Commercial SRC biomass plantations - will they still be good for farmland wildlife?

Abstract

There have been several studies concerning the ecology of SRC crops in Europe over the last 10 years or so. They tend to indicate that many pre-commercial SRC plots contain an under-storey vegetation and insect fauna that from a conservation point of view is more interesting than in most other farmland crops. The crop also attracts other animals. In particular, the studies indicate that SRC usually contains many more bird species at higher densities than any other arable crop.
It is crucial however that we understand how the findings of these early studies translate into the commercial situation. The imperative to produce as much woody biomass as cheaply as possible may still lead to considerable differences between commercial SRC plantations and the early pre-commercial plots on which much of this work was based.
The first major biomass energy project to plant commercial SRC plantations in the UK is Project ARBRE in Yorkshire. The DTI/ETSU are funding an ecological monitoring programme in a representative sample of these sites that aims to assess the ecological impact of the ARBRE SRC plantations on wildlife, in what is primarily an arable area. In conjunction with other similar studies the project should provide general guidance on the ecological impact of future commercial SRC developments.
Over four years, wildlife surveys will be undertaken in 12 large SRC plots, all on previously cultivated ground and in 12 paired arable control plots. A year-by-year comparison of the abundance and diversity of key wildlife groups in the SRC plots compared to that in the controls can thus be made. This should allow general conclusions about the ecological impact of SRC cropping in this region and the links between wildlife potential and plantation design and management to be drawn. Results from the first year of monitoring in 2000 are summarized.