Modeling the effects of grassland management intensity on biodiversity.

Noëlle Klein,Alain Jacot,Raphaël Arlettaz,Coralie Theux,Jean-Nicolas Pradervand

doi:10.1002/ece3.6957

Abstract

A growing food demand and advanced agricultural techniques increasingly affect farmland ecosystems, threatening invertebrate populations with cascading effects along the food chain upon insectivorous vertebrates. Supporting farmland biodiversity thus optimally requires the delineation of species hotspots at multiple trophic levels to prioritize conservation management. The goal of this study was to investigate the links between grassland management intensity and orthopteran density at the field scale and to upscale this information to the landscape in order to guide management action at landscape scale. More specifically, we investigated the relationships between grassland management intensity, floral indicator species, and orthopteran abundance in grasslands with different land use in the SW Swiss Alps. Field vegetation surveys of indicator plant species were used to generate a management intensity proxy, to which field assessments of orthopterans were related. Orthopteran abundance showed a hump‐shaped response to management intensity, with low values in intensified, nutrient‐rich grasslands and in nutrient‐poor, xeric grasslands, while it peaked in middle‐intensity grasslands. Combined with remote‐sensed data about grassland gross primary productivity, the above proxy was used to build landscape‐wide, spatially explicit projections of the potential distribution of orthopteran‐rich grasslands as possible foraging grounds for insectivorous vertebrates. This spatially explicit multitrophic approach enables the delineation of focal farmland areas in order to prioritize conservation action.

Highlights

A growing food demand and advances in farming technologies have led to intensified agricultural practices, that is, more efficient, industrial farming
Orthopteran abundance showed a hump-shaped response to management intensity, with low values in intensified, nutrient-rich grasslands and in nutrient-poor, xeric grasslands, while it peaked in middle-intensity grasslands
The aim of this study was (a) to develop a proxy for management intensity based on vegetation surveys and remote sensing, to (b) investigate the complex links between grassland management intensity and floral and faunal biodiversity at field scale; and (c) to project this local information obtained from different trophic levels to the wider landscape providing a tool for local conservation management

Summary

Introduction

A growing food demand and advances in farming technologies have led to intensified agricultural practices, that is, more efficient, industrial farming This has caused massive losses of biodiversity in various ecosystems, with dramatic negative effects on ecosystem functions and services that are essential for human well-being (Dirzo et al, 2014). Managed semi-natural grasslands are affected by land-use changes and considered among the most threatened habitats in Europe (Canals & Sebastià, 2000). These grasslands are important habitats, hosting a high floral diversity and offering shelter for numerous endangered invertebrates and vertebrates that find their last refuges in these extensively managed habitats, such as insectivorous birds that have become rare (Knaus et al, 2018)

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