Low Land-use Intensity Research Articles

Intensification of Human Land Use Decreases Taxonomic, Functional, and Phylogenetic Diversity of Macroinvertebrate Community in Weihe River Basin, China

Recent anthropogenic activities have escalated human exploitation of riparian zones of river ecosystems, consequently diminishing aquatic biodiversity. This intensification of land use is also causing water quality degradation and changes in water environmental factors, evidenced by increased nutrient levels and adversely impacting the community structure and diversity of aquatic organisms. Notably, the Weihe River Basin, the largest tributary of the Yellow River, has demonstrated signs of significant anthropogenic pressure. Despite this, comprehensive investigations examining the effects of land-use intensity on aquatic organism diversity in this watershed remain limited. In this study, the environmental impacts and macroinvertebrate diversity under high-intensity and low-intensity land-use scenarios within the Weihe River Basin were investigated through field surveys conducted during the spring and autumn seasons. Our results demonstrated that areas under high-intensity land use exhibited elevated nutrient concentrations (e.g., total nitrogen) compared to those under low-intensity land use. These environmental changes significantly influenced the macroinvertebrate community structure, reducing functional and phylogenetic diversities in high-intensity land-use watersheds. Hydrological factors (water depth, river width, and discharge) have a significant impact on macroinvertebrate taxonomic diversity. Thus, understanding the effects of land-use intensity on aquatic biodiversity is essential for ecological assessments of impacted watersheds and developing management strategies for the sustainable use and planning of riparian lands in the Weihe River Basin.

WITHDRAWN: Reconstructing the environmental impact of mining on mountain lakes

Mountain lakes are particularly fragile ecosystems undergoing important transformations associated with ongoing global change. However, the history of anthropogenic impacts on mountain lakes and their catchments is much longer, in many cases featuring millennia of summer pastoral farming. More recently, the growing demand for raw materials and energy linked to industrialization, particularly accelerated since the 19th century CE, meant a further increase in human impact on mountain areas. The Cantabrian Range (northern Spain) constitutes a paradigmatic case of southern European mountain range experiencing intense human impact during the past few millennia and particularly the past two centuries. Here, we have reconstructed the environmental dynamics of this area during the last millennium, with a particular focus on the impact of mining, based on the multidisciplinary analysis (sedimentology, biogeochemistry, magnetic susceptibility, diatoms, pollen, charcoal and dung fungal spores) of sediment cores from Lago de La Cueva (43°03′N, 6°06′W, 1550 m a.s.l.). Changing land use and climate have driven lake dynamics during the last centuries. A major fire-caused deforestation event dated to the late 15th century CE increased erosion and the frequency of intense runoff episodes, in the context of the wetter and colder Little Ice Age. The onset of iron mining activities in the catchment ca. 200 years ago had a strong impact on the lake. Sedimentation rates notably raised and mining waste containing hematite and potentially toxic elements (e.g. Fe, Co, As) was washed into the lake. Additionally, diatom assemblages showed that lake regulation since the early 20th century CE severely altered the natural hydrological regime introducing rapid seasonal lake-level oscillations and increased lakeshore erosion, water turbidity and nutrient loads. The recent environmental restoration, finished in 2006, has involved the re-deposition of large volumes of mine tailing. Although some mining wastewater still arrives into the lake because mine drainage is still active, restoration works have succeeded in reducing erosion rates and nutrient loads. Lower land-use intensity has also contributed to natural vegetation recovery, further diminishing erosion. This study illustrates the complex interactions between human activities (grazing, mining, hydropower) and climate change in defining mountain landscape shifts through time. Moreover, our results highlight the usefulness of paleolimnological research to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of lake restoration programs.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services: Complementary approach for catchment protection and land use in northeastern Poland

