Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The climate crisis and loss of habitat across Europe require a shift towards ecosystem-friendly practices. There is, however, no standardized way to measure biodiversity for agriculture and for use in a policy context. In this thesis I developed a method for accounting for the biodiversity on a farm, considering three levels: the landscape context, farming practices and on-site sampling through insect sticky traps. The method was then tested on four sites in Spain.

I scored landscape effects on biodiversity based on 4 landscape characteristics: ladn use, historical warming rates due to climate change, landscape heterogeneity and proximity to natural or protected vegetation. The Cool Farm Biodiversity Metric was used as a base to assess farming
practices. The final element was insect sampling on-site, comparing a traditional method of sampling insect biodiversity, sweep net samples, against a passive method using sticky panels. Over 10,000 insects were collected on an olive orchard and two vineyards. Results indicate that
sticky traps are a more time-effective method, capturing much more insects than sweep nets (averaging 61 insects per sticky trap ± 18.8; and 1221 per transect ± 12.3; sweep net collection averaging 57 insects per transect ± 32). Analysis tested the effect of height (high traps averaging 42 insects per trap ± 41, low traps 79 ± 49, P = 0.008) and density, with opportunistic observations of trap deployment duration.

To compile the three elements in an accessible manner, I developed a “biodiversity scorecard” that can be used to summarize the results from the three scales and methods.