Protecting field edges and boundaries from pesticides: the benefits for farmland wildlife.

Abstract

Since the 1950's many forms of wildlife associated with agricultural ecosystems and particularly cereals have declined throughout Europe. Most effected have been the birds (Tucker & Heath, 1994), butterflies (Heath et aI, 1984), beneficial insects (Aebischer, 1991), annual arable wildflowers (Schumacher, 1987) and game species, especially the grey partridge, Perdix perdix L. (Potts, 1986). These declines have coincided with the intensification of agriculture driven by the EU policy for European self-sufficiency in food production, food security and maintenance of farm incomes. The changes in agricultural production systems which have had the most influential effects on wildlife in the UK are the increase in field achieved by removing hedgerows, other boundary cover and non-crop cover types so that fields have become larger and the diversity of the landscape mosaic less complex; rotations have become less complex; mixed farms have been replaced by specialised farms and even specialised regions of production have developed; artificial fertilisers and pesticides have replaced the need for husbandry practices and winter cropping has expanded so depriving seed-eating birds of feeding grounds.
Cereal fields are not yet, however, deserts derived of wildlife but if properly managed can harbour a vast variety of farmland wildlife. In Europe up to 700 species of plants have been recorded in cereal fields and in the UK alone 2000 species of insects and spiders are found (Potts, 1991). This may still be less than that found in nature reserves but is still important because of the area of land occupied by cereals, currently 17% of the UK.