Abstract
ABSTRACTNovel crops for energy production are perceived as a promising option for promoting biodiversity in agrarian landscapes. The biodiversity effects of three novel energy crops on the composition of the carabid beetle and arachnid assemblages at two sites in Northeast Germany were investigated and compared to maize. Species diversity was calculated using different diversity indices to illuminate three aspects of biodiversity: infrequency, heterogeneity, and the dominance structure of the species composition. We also calculated the diversity of habitat preferences of these two animal groups. The number of species and the biodiversity were highest in energy crops and lowest in maize. The vegetation structure explained >50% of the variance in species data. We concluded that the biodiversity effects of the novel energy plants can be attributed to the increased complexity of the vegetation structure. The investigations confirmed that the novel energy plants can contribute substantially to enhance the biodiversity of invertebrate assemblages in biomass feedstock cultures.EDITED BY Graciela Rusch
Highlights
The increased cultivation of energy plants in recent years is generally assumed to involve decreased biodiversity in the agrarian landscape (Pereira et al 2010; Robertson et al 2012). Tscharntke et al (2005) state that the intensification of land use has led to a worldwide decline in biodiversity
The investigations in the two regions were not designed as replicates but as a comparison of the effects of novel energy crops on both animal groups under different climates and soil conditions. The aim of these investigations was to determine whether biodiversity of the carabid beetle and arachnid assemblages was significantly higher in the fields cropped with novel energy plants than in fields of silage maize (SM)
We developed the following hypotheses: (1) the stands of novel energy plants will show a significantly higher vegetation structure diversity than the stands of maize, (2) species and preferred habitat diversity will be significantly higher in the fields of novel energy plants than they are in the fields of maize, and (3) the vegetation structure variables of the cultivated plants and the weeds will explain a large proportion of the variance in the species data of the carabid beetle and arachnid assemblages
Summary
The increased cultivation of energy plants in recent years is generally assumed to involve decreased biodiversity in the agrarian landscape (Pereira et al 2010; Robertson et al 2012). Tscharntke et al (2005) state that the intensification of land use has led to a worldwide decline in biodiversity. The investigations in the two regions were not designed as replicates but as a comparison of the effects of novel energy crops on both animal groups under different climates and soil conditions The aim of these investigations was to determine whether biodiversity (species and habitat preference diversity) of the carabid beetle and arachnid assemblages was significantly higher in the fields cropped with novel energy plants than in fields of SM. The nomenclature of the carabid beetles followed Köhler and Klausnitzer (2014), while for spiders and for harvestmen, Platnick (2013) and Blick and Komposch (2004) were used as standards for nomenclature, respectively At both sides of the pitfall traps, an area of 1 m2 was established where plant species composition and vegetation structure were surveyed simultaneously with the changing of the pitfall traps according to the Braun-Blanquet estimation scale (Dierschke 1994). The mechanism by which the type of fertilizer directly affects carabid beetle and arachnid conditions is not known, but several investigations clearly demonstrate that organically managed fields (no pesticides and no mineral fertilizers) benefit carabid beetle and arachnid condition and numbers, respectively
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