Landscape-scale diversity of plants, bumblebees and butterflies in mixed farm-forest landscapes of Northern Europe : Clear-cuts do not compensate for the negative effects of plantation forest cover

Summary, in English

To assess the biodiversity consequences of contemporary land-use trends in Northern Europe, where agriculture is being replaced by forestry, we need a better knowledge of the contributions of constituting habitats to biodiversity. Here, we use purposefully collected data from 87 sites to model how agricultural habitats, including semi-natural pastures, sown temporary grassland (leys), cereal crops, and forest habitats comprising both mature production forests and clear-cuts, contribute to landscape-scale diversity of plants, bumblebees and butterflies in boreonemoral Sweden. At the local scale, species richness was highest in semi-natural pastures, intermediate in cereal crops and leys and lowest in forest. In clear-cuts, species richness was similarly high to that in semi-natural pastures. Countryside species-area models show that at a landscape scale, the high local richness in clear-cuts was more than offset by the low species richness encountered in forest. At landscape scale, semi-natural pastures, and in the case of plants also cereal crops, were major contributors of unique species. Leys and semi-natural pastures were both important contributors to bumblebee diversity. The effect of the surrounding landscape composition on local diversity was weak, suggesting that area-based approximations of landscape-scale species richness were reasonable. We conclude that clear-cuts constitute habitats for open-land species but cannot maintain landscape-scale diversity in the face of agricultural abandonment when open land is replaced by even-aged production forests. Maintaining farmland, in particular semi-natural pastures but also cereals and leys, is therefore critical to maintaining the landscape-scale species richness of plants and insects in forestry-dominated areas.

• Author: Georg K.S. Andersson; Niklas Boke-Olén; Fabian Roger; Johan Ekroos; Henrik G. Smith; Yann Clough
• Department/s: Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC); BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate; Biodiversity and Conservation Science; Lund university sustainability forum; Biodiversity
• Publishing year: 2022-10
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Biological Conservation
• Volume: 274
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109728
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Topic: Ecology
• Keywords: Countryside species area relationship; Farmland afforestation; Grassland ley; High nature value farmland; Pollinator diversity; Semi-natural grassland
• Status: Published
• Research group: Biodiversity and Conservation Science
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0006-3207