Browsing by Subject "luonnonhoitopelto"
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(2011)Environmental fallows were added as a new voluntary scheme to the agri-environmental programme in Finland in 2009. The scheme aims, among other things, to benefit farmland biodiversity by providing resources for wildlife, and to protect soil from erosion and nutrient leaching. There are four types of environmental fallows: long-term grassland, game crop field, landscape plant field and meadow plant field. In 2010, they covered in total over seven per cent of the field area in Finland. It is important to evaluate the impacts of environmental fallows on environment and develop the scheme, in order to make effective use of resources put into it. The goals of this study were to find out, how important environmental fallows are for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes; what kind of fallows are the most valuable for biodiversity; and how the scheme should be developed. In order to answer these questions, the species richness and composition of vascular plants as well as vegetation structure were surveyed on environmental fallows in Uusimaa and North Ostrobothnia regions in summer 2010. Additionally, the vegetation of environmental fallows was compared with the vegetation of semi-natural meadows and field edges surveyed in another study. Information on the study fields, e. g. parcel history, establishment and management, was collected through a farmer questionnaire. Meadow fields that are sown with low-competitive seed mixtures proved to be the most species rich of the environmental fallow types. On grasslands and meadow fields, the fertility of soil was negatively correlated to the number of species. In species composition the four types of environmental fallows differed from each others as well as from seminatural meadows and field edges. So, the scheme probably enhances diversity in landscape scale. However, there were few rare plant species on environmental fallows. Today, the big majority of the environmental fallows are long-term grasslands, which reduces their positive impact on landscape and biodiversity. The value of environmental fallows both for nature, farmers and society can be enhanced by developing seed mixtures and establishment and management methods as well as offering more advice for the farmers.
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(2014)The diversity of nature has declined significantly over the past decades. The agricultural diversity has the same trend and the agricultural environments includes of high-value habitats and their associated biodiversity. In the EU and in the Finnish environmental schemes, therefore, efforts have been made to protect and increase biodiversity. Since 2009, voluntary nature management fields have been part of the Finnish’s agri-environmental measures in the agri-environment scheme. These nature management fields include perennial grass fields, game fields, landscape fields and meadow fields. Nature management fields are used specifically to maintain the diversity of the agricultural environment. This study examined two types of nature management fields in summer of 2013. The variety of vascular plants, butterflies and bumblebees was observed in Uusimaa, Finland. The study consists of 40 field blocks, divided into perennial grassland fields (3-4 years) and meadow fields (over 8 years). Nature management field types differed from each other by vegetation, establishment and temporal change. The aim of this study was to provide information which can help in the design and management of nature management fields. The intention is to provide insight on what kind of vegetation could be used to encourage increase in the number and diversity of pollinators, as well as, what kind of the nature management fields promote environmental diversity in farmland. This study was conducted as part of Marjaana Toivonen's dissertation project, “Enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services through environmental Fallows”. Vegetation was clearly influenced by the time and what was sown in the field. The old perennial grassland fields can preserve and safeguard the permanence of species. Young meadow fields are sown usually with flower seed mixtures. Thus, the abundance of flowering plants is high and the plants provide pollen and nectar for the insects. It was also found that the vegetation was divided according to the type of nature management fields. With pollinators, this trend was not observed as clearly. However, bumblebees were most common in meadow fields. Clear division between the types of fields was not seen in butterflies but they appeared to prefer grassland fields. This study shows that both grassland and meadow fields are needed for protecting biodiversity. Nature management fields have an important role as the multi-species vegetation patches which allow organisms to survive, get food and travel in otherwise monocultural farming environments.
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