The concept of ecosystem services introduced a new view on the relationship between biodiversity and goods of human well-being. Are both ideas, biodiversity and ecosystem services, mutually beneficial for catchment protection? We aimed to explore how and to what extent specified the environmental and economic criteria determined the protection and urban land use intensity in the catchment in northeastern Poland. The relation between biodiversity, ecosystem services and land use intensity was made using 14 criteria that are also weights in the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Borda multi-criteria decision analysis by using open public data resources, such as the Topographic Objects Database, digital terrain model, forms of nature protection, the database of recognised deposits of natural resources, geological map portals, Urban Spatial Information System and information on flood hazard areas, and open-source applications across the catchment.A combined procedure including categories of land cover elements, i.e. spatial objects of the surface, land use intensity and multi-criteria decision-making model, finally determined different variants for catchment biodiversity areas, from best (Variant 15) to worst (Variant 5) from 16 variants total. The spatial results showed that biodiversity and ecosystem services show an evident decline with increased land use intensity. Biodiversity was negatively correlated with the built-up areas and intensive land use in the central part of the catchment, but positively with which concerns the initial and final reaches of the river. The main factor affecting biodiversity was the distance of the river valley sections in the catchment area from the developed space of the city centre.Results suggest that biodiversity conservation in the catchment is needed for high biodiversity and low-intensity land use. For most green and agricultural areas with multifunctional benefits and, a good state is required compromise for ecosystem services and biodiversity. The functioning of the built-up areas and intensively used for humans is described only by the value of provisioning ecosystem services.

Intensity of grassland management and landscape heterogeneity determine species richness of insects in fragmented hay meadows

Traditionally managed grasslands rank among the most species-rich ecosystems. However, in agricultural landscapes of Western and Central Europe, their extent has severely decreased. The remaining patches are mostly fragmented and suffer from habitat deterioration. Here, we studied the effects of environmental conditions on species richness of butterflies and grasshoppers in highly fragmented hay meadows. Our study revealed that environmental parameters at the habitat and landscape level influenced species richness of butterflies and grasshoppers in low-intensity hay meadows. In the univariable models, two groups of parameters consistently affected the number of all and threatened species: at the habitat level, species richness was fostered by structural richness, which was indicative of the overall management intensity of the grassland patches. At the landscape level, a higher number of mowing events in the landscape surrounding the hay meadows had a negative effect and higher elevations exhibiting a cooler and wetter climate had a positive effect on species richness. The former reflected the overall intensity of grassland management in the landscape and the later, together with further predictors (cover of forest, habitat connectivity, slope), the landscape heterogeneity. Consequently, the intensity of grassland management at the habitat and landscape level as well as the landscape heterogeneity, which was also related to land-use intensity, determined species richness of butterflies and grasshoppers. Based on these findings, there is an urgent need to enlarge the proportion of grasslands with low land-use intensity in the wider countryside. Additionally, conservation measures should aim at increasing landscape heterogeneity and habitat connectivity.

Spatially non-stationary response of habitat quality to land use activities in World's protected areas over 20 years

Land use activities play an essential role in habitat degradation and restoration. As priority zones for global habitat conservation, studying the impact of land use activities on habitat quality (HQ) in the World Protected Areas (WDPA) has great importance. However, insights into land use activities and HQ in the WDPA remain scarce and their relationship is still unclear. Here, we assessed land use activities and HQ in the WDPA over the past 20 years and analyzed the impact of land use activities on HQ. The results showed that forestland was the dominant land use type in the WDPA and that the area of forestland, bare land, and water area decreased while the area of other land use types increased during the study period. Land use change in protected areas in different continents shows great differences. Land use intensity (LUI) in the WDPA increased over the 20 years, but HQ remained largely unchanged. LUI increased but HQ decreased was the main change type of grid cells in the WDPA. The bivariate spatial autocorrelation results showed that High-Low (high HQ and low LUI) clusters were the dominant clustering type in the WDPA, while Low-High (low HQ and high LUI) clusters were the least represented clustering type. The regression results showed that LUI tended to have a negative effect on HQ in forested areas and a positive effect on HQ in desert, permafrost areas. These findings can provide a reference for effective land use differentiation control measures and biodiversity conservation measures in the WDPA.

Different environmental conditions in lowlands and uplands highlight challenges for butterfly conservation in Central Europe

Studies from all over the world have recently reported severe declines in insect diversity and abundance. Due to their high sensitivity to environmental changes, butterflies are well-suited indicators for assessing the overall state of the terrestrial insect fauna. Though they rank among the best-studied insect groups, Europe's butterfly populations are still declining in many places, especially in landscapes under intensive land use. In this study, we investigated the response of butterfly assemblages to environmental conditions in 169 plots in the wider countryside of North Rhine-Westphalia (NW Germany, Central Europe). Our study revealed a strong relationship between butterfly species richness and density and the environmental conditions in the study area. Due to the maintenance of low-intensity land use, the uplands were characterised by more favourable conditions for butterflies and consistently had a higher species richness and density of species overall and of threatened species than the intensively used lowlands. In addition to elevation, landscape diversity in particular fostered butterfly diversity. By contrast, butterfly assemblages exhibited a negative response to urban areas and arable land, which were among the most dominant habitat types in the lowlands. Moreover, our study highlighted the importance of nutrient-poor grasslands for butterflies, which is mainly a result of their high habitat quality. According to the findings of our study, it is especially important to promote heterogeneous landscapes with a large extent of semi-natural, nutrient-poor habitats. Therefore, the key issue for butterfly conservation is to change the current farming policies to increase the amount of low-intensity farmland.

Low-intensity land use fosters species richness of threatened butterflies and grasshoppers in mires and grasslands

Low-intensity land use fosters species richness of threatened butterflies and grasshoppers in mires and grasslands

Humid grassland fallows promote spider diversity in a traditionally managed landscape

Agricultural intensification is an important driver of biodiversity decline. Regarding grassland ecosystems, traditionally managed hay meadows, as opposed to highly productive silage grassland, are often of high conservation value. Here, we compare spider assemblages among five grassland management regimes along an intensification gradient, ranging from long-term fallows (not farmed for ≥ 30 years) via traditionally managed hay meadows to high-intensity silage grassland. Humid long-term fallows harboured highest species richness and diversity, and their assemblages differed strongly from other management regimes. There was surprisingly little variation though among different types of hay meadows and silage grassland. We also included environmental parameters and land-cover types in the surroundings of study sites, indicating that spider assemblages were most strongly shaped by fallow-related parameters and the proportion of forests. The high spider diversity on fallows may result from their undisturbed vegetation structure, while management, regardless of frequency, may have detrimental effects. Our results demonstrate the high importance of unmanaged areas even in regions with an overall low land-use intensity, such as grassland ecosystems. We thus recommend the inclusion of temporal grassland fallows (unmanaged for 3-5 years) in agri-environmental schemes to increase landscape heterogeneity and preserve spider diversity.

Pesticide effects on macroinvertebrates and leaf litter decomposition in areas with traditional agriculture

