Eijkelkamp, Michiel (2020) The effects of local habitat quality and farming intensity on insect occurrence in intensive agricultural land, The effectiveness of increasing local habitat quality to support insect occurrence. Master's Research Project 1, Ecology and Evolution.
|
Text
mEE_2020_EijkelkampMA.pdf Download (2MB) | Preview |
|
![[img]](https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
toestemming.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (121kB) |
Abstract
Worldwide, biodiversity is in decline. This also includes insects. Agricultural intensification is often reported as an important cause. Within intensive agricultural landscapes, semi-natural habitats are important for insects. But, the relative importance of the quality of these habitats and the farming intensity of the surroundings, remains unknown. We, therefore, studied the effect of local habitat quality of road verges and ditches on insect occurrence and the effect of farming intensity on local habitat quality and directly on insect occurrence (bumblebees, butterflies, day-flying moths, damselflies and dragonflies). We studied 83 road verges and ditches in the southeast of Drenthe, the Netherlands, and the southwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. In these semi-natural habitats we counted insects. In addition, we monitored several indicators of local habitat quality, like flowering plant occurrence, and several indicators of farming intensity in the surroundings, like the crop types on the surrounding fields. We analyzed the correlations between local habitat quality, farming intensity and insect occurrence to reveal possible relationships. We found that insect occurrence was positively affected by local habitat quality. Bumblebee and butterfly occurrence correlated, for example, with flowering plant abundance and damselfly and dragonfly occurrence with the clearness of the water. Farming intensity had no major effect, neither on insect occurrence nor on local habitat quality. From this we conclude that increasing the quality of semi-natural habitats can be an effective measure to support insect occurrence in intensive agricultural landscapes, which could contribute to the recovery of insect populations.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master's Research Project 1) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Klaassen, R.H.G. |
| Degree programme: | Ecology and Evolution |
| Thesis type: | Master's Research Project 1 |
| Language: | English |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Feb 2021 12:17 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Feb 2021 12:24 |
| URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/23931 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |