Wiedemeier Patrik

Tagfalter-Vielfalt auf Luzerner Berglandwirtschafts-Betrieben und das Biodiversitäts-Punktesystem "Mit Vielfalt Punkten"

Project Number: CH-6302

Project Type:	Bachelor
Project Duration:	01/01/2014 - 06/30/2014 project completed
Funding Source:	other ,
Leading Institution:	ZHAW Wädenswil
Project Leader:	Herr Patrik Wiedemeier

related to this project.

for which the project has a relevance.

Research Areas:

Biodiversity

Disciplines:

ecology

Abstract:
A credit point system (CPS), developed within the project «scoring with diversity», assesses services farmers provide to promote biodiversity and thus contributes to the realisation of agri-environmental measures. While it has already been demonstrated that the CPS score reflects farm-scale biodiversity on farms in plain and hill production zones, this relationship hasn’t been investigated in the mountain zones yet. Based on butterfly surveys on mountain farms, this paper therefore examines whether there is a positive correlation between the calculated CPS score and the actual butterfly diversity at farm level. For this reason, butterflies and certain site conditions (range of flowering plants, vegetation height, structural diversity) were surveyed in the ecological compensation areas (ECA) of ten farms in the UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch. The results indicate that the CPS is able to reflect the actual butterfly diversity on the investigated farms. With an increasing CPS score, the abundance of butterflies as well as the number of potentially endangered species rises on the farms. Particularly the section «ecological compensation» of the CPS positively affects butterfly diversity: With an increasing score in this section, not only the overall species number and abundance on the farms increases, but also the number of agriculture-related or potentially endangered species. Of the surveyed site conditions, the average structural diversity on the farm had a positive impact on the species number and the abundance of butterflies present. Certain ECA types affect butterfly diversity as well. As the total area of extensively managed meadows increases, more species and individuals are present at farm level. Farms with litter meadows feature more individuals of agriculture-related or potentially endangered species than farms without and farms with extensively managed pastures present a higher species diversity (Shannon and Simpson index) than farms without such pastures. Concerning the number of species per minute, ECA types don’t differ from each other, but litter meadows present more individuals per minute than extensively managed meadows and hedgerows with herbaceous strip. Based on the investigation, the following suggestions to optimize the CPS can be made: Diversity of BFF types should be better implemented and the specification of structural elements should be simplified. By increasing the maximum score in grassland measures, above average performances of farms would be considered as well. Furthermore, it makes sense to integrate staggered mowing without premature cutting date and independent of cantonal authorizations. The importance of harvesting meadows without mowing conditioner needs to be communicated more effectively to farmers in order to promote the usage of this measure. By optimizing the CPS, farmers can be supported in the planning and realisation of agri-environmental measures. Thereby one contributes to a more successful promotion of biodiversity.

Publications:
Dallo, A. (2014). Tagfalter-Vielfalt auf Luzerner Berglandwirtschaftsbetrieben und das Biodiversität-Punktesystem «Mit Vielfalt punkten». Unveröffentlichte Bachelorarbeit. Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Wädenswil.

PDF Bachelorarbeit



Last update: 1/25/18
Source of data: ProClim- Research InfoSystem (1993-2024)
Update the data of project: CH-6302

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