Effects of created habitats on farmland biodiversity

TL;DRAbstract

Agricultural intensification has caused severe declines among biodiversity in European farmland over the last half century. The transformation of the agricultural landscape has led to reduced availability of key resources such as food, nesting habitat and shelter. In this thesis I have investigated a way of ameliorating the negative effects of agricultural intensification, through the creation of wildlife habitats. I have also studied the effects of organic farming and increasing the amount of ley in the landscape as means to reduce farming intensity. I have tested the effects of these interventions in different landscape contexts, on a range of biodiversity, and at different spatial scales. I found that sown flower strips were able to increase abundances of bumblebees across the landscape, i.e. outside of the created habitat itself. An important finding that demonstrates that created habitats can generate real increases in abundance and do not simply redistribute organisms as a respon

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