Increasing crop heterogeneity enhances multitrophic diversity across agricultural regions
Sirami, C. (Zone Atelier Pyrénées Garonne)
Gross, Nicolas (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Departamento de Biologia, Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica)
Baillod, A. B. (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture. Agroecology and Biodiversity)
Bertrand, C. (Université de Rennes 1)
Carrié, R. (Lund University. Centre for Environmental and Climate Research)
Hass, A. (University of Goettingen. Agroecology. Department for Crop Sciences)
Henckel, L. (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Swedish Species Information Centre)
Miguet, P. (INRA)
Vuillot, C. (Sorbonne Universités. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle)
Alignier, A. (Zone Atelier Armorique)
Girard, J. (Carleton University. Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Laboratory)
Batáry, P. (MTA Centre for Ecological Research. "Lendület" Landscape and Conservation Ecology. Institute of Ecology and Botany)
Clough, Y. (Lund University. Centre for Environmental and Climate Research)
Violle, Cyrille (Université de Montpellier)
Giralt, David. (Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC))
Bota, Gerard (Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC))
Badenhausser, I. (INRA)
Lefebvre, G. (Research Institute for the Conservation of Mediterranean Wetlands. Tour du Valat)
Gauffre, B. (INRA)
Vialatte, A. (Zone Atelier Pyrénées Garonne)
Calatayud, F. (Zone Atelier Pyrénées Garonne)
Gil-Tena, Assu (InForest Joint Research Unit)
Tischendorf, L. (Carleton University. Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Laboratory)
Mitchell, S. (Carleton University. Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Laboratory)
Lindsay, K. (Carleton University. Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Laboratory)
Georges, R. (Université de Rennes 1)
Hilaire, S. (Research Institute for the Conservation of Mediterranean Wetlands. Tour du Valat)
Recasens, J. (Universitat de Lleida. Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria Agrària)
Solé-Senan, X. O. (Universitat de Lleida. Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria Agrària)
Robleño, I. (Universitat de Lleida. Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria Agrària)
Bosch, Jordi, 1961- (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Barrientos Alfageme, José Antonio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Ricarte, A. (Universitat d'Alacant. Institut Universitari d'Investigació)
Marcos-García, María Ángeles (Universitat d'Alacant. Institut Universitari d'Investigació)
Miñano, J. (Universidad de Murcia. Area de Ecología. Facultad de Biología)
Mathevet, R. (Université de Montpellier)
Gibon, A. (Université de Toulouse. INRA)
Baudry, J. (Zone Atelier Armorique)
Balent, G. (Université de Toulouse. INRA)
Poulin, B. (Research Institute for the Conservation of Mediterranean Wetlands. Tour du Valat)
Burel, F. (Zone Atelier Armorique)
Tscharntke, T. (University of Goettingen. Agroecology. Department for Crop Sciences)
Bretagnolle, V. (Université de La Rochelle)
Siriwardena, G. (British Trust for Ornithology)
Ouin, A. (Zone Atelier Pyrénées Garonne)
Brotons, Lluís (CSIC)
Martin, J. L. (Université de Montpellier)
Fahrig, L. (Carleton University. Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Laboratory)

Date:	2019
Abstract:	Agricultural landscape homogenization has detrimental effects on biodiversity and key ecosystem services. Increasing agricultural landscape heterogeneity by increasing seminatural cover can help to mitigate biodiversity loss. However, the amount of seminatural cover is generally low and difficult to increase in many intensively managed agricultural landscapes. We hypothesized that increasing the heterogeneity of the crop mosaic itself (hereafter "crop heterogeneity") can also have positive effects on biodiversity. In 8 contrasting regions of Europe and North America, we selected 435 landscapes along independent gradients of crop diversity and mean field size. Within each landscape, we selected 3 sampling sites in 1, 2, or 3 crop types. We sampled 7 taxa (plants, bees, butterflies, hoverflies, carabids, spiders, and birds) and calculated a synthetic index of multitrophic diversity at the landscape level. Increasing crop heterogeneity was more beneficial for multitrophic diversity than increasing seminatural cover. For instance, the effect of decreasing mean field size from 5 to 2. 8 ha was as strong as the effect of increasing seminatural cover from 0. 5 to 11%. Decreasing mean field size benefited multitrophic diversity even in the absence of seminatural vegetation between fields. Increasing the number of crop types sampled had a positive effect on landscape-level multitrophic diversity. However, the effect of increasing crop diversity in the landscape surrounding fields sampled depended on the amount of seminatural cover. Our study provides large-scale, multitrophic, cross-regional evidence that increasing crop heterogeneity can be an effective way to increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes without taking land out of agricultural production.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad JCI-2012-12089 European Commission ERC-StG-2014-639706 European Commission 609398
Note:	Altres ajuts: Defra/WC1034
Note:	Altres ajuts: ANR/ANR-11-EBID-0004
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Landscape complementation ; Multitaxa ; Biodiversity ; Crop mosaic ; Farmland
Published in:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 116 Núm. 33 (13 2019) , p. 16442-16447, ISSN 1091-6490

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1906419116
PMID: 31358630

6 p, 1.2 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles