TY - JOUR
T1 - An increase in food production in Europe could dramatically affect farmland biodiversity
AU - Jeanneret, Philippe
AU - Lüscher, Gisela
AU - Schneider, Manuel K.
AU - Pointereau, Philippe
AU - Arndorfer, Michaela
AU - Bailey, Debra
AU - Balázs, Katalin
AU - Báldi, András
AU - Choisis, Jean-Philippe
AU - Dennis, Peter
AU - Diaz, Mario
AU - Eiter, Sebastian
AU - Elek, Zoltán
AU - Fjellstad, Wendy
AU - Frank, Thomas
AU - Friedel, Jürgen K.
AU - Geijzendorffer, Ilse R.
AU - Gillingham, Pippa
AU - Gomiero, Tiziano
AU - Jerkovich, Gergely
AU - Jongman, Rob H. G.
AU - Kainz, Max
AU - Kovács-Hostyánszki, Anikó
AU - Moreno, Gerardo
AU - Nascimbene, Juri
AU - Oschatz, Marie-Louise
AU - Paoletti, Maurizio G.
AU - Sarthou, Jean-Pierre
AU - Siebrecht, Norman
AU - Sommaggio, Daniele
AU - Wolfrum, Sebastian
AU - Herzog, Felix
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the farmers for access to land and for information on land management. We are indebted to S. Baldwin, O. Balle, M. Bátki, K.-G. Bernhardt, M. Bouvet, S. Buholzer, B. Bunce, C. Centeri, G. Cuendet, G. Engan, E. Falusi, O.-D. Finch, P. Gillingham, X. Heer, B. Heiner, M. Jerkovich, Z. Józan, C. Kantner, N. Koncz, A. Kulcsár, N. Kwikiriza, L. Lemaire, T. Lord, A. Mjelde, A. Müller, M. Münkenwarf, J. Nascimbene, J. Neumayr, F. Ødegaard, S. Papaja-Hülsbergen, M. Pavett, K. Penksza, L. Podmaniczky, R. Pommeresche, B. Putz, N. Richner, F. Schneiter, S. Schwarz, D. Schwenk, N. Stone, O. Szalkovszki, G. Szalma, T. Szederjesi, H. Timmermann, S. Tolhurst, J. Vale, F. Vuillemin, A. Whittington, J. Wilkes and T. Zanetti for assistance in field sampling, taxonomy and data processing. We thank B. Schmid and P. Edwards for comments that helped improve this manuscript. This work was funded by the European Union through FP7 project BioBio (Indicators for biodiversity in organic and low-input farming systems; www.biobio-indicator.org ; Agreement Nr. 227161), by the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research, and by the Lendület program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/9/2
Y1 - 2021/9/2
N2 - Conversion of semi-natural habitats, such as field margins, fallows, hedgerows, grassland, woodlots and forests, to agricultural land could increase agricultural production and help meet rising global food demand. Yet, the extent to which such habitat loss would impact biodiversity and wild species is unknown. Here we survey species richness for four taxa (vascular plants, earthworms, spiders, wild bees) and agricultural yield across a range of arable, grassland, mixed, horticulture, permanent crop, for organic and non-organic agricultural land on 169 farms across 10 European regions. We find that semi-natural habitats currently constitute 23% of land area with 49% of species unique to these habitats. We estimate that conversion of semi-natural land that achieves a 10% increase in agricultural production will have the greatest impact on biodiversity in arable systems and the least impact in grassland systems, with organic practices having better species retention than non-organic practices. Our findings will help inform sustainable agricultural development.
AB - Conversion of semi-natural habitats, such as field margins, fallows, hedgerows, grassland, woodlots and forests, to agricultural land could increase agricultural production and help meet rising global food demand. Yet, the extent to which such habitat loss would impact biodiversity and wild species is unknown. Here we survey species richness for four taxa (vascular plants, earthworms, spiders, wild bees) and agricultural yield across a range of arable, grassland, mixed, horticulture, permanent crop, for organic and non-organic agricultural land on 169 farms across 10 European regions. We find that semi-natural habitats currently constitute 23% of land area with 49% of species unique to these habitats. We estimate that conversion of semi-natural land that achieves a 10% increase in agricultural production will have the greatest impact on biodiversity in arable systems and the least impact in grassland systems, with organic practices having better species retention than non-organic practices. Our findings will help inform sustainable agricultural development.
KW - CONSERVATION
KW - DEMAND
KW - DIVERSITY
KW - EXTRAPOLATION
KW - INTENSIFICATION
KW - INTENSITY
KW - LANDSCAPE
KW - MANAGEMENT
KW - RAREFACTION
KW - SUSTAINABILITY
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120901262&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-021-00256-x
DO - 10.1038/s43247-021-00256-x
M3 - Article
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 2
SP - 183
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
JF - Communications Earth & Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 183
ER -
