The Structure and Dynamics of Agricultural Landscapes as Drivers of Biodiversity - Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture - page 275

Chapter 14
The Structure and Dynamics
of Agricultural Landscapes
as Drivers of Biodiversity
Francoise Burel, Stephanie Aviron, Jacques Baudry, Violette Le Féon
and Chloe Vasseur
Abstract The study of the relationships between agriculture and biodiversity is
important to sustain biodiversity for the future. The landscape level has an influ-
ence, which has been until now mainly related to the importance of semi-natural
elements. But in agricultural areas crop land is often dominant and acts on bio-
diversity by the resources it provides and the effects of disturbances induced by
agricultural practices. The mosaic of crops is ephemeral and highly dynamic in
space and time according to farming practices and crop rotations. The aim of this
chapter is to assess the role of agricultural landscape heterogeneity on biodiversity.
Landscape heterogeneity may be measured from different perspectives, consider-
ing non-cropped areas versus crop ones, or taking into consideration the dynamics
of the mosaic of crops and agricultural practices. From studies on a long term
ecological research site in Brittany, France, we present how these different
approaches of landscape heterogeneity allow a better understanding of the diver-
sity of processes driving biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Most of all we
underline the necessity to include knowledge of farming systems and farming
practices in the analyses.
Keywords Agricultural landscape Biodiversity Heterogeneity Crop mosaic
Dynamics