Urban sprawl into Natura 2000 network over Europe.

Urban growth is a major threat to biodiversity conservation at the global scale. Its impacts are expected to be especially detrimental when it sprawls into the landscape and reaches sites of high conservation value due to the species and ecosystems they host, such as protected areas. I analyzed the degree of urbanization (i.e., urban cover and growth rate) from 2006 to 2015 in protected sites in the Natura 2000 network, which, according to the Habitats and Birds Directives, harbor species and habitats of high conservation concern in Europe. I used data on the degree of land imperviousness from COPERNICUS to calculate and compare urban covers and growth rates inside and outside Natura 2000. I also analyzed the relationships of urban cover and growth rates with a set of characteristics of Natura sites. Urban cover inside Natura 2000 was 10 times lower than outside (0.4% vs. 4%) throughout the European Union. However, the rates of urban growth were slightly higher inside than outside Natura 2000 (4.8% vs. 3.9%), which indicates an incipient urban sprawl inside the network. In general, Natura sites affected most by urbanization were those surrounded by densely populated areas (i.e., urban clusters) that had a low number of species or habitats of conservation concern, albeit some member states had high urban cover or growth rate or both in protected sites with a large number of species or habitats of high conservation value. Small Natura sites had more urban cover than large sites, but urban growth rates were highest in large Natura sites. Natura 2000 is protected against urbanization to some extent, but there is room for improvement. Member states must enact stricter legal protection and control law enforcement to halt urban sprawl into protected areas under the greatest pressure from urban sprawl (i.e., close to urban clusters). Such actions are particularly needed in Natura sites with high urban cover and growth rates and areas where urbanization is affecting small Natura sites of high conservation value, which are especially vulnerable and concentrated in the Mediterranean region.

Expansión Urbana dentro de la Red Natura 2000 en Europa Resumen El crecimiento urbano es una amenaza importante para la conservación de la biodiversidad a escala global. Se espera que los impactos de este crecimiento sean especialmente perjudiciales cuando se expande por el paisaje y alcanza sitios de alto valor para la conservación por las especies y ecosistemas que albergan, como lo son las áreas protegidas. Analicé el grado de urbanización (cobertura urbana y tasa de crecimiento) entre 2006 y 2015 dentro de los sitios protegidos de la red Natura 2000, la cual, de acuerdo con las Directivas de Aves y Hábitats, alberga especies y hábitats de alto interés para la conservación en Europa. Usé información sobre el grado de impermeabilidad del suelo tomados de COPERNICUS para calcular y comparar coberturas urbanas y tasas de crecimiento dentro y fuera de la red Natura 2000. También analicé las relaciones de la cobertura urbana y las tasas de crecimiento con un conjunto de características de los sitios Natura. La cobertura urbana dentro de la red Natura 2000 fue diez veces más baja que afuera (0.4% vs. 4%) a lo largo de la Unión Europea. Sin embargo, las tasas de crecimiento urbano fueron ligeramente más altas dentro de la red Natura 2000 que fuera (4.8% vs. 3.8%), lo cual indica una expansión urbana incipiente dentro de la red. En general, los sitios Natura más afectados por la urbanización fueron aquellos rodeados por áreas densamente pobladas (es decir, conglomerados urbanos) que tenían un número bajo de especies o hábitats de interés para la conservación, aunque algunos estados miembros de la UE tuvieron una cobertura urbana o una tasa de crecimiento alta o ambas en sitios protegidos con un número elevado de especies o hábitats de alto valor para la conservación. Los sitios Natura pequeños tuvieron mayor cobertura urbana que los sitios más grandes, pero las tasas de crecimiento urbano fueron más altas en los sitios Natura grandes. La red Natura 2000 está protegida contra la urbanización hasta cierto punto, pero todavía se puede mejorar mucho más. Los estados miembros de la UE deben promulgar una protección legal más estricta y controlar la aplicación de la ley para detener la expansión urbana hacia las áreas protegidas más cercanas a los conglomerados urbanos. Dichas acciones son necesarias en sitios Natura con una cobertura urbana extensa y tasas de crecimiento altas y en áreas en donde la urbanización está afectando a espacios Natura pequeños con un valor alto de conservación, los cuales son especialmente vulnerables y se encuentran concentrados en la región mediterránea.

The interplay of landscape composition and configuration: new pathways to manage functional biodiversity and agroecosystem services across Europe.

