Plants and beetles in a barley agricultural landscape

This repository includes the data of the article "Complex live fences support plant and beetle diversity in a barley agricultural landscape", that we will submit to Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. ABSTRACT: Along with natural vegetation remnants, live fences in agricultural landscapes are elements that delimit crop fields and conserve biodiversity. In this study, we assessed plant and beetle diversity and composition in remnant shrubland fragments, barley crops, and complex and simple live fences in an agricultural landscape in Central Mexico. We recorded 54 plant species from 24 families, and 168 morphospecies from 26 beetle families. We found that habitat complexity of live fences and shrubland remnants supported higher cumulative richness of plants and beetles than crops and simple live fences, and species composition varied across landscape elements. Moreover, our results show that intensive barley crops lead to biotic homogenization, whereas live fences and shrubland remnants conserve high plant and beetle beta diversity. Soil hardness is the main environmental variable influencing plant and beetle communities. This study highlights the importance of live fences’ complexity in maintaining biodiversity in agricultural landscapes; therefore, we recommend their inclusion as key elements in incentives for agricultural management policies and in territorial planning at different governance levels.
Key words: habitat complexity, vegetation remnants, Coleoptera, biotic homogenization, vegetated strips, vegetated field margins