The landscape complexity relevance to farming effect assessment on small mammal occupancy in Argentinian farmlands

• Published in: Oecologia Vol. 191; no. 4; pp. 995 - 1002
• Main Authors: Serafini, Vanesa N., Coda, José A., Contreras, Facundo, Conroy, Michael J., Gomez, María Daniela, Priotto, José W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Science + Business Media 01.12.2019; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural industry; Agricultural land; Agricultural practices; Agriculture; Bayesian analysis; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Complexity; Cover crops; Crop production; Crops; Ecology; ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY - ORIGINAL RESEARCH; Evaluation; Fallow land; Farms; Grasslands; Habitats; Heterogeneity; Human-made structures; Hydrology/Water Resources; Landscape; Life Sciences; Mammals; Mathematical models; Occupancy; Organic farming; Plant Sciences; Probability theory; Small mammals; Species richness; Organic and conventional farming; Bayesian approach; Landscape heterogeneity; Species richness; Multi-species occupancy models
• ISSN: 0029-8549; 1432-1939
• DOI: 10.1007/s00442-019-04545-3

The responses of organisms to organic farming depend on the taxonomic group and landscape complexity. Following the intermediate landscape complexity hypothesis, organic farming can compensate for the lack of complexity in simple landscapes. Argentinian farmlands are simple with large fields and scarce linear habitat array, and conventional agriculture is almost the only agriculture practice. We hypothesize that there is an interaction effect of landscape complexity and farming practices on occupancy and species richness of small mammals in farmland of central Argentina. We selected circular landscapes under organic farming and low- and high-intensity conventional farming and quantified heterogeneity in each landscape considering different cover types (crops, resting plots, fallow land, border habitats, grasslands and man-made structures). We used multi-species occupancy models accounting for multiple seasons with a Bayesian approach to make the estimates. Landscapes under organic farms had the highest level of landscape heterogeneity. In simple Argentinian farmlands, organic farming benefited species richness and occupancy of all small mammal species. Some management strategies used in organic farming (wide and vegetated border habitats, diversity in types of production, winter cover crops, natural or seminatural patches) should be taken into account to increase landscape complexity in conventional farming.