Abstract
Intensification of arable farming is a serious threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services. Agri-environmental schemes (AES) promise to mitigate these effects by adopting environmentally-friendly farming techniques. Most of the Hungarian AES are targeted at common crops, but field monitoring of their effectiveness - although an EU requirement - is unresolved. The lack of simple and robust indicators hinders progress in this area. We ask, how the most common AES affect biodiversity and ecosystem services at different scales in an intensively managed agricultural landscape. We propose to develop simple protocols (=indicators) to measure changes related to the schemes, and can be used in a future nation-wide monitoring program. The experts teamed up for this proposal intend to work out 7 indicators: 1. insect-born virus pressure, 2. scale insect infestation, 3. farmland bird survey, 4. maize pistil faunula test, 5. pollinator distribution, 6. resistance to invasive weeds, 7. indicator moth species. These cover a wide range of taxa and ecosystem services, and thus can make it possible to detect negative tendencies, or suggest local actions to improve the environment. We plan to test these indicators at different distances from natural areas and in areas where ratio of intensive and low-input fields differ. Planned results: publication of the concrete indicator protocols and scientific publications into the relationship between AES and intensive fields. Future application of the indicators should result in the optimization of public money spent on AES, and may advance the harmonization of economic, societal and nature interest.
Hungary