Traditional forms of agriculture have created and preserved heterogeneous landscapes characterized by semi-natural meadows and pastures, which have high conversation value for biodiversity. Landscapes in Central and Eastern European countries with traditional agriculture are a stronghold for pollinators, butterflies and amphibians, which have declined in other parts of Europe. Despite different landscape structures, agriculture-associated pesticide exposure in streams can be similarly high as in Western Europe. This raises the question whether the heterogeneous landscape can buffer a temporary water quality decline by agriculture. We investigated the influence of landscape heterogeneity and water quality, in particular pesticide exposure, on macroinvertebrate communities in 19 small streams in Central Romania. We sampled the macroinvertebrate community, assessed the ecosystem function of leaf litter decomposition and analyzed the parasite prevalence in Baetis sp. and Gammarus balcanicus. No association between pesticide toxicity towards macroinvertebrates and several macroinvertebrate metrics was found. However, the level of pesticide toxicity was generally high, constituting a rather short gradient, and the pesticide indicator SPEARpesticides implied pesticide-driven community change in all sites. Landscape heterogeneity and forested upstream sections were among the most important drivers for the macroinvertebrate metrics, indicating increased dispersal and recolonization success. Agricultural land use in the catchment was negatively associated with vulnerable macroinvertebrate taxa such as Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera. G. balcanicus dominated the shredder taxa and its abundance was positively associated with the pesticide indicator SPEARpesticides. Parasite prevalence in G. balcanicus increased with extensive land use (pastures and forests), whereas it decreased with arable land. Our results suggest that heterogeneous landscapes with structures of low-intensive land use may buffer the effects of agricultural land use and facilitate dispersal and recolonization processes of pesticide-affected macroinvertebrate communities.

Relative effects of land conversion and land-use intensity on terrestrial vertebrate diversity

Land-use has transformed ecosystems over three quarters of the terrestrial surface, with massive repercussions on biodiversity. Land-use intensity is known to contribute to the effects of land-use on biodiversity, but the magnitude of this contribution remains uncertain. Here, we use a modified countryside species-area model to compute a global account of the impending biodiversity loss caused by current land-use patterns, explicitly addressing the role of land-use intensity based on two sets of intensity indicators. We find that land-use entails the loss of ~15% of terrestrial vertebrate species from the average 5 × 5 arcmin-landscape outside remaining wilderness areas and ~14% of their average native area-of-habitat, with a risk of global extinction for 556 individual species. Given the large fraction of global land currently used under low land-use intensity, we find its contribution to biodiversity loss to be substantial (~25%). While both sets of intensity indicators yield similar global average results, we find regional differences between them and discuss data gaps. Our results support calls for improved sustainable intensification strategies and demand-side actions to reduce trade-offs between food security and biodiversity conservation.

Fallows benefit beetle conservation in a traditionally managed grassland landscape

Insect biodiversity is declining at the global scale, with agricultural intensification representing a major driver of this development. Traditionally managed grassland, such as hay meadows, can support high insect and plant diversity but is often converted into more productive cropland or silage grassland. We evaluated the effects of agricultural intensification and conservation measures on beetle assemblages in a traditional landscape dominated by grassland in western Germany. We investigated a total of 45 grassland sites including long-term (abandoned) grassland fallows with natural vegetation cover, three types of hay meadows, and intensively used silage grassland, using different sampling methods targeting ground-dwelling, flower-visiting, and vegetation-dwelling beetles. Species richness and diversity were highest on grassland fallows, while variation among different types of managed grassland was very low. Thus, fallows outperformed even unfertilised hay meadows cut after July 15th in terms of species richness. Beetle assemblages of fallows and silage grassland were both distinct from all other management regimes, while the three types of hay meadows did not differ substantially. Effects of on-site management regime were strong, but environmental parameters and surrounding land cover were of minor importance only. Our results suggest that long-term fallows are important for beetle conservation, even in landscapes with overall low land-use intensity. We suggest that grassland fallows should be considered in subsidised agri-environmental schemes.

Occurrence of an endangered grassland butterfly is mainly driven by habitat heterogeneity, food availability, and microclimate.

The Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) was once widespread in large parts of Central Europe. However, in the course of the last century, populations of the butterfly largely collapsed. Here, we surveyed patch and microhabitat occupancy and its drivers in one of the last vital populations in calcareous grasslands. Our study revealed that environmental conditions at the landscape and habitat level determined the occurrence of E.aurinia in a montane agricultural landscape with low land-use intensity. Patch occupancy increased with the cover of Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) grasslands in the surroundings of the patches, habitat heterogeneity and host-plant cover. Microhabitat occupancy was driven by a warm microclimate and high availability of host plants. In the well-connected landscape of nutrient-poor grasslands, patch occupancy of E. aurinia was driven by parameters defining a high habitat quality. Habitat heterogeneity very likely buffers E. aurinia populations against environmental stochasticity and, hence, enhances long-term viability. For the gregariously feeding caterpillars of E. aurinia, host-plant biomass is essential. Due to their more luxuriant growth, S. pratensis plants were clearly preferred, although the Glossy Scabious (Scabiosa lucida) was also widespread. Additionally, the growth of large Succisa plants was favored by soil humidity and grassland abandonment. To cope with the adverse macro- and mesoclimatic conditions of the study area, females of the butterfly selected host plants growing in extraordinarily warm microhabitats for oviposition. To secure long-term viability of E. aurinia populations, we recommend creating mosaics of traditionally managed grasslands and early stages of abandonment within the patches.

Land-use intensity determines grassland Orthoptera assemblage composition across a moisture gradient

Two of the main principles of global and national conservation strategies consist in focusing on the most species-rich and most vulnerable ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the Orthoptera species assemblages of species-rich grasslands in the southern Black Forest, one of 30 German biodiversity hotspots. Across a moisture gradient, we considered the three dominant grassland types within the study area: (i) dry, (ii) mesic and (iii) wet grasslands. In order to analyze the drivers of biodiversity in a landscape of high conservation value, we related (i) differences in Orthoptera assemblage composition between the three grassland types and (ii) the relationship of Orthoptera assemblage composition within each grassland type to environmental conditions. In our study, we detected considerable variation in land-use intensity which dropped from high in mesic to low in dry and again to near-zero in wet grasslands. Land-use intensity was the only predictor of Orthoptera species richness in the multivariable Generalized Linear Mixed-effects Models. The mean number of both all and threatened species was highest in the grassland type with low land-use intensity, dry grasslands, differing from those of mesic (high land-use intensity) and wet (mostly abandoned) grasslands. Additionally, dry grasslands had the highest number of all, threatened and exclusive indicator species. Both (i) intensive land use in mesic grasslands and (ii) abandonment of land use in wet grasslands led to a homogenization of the habitat structures and the species assemblages. In contrast, dry grasslands with low land-use intensity and high habitat heterogeneity were hotspots of Orthoptera species richness.

Narrow environmental niches predict land-use responses and vulnerability of land snail assemblages

BackgroundHow land use shapes biodiversity and functional trait composition of animal communities is an important question and frequently addressed. Land-use intensification is associated with changes in abiotic and biotic conditions including environmental homogenization and may act as an environmental filter to shape the composition of species communities. Here, we investigated the responses of land snail assemblages to land-use intensity and abiotic soil conditions (pH, soil moisture), and analyzed their trait composition (shell size, number of offspring, light preference, humidity preference, inundation tolerance, and drought resistance). We characterized the species’ responses to land use to identify ‘winners’ (species that were more common on sites with high land-use intensity than expected) or ‘losers’ of land-use intensity (more common on plots with low land-use intensity) and their niche breadth. As a proxy for the environmental ‘niche breadth’ of each snail species, based on the conditions of the sites in which it occurred, we defined a 5-dimensional niche hypervolume. We then tested whether land-use responses and niches contribute to the species’ potential vulnerability suggested by the Red List status.ResultsOur results confirmed that the trait composition of snail communities was significantly altered by land-use intensity and abiotic conditions in both forests and grasslands. While only 4% of the species that occurred in forests were significant losers of intensive forest management, the proportion of losers in grasslands was much higher (21%). However, the species’ response to land-use intensity and soil conditions was largely independent of specific traits and the species’ Red List status (vulnerability). Instead, vulnerability was only mirrored in the species’ rarity and its niche hypervolume: threatened species were characterized by low occurrence in forests and low occurrence and abundance in grasslands and by a narrow niche quantified by land-use components and abiotic factors.ConclusionLand use and environmental responses of land snails were poorly predicted by specific traits or the species’ vulnerability, suggesting that it is important to consider complementary risks and multiple niche dimensions.

