Indicators for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: a pan‐European study
Open accessAbstract
Summary: In many European agricultural landscapes, species richness is declining considerably. Studies performed at a very large spatial scale are helpful in understanding the reasons for this decline and as a basis for guiding policy. In a unique, large‐scale study of 25 agricultural landscapes in seven European countries, we investigated relationships between species richness in several taxa, and the links between biodiversity and landscape structure and management. We estimated the total species richness of vascular plants, birds and five arthropod groups in each 16‐km 2 landscape, and recorded various measures of both landscape structure and intensity of agricultural land use. We studied correlations between taxonomic groups and the effects of landscape and land‐use parameters on the number of species in different taxonomic groups. Our statistical approach also accounted for regional variation in species richness unrelated to landscape or land‐use factors. The results reveal strong geographical trends in species richness in all taxonomic groups. No single species group emerged as a good predictor of all other species groups. Species richness of all groups increased with the area of semi‐natural habitats in the landscape. Species richness of birds and vascular plants was negatively associated with fertilizer use. Synthesis and applications. We conclude that indicator taxa are unlikely to provide an effective means of predicting biodiversity at a large spatial scale, especially where there is large biogeographical variation in species richness. However, a small list of landscape and land‐use parameters can be used in agricultural landscapes to infer large‐scale patterns of species richness. Our results suggest that to halt the loss of biodiversity in these landscapes, it is important to preserve and, if possible, increase the area of semi‐natural habitat.
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The Semi Natural Habitat (%SNH) indicator is strongly correlated with the presence of useful species of different taxa (e.g., bees, bugs) at the landscape scale.
“It is relevant for nature conservation and connectivity among natural areas, and it is strongly correlated with the presence of useful species of di erent taxa (e.g., bees, bugs) at the landscape scale [31].”
From An Actor-Oriented Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework to Support a Transition towards Sustainable Agricultural Systems Based on Crop Diversification (2020) · cites this paper as [31]
The Correlations with Landscape and Land-Use Indicators section reports that the area of semi-natural habitat was positively associated with the combined species richness of five arthropod taxa; the Biodiversity Assessment section identifies bees and true bugs among them. The paper measures species richness, not the presence of particular useful species, and does not establish that the species counted were useful. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredUsing particular, single taxa as indicators for biodiversity does not necessarily represent biodiversity as a whole and can therefore be misleading.
“Our findings are in line with Billeter et al. 26, who argued that using particular, single taxa as indicators for biodiversity does not necessarily represent biodiversity as a whole and can therefore be misleading.”
From Farming practices to enhance biodiversity across biomes: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [26]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Billeter, R., Liira, J., Bailey, D., Bugter, R., Arens, P., Augenstein, I., Aviron, S., Baudry, J., Bukacek, R., Burel, F., Cerny, M., De Blust, G., De Cock, R., Diekötter, T., Dietz, H., Dirksen, J., Dormann, C., Durka, W., Frenzel, M., Hamersky, R., Hendrickx, F., Herzog, F., Klotz, S., Koolstra, B., Lausch, A., Le Coeur, D., Maelfait, J. P., Opdam, P., Roubalova, M., Schermann, A., Schermann, N., Schmidt, T., Schweiger, O., Smulders, M. J. M., Speelmans, M., Simova, P., Verboom, J., Van Wingerden, W. K. R. E., Zobel, M., & Edwards, P. J.
- Affiliations
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- University of Tartu (EE)
- Agroscope (CH)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE)
- Ecosystèmes, Biodiversité, Evolution (FR)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research (CZ)
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
- Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (CZ)
- Research Institute for Nature and Forest (BE)
- Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Billeter, R.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Ecology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-10-05
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 141-150
- ISSN
- 0021-8901 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2664
- OpenAlex
- W2112151272
- Cited by
- 741
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 52 · 2016: 48 · 2015: 44 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 37
- FWCI
- 24.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.wur.nl
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Ecology (publishedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Commission
- Stichting Nederlands Oogheelkundig Onderzoek
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Avian ecology and behavior
- Keywords
- biodiversity indicators, agricultural landscapes, species richness, landscape structure, land use intensity, semi-natural habitats, vascular plants, farmland birds, arthropods, fertilizer use, biogeographical variation, European agriculture
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