ., 2008; Görn et al ., 2014; Toivonen et al ., 2015; Bucher et al ., 2016; Řezáč & Heneberg, 2018; Hanappel & Fischer, 2019; Helden et al ., 2020; Wietzke et al ., 2020). This is also the main conclusion of a comprehensive review on this matter, pointing out that scientific reports of positive or negative effects of abandonment depend on regional background (both geographic and cultural) and conservation focus (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grassland fallows as key for successful insect conservation

Frenzel

Wörsdörfer

Khedhiri

et al. 2021

Insect Conserv Diversity

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1. There is widescale evidence for declines in insect biodiversity at a global scale. Agricultural intensification is considered to be one of the major causes of these declines. Traditionally managed habitat types, such as hay meadows, harbour a rich diversity of plants and animals but have been often transformed into crop fields or silage grassland.2. To evaluate the role of (i) agricultural intensification for insect declines and of (ii) traditionally managed hay meadows and fallows for biodiversity conservation, we here compare bee, hoverfly, and leafhopper assemblages on 45 sites along a gradient of land use intensity in western Germany. We included moist long-term grassland fallows, three types of hay meadows, and silage grasslands, each represented by nine replicates.3. Species numbers of bees and leafhoppers were significantly higher on fallows than other management types. Grassland fallows also harboured the most distinct assemblages, while those of hay meadows and silage grassland were very similar and largely overlapping.4. The surprising similarity of hay meadow and silage assemblages may be due to investigating highly mobile taxa within a landscape composed of a fine-scale mosaic of traditionally managed and intensified grassland. Our results demonstrate the high importance of unmanaged areas, even when the overall land use intensity is still comparatively low.5. We suggest that temporal grassland fallows (unmanaged for 3-5 years) should be subsidised in agri-environmental schemes to increase landscape heterogeneity and to preserve insect diversity.

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“…The objective of these measures would be to avoid weed invasions in production systems (Blaix et al, 2018). Although this is a very tall order in the context of weeds occurring in the Western Cape, Wietzke et al (2020) concluded that soil type and nutrient status, field and production system history and seedbank structure are factors determining the efficiency of agri-environment actions. To this end, Bhaskar et al (2021) propagated the development of system-specific recommendations in horticulture, viticulture and grain crop systems.…”

Section: Future Research Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Wietzke et al (2020) reported that the implementation of a well thought out mixture of native plant strips, field margins and hedgerows provide benefits for all beneficial living organisms. However, such ecological gains come with crop yield penalties and increased inputs that require compensation for farmers who adopt such practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating agricultural intensification in the Western Cape with landscape elements: a synopsis of applicable ecological weed management strategies

Ferreira¹

2022

Advances in Weed Science

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Flower strips, conservation field margins and fallows promote the arable flora in intensively farmed landscapes: Results of a 4-year study

Cited by 25 publications

References 57 publications

Short-Rotation Coppice Managed According to Ecological Guidelines—What Are the Benefits for Phytodiversity?

Short-Rotation Coppice Managed According to Ecological Guidelines—What Are the Benefits for Phytodiversity?

Grassland fallows as key for successful insect conservation

Mitigating agricultural intensification in the Western Cape with landscape elements: a synopsis of applicable ecological weed management strategies

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