Spatial relationships between intensive land cover and residual plant species diversity in temperate farmed landscapes

Journal of Applied Ecology

Volumn 43, Issue 6, 2006, Pages 1128-1137

  Smart, Simon M ^a,b   Marrs, Robert H ^b   Le Duc, Mike G ^b   Thompson, Ken ^c   Bunce, Robert G H ^d   Firbank, Les G ^a   Rossall, Martin J ^a  

^a CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

^d WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Community assembly; Eutrophication; Extensification; Grasslands; Indicator species; Landscape; Restoration; Traits

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL LAND; GRASSLAND; HABITAT CONSERVATION; LAND COVER; SPECIES DIVERSITY; SPECIES RICHNESS;

EURASIA; EUROPE; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 33750507252     PISSN: 00218901     EISSN: 13652664     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2006.01231.x     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Agger, P. & Brandt, J. (1988) Dynamics of small biotopes in Danish agricultural landscapes. Landscape Ecology, 2, 227-240.
2. Bakker, J.P. & Berendse, F. (1999) Constraints in the restoration of ecological diversity in grassland and heathland communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 14, 63-68.
3. Bekker, R.M., Verweij, G.L., Smith, R.E.N., Reine, R., Bakker, J.P. & Schneider, S. (1997) Soil seedbanks in European grasslands: does land-use affect regeneration perspectives? Journal of Applied Ecology, 34, 1293-1310.
4. Benton, T.G., Vickery, J.A. & Wilson, J.D. (2003) Farmland biodiversity: is habitat heterogeneity the key? Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 18, 182-188.
5. Bignal, E.M. & McCracken, D.I. (1996) Low-intensity farming systems in the conservation of the countryside. Journal of Applied Ecology, 33, 413-424.
6. Bokdam, J. & Gleichman, J.M. (2000) Effects of grazing by free-ranging cattle on vegetation dynamics in a continental north-west European heathland. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37, 415-431.
7. Commission of the European Communities (2001) Biodiversity Action Plan for Agriculture: Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament. COM 2001, 162. Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, Belgium.
8. Cousins, S.A.O. & Eriksson, O. (2002) The influence of management history and habitat on plant species richness in a rural hemiboreal landscape in Sweden. Landscape Ecology, 17, 517-529.
9. Dick, C.P., Melman, C.P. & Van Strein, A.J. (1993) Ditch banks as a conservation focus in intensively exploited peatland. Landscape Ecology of a Stressed Environment (eds C.C. Vos & P. Opdam), pp. 122-139. IALE Studies in Landscape Ecology 1. Chapman & Hall, London.
10. Foster, B.L. (2001) Constraints on colonization and species richness along a grassland productivity gradient: the role of propagule availability. Ecology Letters, 4, 530-535.
11. Fuller, R.M. (1987) The changing extent and conservation interest of lowland grasslands in England and Wales: a review of grassland surveys 1930-84. Biological Conservation, 40, 282-300.
12. Geertsema, W. & Sprangers, J.T.C.M. (2002) Plant distribution patterns related to species characteristics and spatial and temporal habitat heterogeneity in a network of ditch banks. Plant Ecology, 162, 91-108.
13. Geertsema, W., Opdam, P. & Kropff, M.J. (2002) Plant strategies and agricultural landscapes: survival in spatially and temporally fragmented habitat. Landscape Ecology, 17, 263-279.
14. Grace, J.B. (1999) The factors controlling species density in herbaceous plant communities: an assessment. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 2/1, 1-28.
15. Green, B.H. (1990) Agricultural intensification and the loss of habitat, species and amenity in British grasslands: a review of historical change and assessment of future prospects. Grass and Forage Science, 45, 365-372.
16. Grime, J.P. (1998) Benefits of plant diversity to ecosystems: immediate, filter and founder effects. Journal of Ecology, 86, 902-910.
17. Grime, J.P. (2002) Declining plant diversity: empty niches or functional shifts? Journal of Vegetation Science, 13, 457-460.
18. Haines-Young, R.H., Barr, C.J., Black, H.I.J., Briggs, D.J., Bunce, R.G.H., Clarke, R.T., Cooper, A., Dawson, F.H., Firbank, L.G., Fuller, R.M., Furse, M.T., Gillespie, M.K., Hill, R., Hornung, M., Howard, D.C., McCann, T., Morecroft, M.D., Petit, S., Sier, A.R.J., Smart, S.M., Smith, G.M., Stott, A.P., Stuart, R.C. & Watkins, J.W. (2000) Accounting for Nature: Assessing Habitats in the UK Countryside. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London, UK.
19. Hill, M.O., Roy, D.B., Mountford, J.O. & Bunce, R.G.H. (2000) Extending Ellenbergs' indicator values to a new area: an algorithmic approach. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37, 3-15.
20. Hodgson, J.G. (1991) Management for the conservation of plants with particular reference to the British flora. The Scientific Management of Temperate Communities for Conservation (eds I.F. Spellerberg, F.B. Goldsmith, M.G. Morris), pp. 81-101. Blackwell Scientific, London, UK.
21. Little, R.C., Milliken, G.A., Stroup, W.W. & Wolfinger, R.D. (2000) SAS System for Mixed Models, 4th edn. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC.
22. Ma, M., Tarmi, S. & Helenius, J. (2002) Revisiting the species-area relationship in a semi-natural habitat: floral richness in agricultural buffer zones in Finland. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 89, 137-148.
23. Macdonald, D.W. & Johnson, P.J. (2000) Farmers and the custody of the countryside: trends in loss and conservation of non-productive habitats 1981-98. Biological Conservation, 94, 221-234.
