Farm management and vegetation plot data from paired organic and conventional farms in England, 2000-2004

The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology gathered a range of ecological data between 2000 and 2004. The data include vegetation, farm management and habitat information, collected from 89 pairs of organic and non-organic fields on 161 farms containing arable crops distributed throughout England. Within these farms, landscape context and farm management practices centred on 30 pairs of target spring cereal fields (in 2000) and 59 pairs of target winter wheat fields (over two seasons 2002-2004).
Data were derived at different scales ranging from field to landscape scale using a range of methods. The vegetation data consists of plant records from within target fields which were sampled in 3 years (2000, 2002, 2003) with each field sampled in one of the years. Three plot types were used. (i) Crop margin plots which recorded species presence in plots extending 1 m from the ploughed edge and 100 m along the field edge. (ii) Field boundary plots which recorded presence and abundance (% cover) of species in plots extending 1 m from the centre of the uncultivated field boundary and 10 m parallel to the boundary. Berries were counted in winter from a sub-set of sites. (iii) Percent cover of within-crop plants was recorded in 0.5×0.5 m quadrats placed at distances of 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 m from the ploughed margin on 12 transects per field. Farm management data were collected via land manager questionnaires. Farmers were asked 40 questions concerning management of the target field and the whole farm. Habitat data were summarised at the farm level from the satellite-derived UKCEH Land Cover Map 2000. Invertebrates and birds were also sampled but do not form part of this data set.
The study was based on a total of 88 non-organic and 73 organic farms over three cropping seasons between 2000 and 2004. This dataset was created to investigate the benefits of organic farming for biodiversity as part of a DEFRA funded study.

英国生态与水文中心（UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology）于2000至2004年间收集了一系列生态数据。该数据集涵盖植被、农场管理与生境信息，采集自英格兰各地161个农场的89对有机与常规农田，这些农场均种植可耕作物。在上述农场中，研究以30对目标春季谷物田（2000年）与59对目标冬小麦田（2002-2004年两个生长季）为核心，收集了景观背景与农场经营管理实践相关数据。本数据集采用多种方法采集，尺度涵盖农田至景观尺度。植被数据包含目标农田内的植物调查记录，采样覆盖2000、2002、2003三个年份，每个农田仅在其中一个年份完成采样。本次研究共采用三类样地：（i）作物边缘样地：记录距翻耕边缘1米、沿田埂延伸100米的样地内的物种存在情况；（ii）田块边界样地：记录距未耕作田块边界中心1米、沿边界平行延伸10米的样地内的物种存在与盖度（%），冬季时会对部分田块边界样地的浆果数量进行计数；（iii）作物内部植物盖度：在每个农田的12条样带上，于距翻耕边缘2、4、8、16和32米处布设0.5×0.5米的样方，记录其内植物的盖度百分比。农场管理数据通过土地经营者问卷调查采集，农户需回答40个关于目标农田及整个农场的经营管理问题。生境数据基于卫星衍生的UKCEH 2000年土地覆盖图，在农场层面进行汇总整理。本研究同时对无脊椎动物与鸟类进行了采样，但此类数据未纳入本数据集。本研究基于2000至2004年三个种植季的总计88个常规农场与73个有机农场展开。本数据集作为英国环境、食品与农村事务部（DEFRA）资助研究的一部分，旨在探究有机农业对生物多样性的益处。