Biodiversity is declining
worldwide at an unprecedented scale and rate, with detrimental consequences on
ecosystem functioning and services. Changes in land cover and agricultural
intensification resulting from modern production systems pose extreme threats
to biodiversity across scales and taxa [1]. Extremely simplified
landscapes with large fields of only a few crop species and where most
semi-natural habitats were lost are widespread, which calls for a re-design of
agricultural landscapes to enhance biodiversity [2,3]. To maintain the food
production capacity that allows feeding the human population and to stop the
ongoing biodiversity decline, immediate solutions are needed [4,5]. Ecologists and
conservationists should provide evidence-based guidelines to stakeholders (from
farmers to politicians) on how to ensure sustainable agricultural production.
Most likely, all the available
tools, such us novel agricultural practices, efficient local conservation
measures and sophisticated landscape planning, should be combined to achieve
this goal. In this symposium, we propose a stimulating exchange of novel ideas
among scientists, ranging from well-established group leaders (invited
speakers) to early-carrier researchers (case study presentations). Furthermore,
the symposium will also provide an opportunity to synthesize this information and
facilitate the communication of relevant concepts and practices towards
decision makers. The symposium will begin with a series of 8 invited lectures
by established researchers, followed by 3 presentations of case studies
focusing on measures to support biodiversity conservation in agricultural
landscapes. The symposium will end with a panel discussion (ca. 45 minutes)
where the different topics will be discussed and a summary from the different
perspectives will be elaborated.
Key references:
[1]
Seibold, S., Gossner, M. M., Simons, N. K., Blüthgen, N., Müller, J., Ambarlı,
D., … & Weisser, W. W. (2019). Arthropod decline in grasslands and forests
is associated with landscape-level drivers. Nature, 574(7780), 671-674.
[2]
Landis, D. A. (2017). Designing agricultural landscapes for biodiversity-based
ecosystem services. Basic and Applied Ecology, 18, 1-12.
[3]
Fahrig, L., Baudry, J., Brotons, L., Burel, F. G., Crist, T. O., Fuller, R. J.,
... & Martin, J. L. (2011). Functional landscape heterogeneity and animal
biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Ecology letters, 14(2), 101-112.
[4]
Tscharntke, T., Clough, Y., Wanger, T. C., Jackson, L., Motzke, I., Perfecto,
I., ... & Whitbread, A. (2012). Global food security, biodiversity conservation
and the future of agricultural intensification. Biological conservation,
151(1), 53-59.
[5]
Egli, L., Meyer, C., Scherber, C., Kreft, H., & Tscharntke, T. (2018).
Winners and losers of national and global efforts to reconcile agricultural
intensification and biodiversity conservation. Global change biology, 24(5),
2212-2228.
Presentations
Building a biodiversity hotspot systems in
agricultural landscapes: first experiences from the Wild Flower Fields
experiment, Hungary
- András Báldi (Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, Hungary)
Field defects in oilseed rape: a promising
alternative for insect conservation in arable fields?
- Ezequiel
Gonzalez (Imbiv (conicet), Argentina)
Optimising agricultural landscapes for
biodiversity conservation and crop production using yield maps and ecological
theory
- Michal Knapp (Czech University of Life Sciences, Czech
Republic)
Optimizing Agricultural Landscapes for
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
- Douglas Landis (Michigan State University, United States)
Natural enemy diversity stabilizes biological
pest control via enhanced species asynchrony
- Ricardo
Perez-Alvarez (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany)
Enhancing weed multifunctionality through
landscape-scale management
- Sandrine Petit (Inrae, France)
Harnessing the push-pull technology for
biodiverse agroecosystems in East Africa: the UPSCALE project
- Emily Poppenborg Martin (Leibniz University of Hannover,
Germany)
Beyond organic farming – harnessing
biodiversity-friendly landscapes
- Teja Tscharntke (Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Germany)
Breeding
birds in European Agroforestry systems
- Manon Edo, Verena Rösch, Martin Entling (University Landau - AG
Ökosystemanalyse, Germany)