24. MacGillivray, C.W., Grime, J.P., Band, S.R., Booth, R.E., Campbell, B., Hendry, G.A.F., Hillier, S.H., Hodgson, J.G., Hunt, R., Jalili, A., Mackey, J.M.L., Mowforth, M.A., Neal, A.M., Reader, R., Rorison, I.H., Spencer, R.E., Thompson, K. & Thorpe, P.C. (1995) Testing predictions of the resistance and resilience of vegetation subjected to extreme events. Functional Ecology, 9, 640-649.
25. Matthies, D., Brauer, I., Maibom, W. & Tscharntke, T. (2004) Population size and the risk of local extinction: empirical evidence from rare plants. Oikos, 105, 481-488.
26. Mountford, J.O. (1994) Floristic change in English grazing marshes: the impact of 150 years of drainage and land-use change. Watsonia, 20, 3-24.
27. Olden, J.D. & Poff, N.L. (2003) Toward a mechanistic understanding and prediction of biotic homogenization. American Naturalist, 162, 442-460.
28. PEBLDS (2002) Pan-European biological and landscape strategy: rolling work programme. Council of Europe and European Centre for Nature Conservation. www.strategyguide.org/rolpr.html. Accessed 24/8/2006.
29. Plantlife International (2004) Plant Diversity Challenge: The UK's Response to the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, UK. www.plantlife.org.uk. Accessed 24/8/2006.
30. Poschlod, P., Bakker, J., Bonn, S. & Fischer, S. (1996) Dispersal of plants in fragmented landscapes. Species Survival in Fragmented Landscapes (eds J. Setelle, C.R. Margules, P. Poschlod & K. Henle), pp. 123-127. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
31. Preston, C.D. (2000) Engulfed by suburbia or destroyed by the plough: the ecology of extinction in Middlesex and Cambridgeshire. Watsonia, 23, 13-26.
32. Prins, A.H., Dijkstra, G.A. & Bekker, R.M. (1998) Feasibility of target communities in a Dutch brook valley system. Acta Botanica Neerlandica, 47, 71-88.
33. Redecker, B., Finck, P., Hardtle, W., Riecken, U. & Schroder, E. (2002) Pasture Landscapes and Nature Conservation. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
34. Rodwell, J.S. (1992) British Plant Communities. Vol. 3. Grassland and Montane Communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
35. Ruthsatz, B. & Haber, W. (1982) The significance of small landscape elements in rural areas as refuges for endangered plant species. Perspectives in Landscape Ecology (eds S.P. Tjallingii & A.A. de Veer), pp. 117-124. Pudoc, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
36. Sketch, C. (1995) National Sample Survey of Lowland Grasslands: Pilot Project. English Nature Research Reports No. 130. English Nature, Peterborough, UK.
37. Smart, S.M., Bunce, R.G.H., Firbank, L.G. & Coward, P. (2002) Do field boundaries act as refugia for grassland plant species diversity in intensively managed agricultural landscapes in Britain? Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 91, 73-87.
38. Smart, S.M., Bunce, R.G.H., Marrs, R., LeDuc, M., Firbank, L.G., Maskell, L.C., Scott, W.A., Thompson, K. & Walker, K.J. (2005) Large-scale changes in the abundance of common higher plant species across Britain between 1978, 1990 and 1998 as a consequence of human activity: tests of hypothesised changes in trait representation. Biological Conservation, 124, 355-371.
39. Smart, S.M., Clarke, R.T., van de Poll, H.M., Robertson, E.J., Shield, E.R., Bunce, R.G.H. & Maskell, L.C. (2003) National-scale vegetation change across Britain; an analysis of sample-based surveillance data from the Countryside Surveys of 1990 and 1998. Journal of Environmental Management, 67, 239-254.
40. Smith, R.S. & Rushton, S.P. (1994) The effects of grazing management on the vegetation of mesotrophic (meadow) grassland in northern England. Journal of Applied Ecology, 31, 13-24.
41. Strykstra, R.J., Bekker, R.M. & Bakker, J.P. (1998) Assessment of dispersule availability: its practical use in restoration management. Acta Botanica Neerlandica, 47, 57-70.
42. Suding, K.N., Collins, S.L., Gough, L., Clark, C., Cleland, E.E., Griss, K.L., Milchunas, D.G. & Pennings, S. (2005) Functional- and abundance-based mechanisms explain diversity loss due to N fertilization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 102, 4387-4392.
43. Suding, K.N., Gross, K.L. & Houseman, G.R. (2004) Alternative states and positive feedbacks in restoration ecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 19, 46-53.
44. Thompson, K. (1994) Predicting the fate of temperate species in response to human disturbance and global change. Biodiversity, Temperate Ecosystems and Global Change (eds T.J.B. Boyle & C.E.B. Boyle), pp. 61-76. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
45. Tikka, P.M., Koski, P.S., Kivela, R.A. & Kuitunen, M.T. (2000) Can grassland plant communities be preserved on road and railway verges? Applied Vegetation Science, 3, 25-32.
46. Turnbull, L.A., Crawley, M.J. & Rees, M. (2000) Are plant populations seed-limited? A review of seed sowing experiments. Oikos, 88, 225-238.
47. Vergeer, P., Rengelink, R., Copal, A. & Ouborg, N.J. (2003a) The interacting effects of genetic variation, habitat quality and population size on performance of Succisa pratensis. Journal of Ecology, 91, 18-26.
48. Vergeer, P., Rengelink, R., Ouborg, N.J. & Roelofs, J.G.M. (2003b) Effects of population size and genetic variation on the response of Succisa pratensis to eutrophication and acidification. Journal of Ecology, 91, 600-609.
49. Weiher, E., van der Werf, A., Thompson, K., Roderick, M., Granier, E. & Eriksson, O. (1999) Challenging Theophrastus: a common core list of plant traits for functional ecology. Journal of Vegetation Science, 10, 609-620.