Objectives
Aim
This project will identify and outline the evidence base for novel, cost-effective measures to
- increase habitat quantity,
- enhance habitat quality and
- improve ecological connectivity, from the farm to landscape scale.
Objectives
1. Identify a suite of cost-effective novel measures (for grassland and tillage) to:
- protect and enhance biodiversity
- improve landscape connectivity (in turn increasing biodiversity)
- enhance ecosystem services.
2. Evaluate habitat quality (through the use of existing and novel above and below ground bioindicators), and develop ecosystem ‘health assessment scoring cards’ for common farm habitats on a gradient of farming intensities and enterprises
3. Evaluate the benefits that novel measures to enhance habitat quantity and quality, and improve connectivity can bring to provision of ecosystem services (including services associated with production) on a gradient of farming intensities and enterprises.
4. Develop predictive models to simulate introduction of novel measures into agricultural landscapes
5. Assess the spatial extent to which high quality habitats can influence species abundance and the extent of benefits and delivery of ecosystem services
6. Review, map and analyse the current landscape connectivity network using existing and new datasets on a subset of farms.
7. Disseminate and demonstrate project results
Streams, contribute to the diversity of boundary features, but are often ignored by ecological policy