Species richness and assemblages in landscapes of different farming intensity--time to revise conservation strategies?

ABSTRACT: Worldwide conservation goals to protect biodiversity emphasize the need to rethink which objectives are most suitable for different landscapes. Comparing two different Swedish farming landscapes, we used survey data on birds and vascular plants to test whether landscapes with large, intensively managed farms had lower richness and diversity of the two taxa than landscapes with less intensively managed small farms, and if they differed in species composition. Landscapes with large intensively managed farms did not have lower richness than smaller low intensively managed farms. The landscape types were also similar in that they had few red listed species, normally targeted in conservation. Differences in species composition demonstrate that by having both types of agricultural landscapes reg

SUBMITTER: Andersson E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4183564 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature