Butterfly richness and abundance in flower strips and field margins: the role of local habitat quality and landscape context.

ABSTRACT: Flower strips, which are created on arable land by sowing species-rich seed mixtures, are considered to have a high potential to counteract species decline of butterflies in the agricultural landscape. However, it remains largely unexplored how various factors (design, habitat quality, landscape context) interact to determine the occurrence of butterflies in flower strips. Therefore, butterflies were surveyed in 15 flower strips differing in age (first and second growing season). Flower strips were compared with 15 field margins, which were adjacent to arable land and were dominated by grasses. The field studies were conducted during two summers (2013, 2014) in Lower Saxony (Germany). Additionally, based on a literature study, 17 environmental variables likely to be decisive for the occurr

SUBMITTER: Wix N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6531670 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature