Traditional farming landscapes have evolved as tightly coupled socioecological systems that support high biodiversity.However,land-use change severely threatens the high biodiversity of these landscapes.Navigating nat...Traditional farming landscapes have evolved as tightly coupled socioecological systems that support high biodiversity.However,land-use change severely threatens the high biodiversity of these landscapes.Navigating nature conservation in such landscapes requires a thorough understanding of the key drivers underpinning biodiversity.Through empirical research on mammals,birds,butterflies,and plants in a traditional cultural landscape in Romania,we revealed seven hypothesized drivers facilitating biodiversity conservation.Similar proportions of three main land-use types support the landscape species pool,most likely through habitat connectivity and frequent spillover between land-use types.Landscape complementation and supplementation provide additional habitat for species outside their core habitats.Gradients of woody vegetation cover and gradients in land-cover heterogeneity provide mosaic landscapes with wide ranges of resources.Traditional land-use practices underpin landscape heterogeneity,traditional land-use elements such as wood pastures,and human-carnivore coexistence.Top-down predator control may limit herbivore populations.Lastly,cultural ties between humans and nature have a central influence on people’s values and sustainable use of natural resources.Conservation approaches should aim to maintain or restore these socioecological drivers by targeting the heterogeneous character of the forest-farmland mosaic at large scales through"broad and shallow"conservation measures.These large-scale measures should be complemented with"deep and narrow"conservation measures addressing specific land-use types,threats,or species.In both cases,conservation measures should integrate the entire socioecological system,by recognizing and strengthening important links between people and the environment.展开更多
Cultural landscapes all over the world harbor species communities that are taxonomically and functionally diverse.In Eastern Europe,but also in many other regions of the world,the conservation of this farmland biodive...Cultural landscapes all over the world harbor species communities that are taxonomically and functionally diverse.In Eastern Europe,but also in many other regions of the world,the conservation of this farmland biodiversity is threatened by land use intensification and abandonment.In order to counteract the negative effects of land use change in such landscapes,a thorough understanding of the functional relationships between species and their environment is crucial.In this study,we investigated the relationship of functional traits of butterfly and bird communities and environmental conditions in 120 sites in traditional farmlands of southern Transylvania,Romania.First,we compared taxonomic diversity(i.e.,Shannon diversity)with functional diversity(i.e.,functional dispersion),and second,we linked species traits to environmental variables by performing RLQ analyses.Functional traits indicating reproduction,movement,and feeding behavior related with environmental variables describing heterogeneity,amount of woody vegetation,and topography at three different spatial scales.We found positive relationships between taxonomic and functional diversity,as well as strong linkages between species traits and environmental conditions for both groups.Specifically,butterfly composition was most strongly influenced by land use type and life-history strategies.Bird composition was most strongly related to the amount of woody vegetation and nesting and foraging strategies.We conclude that maintaining the typical features of traditional farming landscapes,especially a small-scale heterogeneity in arable land and gradients of woody vegetation cover,would be desirable in order to sustain a high functional diversity in southern Transylvania in the future.展开更多
文摘Traditional farming landscapes have evolved as tightly coupled socioecological systems that support high biodiversity.However,land-use change severely threatens the high biodiversity of these landscapes.Navigating nature conservation in such landscapes requires a thorough understanding of the key drivers underpinning biodiversity.Through empirical research on mammals,birds,butterflies,and plants in a traditional cultural landscape in Romania,we revealed seven hypothesized drivers facilitating biodiversity conservation.Similar proportions of three main land-use types support the landscape species pool,most likely through habitat connectivity and frequent spillover between land-use types.Landscape complementation and supplementation provide additional habitat for species outside their core habitats.Gradients of woody vegetation cover and gradients in land-cover heterogeneity provide mosaic landscapes with wide ranges of resources.Traditional land-use practices underpin landscape heterogeneity,traditional land-use elements such as wood pastures,and human-carnivore coexistence.Top-down predator control may limit herbivore populations.Lastly,cultural ties between humans and nature have a central influence on people’s values and sustainable use of natural resources.Conservation approaches should aim to maintain or restore these socioecological drivers by targeting the heterogeneous character of the forest-farmland mosaic at large scales through"broad and shallow"conservation measures.These large-scale measures should be complemented with"deep and narrow"conservation measures addressing specific land-use types,threats,or species.In both cases,conservation measures should integrate the entire socioecological system,by recognizing and strengthening important links between people and the environment.
文摘Cultural landscapes all over the world harbor species communities that are taxonomically and functionally diverse.In Eastern Europe,but also in many other regions of the world,the conservation of this farmland biodiversity is threatened by land use intensification and abandonment.In order to counteract the negative effects of land use change in such landscapes,a thorough understanding of the functional relationships between species and their environment is crucial.In this study,we investigated the relationship of functional traits of butterfly and bird communities and environmental conditions in 120 sites in traditional farmlands of southern Transylvania,Romania.First,we compared taxonomic diversity(i.e.,Shannon diversity)with functional diversity(i.e.,functional dispersion),and second,we linked species traits to environmental variables by performing RLQ analyses.Functional traits indicating reproduction,movement,and feeding behavior related with environmental variables describing heterogeneity,amount of woody vegetation,and topography at three different spatial scales.We found positive relationships between taxonomic and functional diversity,as well as strong linkages between species traits and environmental conditions for both groups.Specifically,butterfly composition was most strongly influenced by land use type and life-history strategies.Bird composition was most strongly related to the amount of woody vegetation and nesting and foraging strategies.We conclude that maintaining the typical features of traditional farming landscapes,especially a small-scale heterogeneity in arable land and gradients of woody vegetation cover,would be desirable in order to sustain a high functional diversity in southern Transylvania in the future.