The history of human land use activities in the Northern Alps since the Neolithic Age. A reconstruction of vegetation and fire history in the Mangfall Mountains (Bavaria, Germany)

Millenia of sustainable, low intensity land use have formed the cultural landscapes of central Europe. Studies from the Central Alps show that mountain pastures also look back onto many thousand years of land use history. In this palynological and pedoanthracological study in the border region between Germany and Austria in the Mangfall Mountains, we aim to close the knowledge gap that exists for the German part of the Northern Alps, where no conclusive evidence for the onset of pastoral activities has been presented so far. Our results reveal strong evidence, that mountain pasture use in this region reaches back to the Iron Age at least. However, the reconstruction of vegetation and fire history indicates human interaction with the environment much earlier, starting in the Neolithic Age, where we found evidence of slash and burn activities and first occurrences of pasture indicator pollen. A rising number of mega charcoal pieces dated to the Bronze Age suggests increased slash and burn activities, possibly linked to the creation of open space for pasturing. Therefore, our results provide profound evidence of human interaction with the mountain environment, beginning in the Neolithic Age and clear evidence of mountain pasture use beginning during the Iron Age at 750 BC. Based on palynology and pedoanthracology it is, however, difficult to clearly differentiate between pasturing, hunting and other human interactions with the environment. Further archaeological studies in this area could add valuable information to our findings and shed more light onto the early history of farming activities in the Northern Alps.

Intermediate disturbance promotes diversity and the conservation of dung beetles (Scarabaeoidea: Scarabaeidae and Aphodiidae) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Environmental fluctuations, such as changes in climate, agricultural management and anthropogenic land-use patterns can affect the diversity of organisms inhabiting an area. Losses of biodiversity alter ecosystems processes, eroding their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Dung beetles are critical ecosystem service providers, making them an ideal ecological indicator to explore the effects of land-use change on biodiversity. Dung beetles were sampled across three land-use types, in the summers of 2015 and 2016 in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Game ranching is regarded as a relatively low-intensity land use type. It was compared with cattle ranching (medium intensity) and dairy farming (high intensity) to examine their effect on dung beetle assemblage metrics (abundance, species richness and true Shannon diversity index), guild diversity (as nesting guilds) and spatial turnover. The intermediate grazing intensity of cattle ranching supported a higher abundance and diversity of both whole dung beetle assemblage and the nesting guilds, followed by the game ranches and then dairy farms. Differences between the sampling years were dependent on the beetle nesting guild, and largely correlated with rainfall and temperature. Cattle and game ranches shared a higher number of species than either shared with dairy farms. Whittaker's Beta-diversity index showed the highest species turnover between game ranches and dairy farms. A mix of game and cattle ranching, minimising dairy farming or restricting it to already ecological degraded sites, appears the best alternative for maintenance of dung beetle diversity and their ecosystem services. The year-to-year trends of the data were in general consistent, confirming that dung beetles are reliable ecological indicators; but also suggest that climate change that affects rainfall will result in the reduction of the abundance and diversity of this key ecological group.

Land-use intensity alters networks between biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and services

Land-use intensification can increase provisioning ecosystem services, such as food and timber production, but it also drives changes in ecosystem functioning and biodiversity loss, which may ultimately compromise human wellbeing. To understand how changes in land-use intensity affect the relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and services, we built networks from correlations between the species richness of 16 trophic groups, 10 ecosystem functions, and 15 ecosystem services. We evaluated how the properties of these networks varied across land-use intensity gradients for 150 forests and 150 grasslands. Land-use intensity significantly affected network structure in both habitats. Changes in connectance were larger in forests, while changes in modularity and evenness were more evident in grasslands. Our results show that increasing land-use intensity leads to more homogeneous networks with less integration within modules in both habitats, driven by the belowground compartment in grasslands, while forest responses to land management were more complex. Land-use intensity strongly altered hub identity and module composition in both habitats, showing that the positive correlations of provisioning services with biodiversity and ecosystem functions found at low land-use intensity levels, decline at higher intensity levels. Our approach provides a comprehensive view of the relationships between multiple components of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services and how they respond to land use. This can be used to identify overall changes in the ecosystem, to derive mechanistic hypotheses, and it can be readily applied to further global change drivers.

High land-use intensity in grasslands constrains wild bee species richness in Europe

There is widespread concern regarding declines in bee populations given their importance for the functioning of both natural and managed ecosystems. An increasing number of studies find negative relations between bee species richness and simplification of agricultural landscapes, but the role of land-use intensity and its relative importance compared to landscape simplification remain less clear. We compared the relative effects of nitrogen inputs, as a proxy for land-use intensity, and proportion of natural and semi-natural habitat, as a measure of landscape complexity on total bee species richness, rare species richness and dominant crop-visiting species richness. We used data from 282 grasslands across five countries, covering the entire range of low intensity, no-input systems, to high-input sites (>400 kg N/ha/year). We found consistent negative impacts of increasing land-use intensity at a regional scale on total bee species richness and dominant crop-visiting species across Europe, but no such effects of landscape complexity. In contrast, the richness of rare bee species was not significantly related to increasing land-use intensity. Nevertheless, based on species accumulation curves, grasslands with no nitrogen inputs had higher total bee richness and higher shares of rare species compared with sites with high nitrogen inputs (>125 kg N/ha/year). Our results highlight the importance of retaining grasslands characterised by low land-use intensity across agricultural landscapes to promote bee diversity.

Agrarian Structure and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Bringing the Latifundio “Back In”

Latin American scholars in the twentieth century often pointed to the agrarian question and the dominance of the large latifundio estates as the key to explaining their countries’ underdevelopment. Yet, in more recent years, the emphasis on agrarian structures has declined and the latifundio is no longer seen as a relevant factor to economic development. In its place have emerged explanations that emphasize international trade relations, institutions, or the capacity of local states. This study makes a case for bringing the latifundio “back in” to explanations of underdevelopment in Latin America, and points to the persistence of particular property relations, low-intensity land use, and low-risk productive strategies throughout the region as barriers to development. Agricultural census data and various other sources on land use suggest that large latifundio estates are still a relevant factor throughout the region, and I argue that they continue to represent a significant barrier for the deepening of industrialization.

A simple biodiversity assessment scheme supporting nature-friendly farm management

Abstract Farmers are important actors for regional development and biodiversity protection. Agri-environment-climate measures (AECM) are therefore a central tool of the European Union to support its biodiversity conservation policy. AECM generally reward farmers for fulfilling predefined management actions or avoiding specific practices. In contrast, result oriented AECM are intended to reward farmers for the outcome of nature friendly management practices. This approach gives more flexibility in management and hence promotes farmers engagement and autonomy. Besides educational activities and agricultural advisory services farmers need user friendly tools to assess biodiversity in order to meet result oriented AECM. Thus, we present a biodiversity assessment scheme for farmland using a set of indicators, which covers different aspects of biodiversity (flower colour index, butterfly abundance, landscape structuring degree, patch diversity index, aggregated biodiversity index) and can be applied at different spatial scales. The assessment scheme is applied on 44 farms in five countries (France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Austria). To evaluate its appropriateness the relationship between the indicators and land-use intensity and plant species richness is investigated. Grasslands with low land-use intensity are more colourful grasslands, have significantly more butterflies and a higher aggregated biodiversity index than moderately and intensively used grasslands. The influence of management intensity on the landscape structuring degree is not significant. All indicators correlate with plant species richness at all spatial scales. The proposed assessment scheme serves as a tool for the detection of differences in biodiversity resulting from land-use practices, and can assist the monitoring of ROMs.