Managing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity and ecosystem services is a key aim of a sustainable agriculture. However, how the spatial arrangement of crop fields and other habitats in landscapes impacts arthropods and their functions is poorly known. Synthesising data from 49 studies (1515 landscapes) across Europe, we examined effects of landscape composition (% habitats) and configuration (edge density) on arthropods in fields and their margins, pest control, pollination and yields. Configuration effects interacted with the proportions of crop and non-crop habitats, and species' dietary, dispersal and overwintering traits led to contrasting responses to landscape variables. Overall, however, in landscapes with high edge density, 70% of pollinator and 44% of natural enemy species reached highest abundances and pollination and pest control improved 1.7- and 1.4-fold respectively. Arable-dominated landscapes with high edge densities achieved high yields. This suggests that enhancing edge density in European agroecosystems can promote functional biodiversity and yield-enhancing ecosystem services.

Plant diversity partitioning in Mediterranean croplands: effects of farming intensity, field edge, and landscape context.

Farmland biodiversity is affected by factors acting at various spatial scales. However, most studies to date have focused on the field or farm scales that only account for local (alpha) diversity, and these may underestimate the contribution of other diversity components (beta diversity) to total (gamma) farmland diversity. In this work, we aimed to identify the most suitable management options and the scale at which they should be implemented to maximize benefits for diversity. We used a multi-scale additive partitioning approach, with data on plant diversity from 640 plots in 32 cereal crop fields from three agricultural regions of central Spain that differed in landscape configuration. We analyzed the relative contribution to overall plant diversity of different diversity components at various spatial scales and how these diversity components responded to a set of local (application of agri-environment schemes [AES] and position within the field) and landscape (field size and landscape connectivity and composition) factors. Differences in species composition among regions and then among fields within regions contributed most to overall plant diversity. Positive edge effects were found on all diversity components at both the field- and regional scales, whereas application of AES benefited all diversity components only at the field scale. Landscape factors had strong influences on plant diversity, especially length of seminatural boundaries, which increased species richness at both the field and the regional scales. In addition, positive effects of percentage of nonproductive land-uses in the landscape were found on all diversity components at the regional scale. Results showed that components that contributed most to overall plant diversity were not benefited by current AES. We conclude that agri-environmental policies should incorporate and prioritize measures aimed at the maintenance of seminatural boundaries and patches of nonproductive habitats within agricultural landscapes, through landscape planning, cross-compliance, or high nature-value farmland programs. These options will help to conserve overall plant diversity at regional scales, as well as the spillover of plant species from such seminatural elements into crops, especially in Mediterranean areas that still harbor extensive farming and relatively complex landscapes.

Protect European green agricultural policies for future food security.

European green agricultural policies have been relaxed to allow cultivation of fallow land to produce animal feed and meet shortfalls in exports from Ukraine and Russia. However, conversion of semi-natural habitats will disproportionately impact long term biodiversity and food security.

Varying potential of conservation tools of the Common Agricultural Policy for farmland bird preservation.

Agri-environment schemes (AES) and greening of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are crucial tools for biodiversity conservation in Europe. However, they have not been associated formally to any performance monitoring program that supports their actual benefits for biodiversity, and their effectiveness is recurrently questioned. We present an extensive evaluation of the potential of CAP conservation tools to support farmland bird diversity throughout the most representative cereal regions in Spain. We explore bird diversity responses to AES application in pairs of cereal plots with and without AES. We also explore bird responses to a set of habitat indicators, both of productive (farmed) and semi-natural components (i.e., field margins and natural vegetation remnants), within plots and in the surrounding landscape. We use these habitat indicators as proxies of distinct greening measures (e.g., hedges, fallow, crop diversification). Our results point at the prospective success of measures focused on promoting, particularly at landscape scales, certain productive habitats (e.g., fallow land and legume crops), mainly but not exclusively for open land birds. Promoting semi-natural habitats (both areal and linear elements) also resulted positive, primarily for forest and ecotone birds, but also open land birds. Our results evince high variability in the capacity of AES and distinct greening measures to support bird diversity among regions and groups of birds. More regionally-targeted conservation measures (i.e., focused on specific requirements of targets, considering explicitly regional species pools and landscape constraints) are thus required. These measures could be assembled in the new CAP by means of compulsory measures applied throughout the agricultural landscape (i.e., advanced environmental conditionality likely replacing cross-compliance and greening) and voluntary instruments (i.e., eco-schemes and AES) with enough farmers' uptake that ensures its impact at landscape scale. Performance evaluation and subsequent adaptation based on the results obtained ought to accompany the implementation of conservation tools.