Indicators of Biodiversity and Conservational Wildlife Quality on Danish Organic Farms for Use in Farm Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Indicator Development and Testing

Organic farming is expected to contribute to conserving national biodiversity on farms, especially remnant, old, and undisturbed small biotopes, forests, and permanent grassland. This objective cannot rely on the legislation of organic farming solely, and to succeed, farmers need to understand the goals behind it. A set of indicators with the purpose of facilitating dialogues between expert and farmer on wildlife quality has been developed and tested on eight organic farms. “Weed cover in cereal fields,” was used as an indicator of floral and faunal biodiversity in the cultivated land, and “uncultivated biotope area” on the farm was used as a general measure of wildlife habitats. Functional grouping of herbaceous plants (discriminating between “high conservation value” plant species and “competitive”/“ruderal” species) and low mobility butterflies were used as indicators of conservation value, especially focusing on the few sites left with considerable remnant conservation value. The dialog processes revealed that the organic farmers’ ideas and goals of conservation of wildlife quality were not necessarily the same as for biologists; the farmers expressed very different opinions on the biological rooted idea, that wildlife quality is related to the absence of agricultural impact. However, farmers also stated that the information given by the indicators and especially the dialogue with the biologist had influenced their perception and awareness of wildlife. We conclude that, combined with a dialogue process, using these indicators when mapping wildlife quality could be an important key component of a farm wildlife management advisory tool at farm level.     

Critical Impact Assessment of Organic Agriculture

Based on its productionguideline, organic agriculture has set foritself the goals of minimizing all forms ofpollution and maintaining sustainability of thefarming system. By striving for these goals,organic farming meets the demands of anincreasing number of consumers who are criticalof conventional production methods. This papergives an overview of the present state of theart in the different issues. Possibilities ofand limitations in performing the self-aimedgoals under the basic standards of organicagriculture are discussed. Concerningenvironmental protection, in general, the riskof adverse environmental effects is lower withorganic than with conventional farming methods,though not necessarily so; with reference tosoil fertility and nutrient management, organicfarming is suited to improve soil fertility andnutrient management markedly on the farm level;regarding biodiversity, comparison studies showthat organic farming has more positive effectson biodiversity conservation; in relation toproduct quality, under the basic standards oforganic farming, there is no sufficientevidence for a system-related effect on productquality due to the production method.     

矿区生态重建中生物多样性与可持续发展

复合生态系统受自然、经济、社会三方面的影响，是在生态工程控制下的生态系统，其生物多样性也受生态工程的控制。本文以安太堡露天煤矿为例，讨论了复合生态系统生物多样性与可持续发展的关系。说明复合生态系统的生物多样性要求经济，生态，社会综合效益最佳，其建设必须以生境建设为基础，并以生态工程手段保持和调节植被结构，以使矿区得到真正可持续发展。     

发展有机农业与生物多样性保护

本文通过在试验区(内蒙古磴口县)对常规农业和有机农业分别对生物多样性的影响进行了分析比较，结果表明：发展有机农业，能够促进生物多样性保护，如有益昆虫的数量增加，其中七星瓢虫最为明显，蚜虫的虫口密度降低，益鸟等生物的数量有所增加。充分说明有机农业能够协调当地生物多样性保护和实现农业可持续发展。     

无量山自然保护区周边社区生物多样性保护意识评价

介绍了无量山自然保护区周边社区生物多样性保护意识调查研究方法,讨论和评价了研究结果,为环境教育的实施提供了依据。     

滇金丝猴栖息地生物多样性及其威胁因素研究

滇金丝猴栖息地是我国生物多样性保护关键区域之一，具有生态系统多样性、物种多样性、遗传多样性等特点。分析了滇金丝猴栖息地目前受到的威胁，提出了今后保护管理的意见。     

分子遗传技术与生物遗传多样性研究

各种分子遗传技术为不同生物种类间进行直接比较和分子水平的遗传多样性的度量、研究提供了新的途径。本文讨论了此类分子水平研究所取得的一些新的进展，并指出了有关分子工具应用于生物多样性研究中存在的一些问题。     

Cost-Efficiency of Decaying Wood as a Surrogate for Overall Species Richness in Boreal Forests

Abstract:  Decaying wood is one of the most important elements for species richness in boreal forests. We tested how well reserve selection based on the amount and quality of decaying wood results in a representation of four ecologically different taxa (beetles, birds, wood-inhabiting fungi, and vascular plants). We also compared the cost-efficiency of the use of dead-wood indicators with comprehensive species inventory. Our database included 32 seminatural old-forest stands located in northern Finland. Decaying wood was a relatively good indicator of saproxylic species but not overall species richness. Even though dead wood did not reflect accurately overall species richness, our results indicated that the use of decaying wood as an indicator in site selection was more cost-efficient than using information from large-scale species inventories. Thus, decaying wood is a valuable surrogate for species richness, but other cost-efficient indicators that reflect the requirements of those species which are not dependent on decaying wood should be identified.     

Evaluating the Potential for Conservation Development: Biophysical, Economic, and Institutional Perspectives

Abstract:  The widespread conversion of rural land to low-density residential development poses an immediate threat to biodiversity and to the provision of ecosystem services. Given that development will continue and environmental stakes are high, analyzing alternative growth strategies is critical. Conservation development is one such strategy that has the potential to benefit ecosystems and diverse stakeholders including developers, homebuyers, governments, and society as a whole. Conservation development clusters homes on one part of a property to manage the most ecologically important land for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. We draw on lessons learned from landscape ecology, open-space development, and regional planning to weigh the biophysical, economic, and institutional evidence for and against conservation development. Conservation development offers many potential environmental and economic advantages: relatively high home values and appreciation rates, lower development costs, and social and ecological benefits to society including landscape connectivity, protection and active stewardship of important ecological assets, and the maintenance of ecosystem services. But this approach also has shortcomings: it may require enlightened institutional regulations and regional planning (and/or ecologically aware developers), it is not always more profitable than conventional development and thus may require subsidies or incentives, and additional research is required to fully understand its benefits and drawbacks. With more information on the effects of clustering, the development of flexible zoning laws, and effective regional planning, conservation development could be a viable strategy for sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in changing landscapes.     

A Mechanistic Approach to Evaluation of Umbrella Species as Conservation Surrogates

Abstract:  Although species with large area requirements are sometimes used as umbrella species, their general utility as conservation tools is uncertain. We surveyed the species diversity of birds, butterflies, carabids, and forest-floor plants in forest sites across an area (1600 km²) in which we delineated large breeding home ranges of Northern Goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ). We tested whether protection of the home ranges could serve as an effective umbrella to protect sympatric species of the four taxa. We also used an empirical habitat model of occupancy of home range to examine mechanisms by which the Northern Goshawk acts as an umbrella species. Among species richness, abundance, and species composition of the four taxa, only abundance and species composition of birds differed between sites located inside and outside home ranges, which was due to greater abundance of bird species that were prey of Northern Goshawks inside the home ranges. Thus, although home range indicated areas with high abundance of certain bird prey species, it was not effective as an indicator of the species diversity of all four taxa. We also did not find any difference in species richness, abundance, and species composition between sites predicted as occupied and unoccupied using the habitat model. In contrast, when we selected sites on the basis of each habitat variable in the model, habitat variables that selected sites either in agricultural or forested landscapes encompassed sites with high species richness or particular species composition. This result suggests that the low performance of the Northern Goshawk as an umbrella species is due to this species' preference for habitat in both agricultural and forested landscapes. Species that can adjust to changes in habitat conditions may not act as effective umbrella species despite having large home ranges.