How much do we really lose?-Yield losses in the proximity of natural landscape elements in agricultural landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Natural landscape elements (NLEs) in agricultural landscapes contribute to biodiversity and ecosystem services, but are also regarded as an obstacle for large-scale agricultural production. However, the effects of NLEs on crop yield have rarely been measured. Here, we investigated how different bordering structures, such as agricultural roads, field-to-field borders, forests, hedgerows, and kettle holes, influence agricultural yields. We hypothesized that (a) yield values at field borders differ from mid-field yields and that (b) the extent of this change in yields depends on the bordering structure. We measured winter wheat yields along transects with log-scaled distances from the border into the agricultural field within two intensively managed agricultural landscapes in Germany (2014 ne

SUBMITTER: Raatz L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6635954 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature