WP2 - Potential Ecosystem Services of semi-natural habitats
Here the objective is to determine which characteristics or traits of semi-natural habitats (SNH) determine the ecological services provided to the selected agroecosystems and to determine the potential ecological services provided and how this is affected by farm and landscape management.
Initial surveying will be concentrated on vegetation sampling and characterisation of the SNH in the identified regions. The regions will be selected based on the presence of a gradient in land use diversity and/or percentage of SNH, the exact values may differ between regions. Fields selected for sampling will need to represent at least two different farming systems from 1) conventional; 2) low-input; 3) organic.
This segment of QuESSA will be of use to:
The scientific community through presentation of quantitative methods to determine ecological services potential of semi-natural habitat;
Society through providing guidelines to farmers and contributing to the discussion on greening of the CAP;
and
Modellers by providing inputs with respect to the “source strength” of semi-natural habitats in the provision of the mobile agents that are responsible for pollination and pest and weed control in crops.
Providing critical input data for models which increase understanding of the spatial distribution of ecological services in agricultural landscapes, and which will allow up-scaling of results from the case studies and allow determination of trade-offs between services.