Low-intensity agricultural landscapes in Transylvania support high butterfly diversity: implications for conservation.

ABSTRACT: European farmland biodiversity is declining due to land use changes towards agricultural intensification or abandonment. Some Eastern European farming systems have sustained traditional forms of use, resulting in high levels of biodiversity. However, global markets and international policies now imply rapid and major changes to these systems. To effectively protect farmland biodiversity, understanding landscape features which underpin species diversity is crucial. Focusing on butterflies, we addressed this question for a cultural-historic landscape in Southern Transylvania, Romania. Following a natural experiment, we randomly selected 120 survey sites in farmland, 60 each in grassland and arable land. We surveyed butterfly species richness and abundance by walking transects with four repea

SUBMITTER: Loos J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4110012 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature