People’s appreciation of colorful field margins in intensively used arable landscapes and the conservation of plants and invertebrates

Sown field margins can improve the conservation of biodiversity in rural areas and can contribute to the aesthetics of rural landscapes, thereby potentially increasing public support for agri-environmental measures. However, these two functions do not necessarily coincide. This raises the question whether field margins that are appreciated for their contribution to landscape aesthetics also deliver on the conservation of biodiversity. We conducted choice experiments with different groups of citizens and collected biodiversity data in the Netherlands, to investigate if the number of colors and vegetation cover in field margins increased respondents’ appreciation for them, and how these visual cues correlated with taxonomic diversity and abundance of plants and invertebrates in those field margins. Using manipulated photos, we also assessed whether the presence of colorful field margins in a range of different rural landscapes increased respondents’ appreciation of those landscapes. Respo..., 1.1.      General set up
Field work was carried out in Zeeland in 2006, a province in the southwest of the Netherlands, which is dominated by intensive arable agriculture on marine clay soils. The province is made up by five areas of open, flat landscapes in the marine clay district separated by strands of the Scheldt River estuary. By selecting farms only in this province, the influence of differences in soil or landscape context were minimized (Noordijk et al. 2010). Main crops in the rotation are winter wheat, potatoes, onions and sugar beet (Lokhorst et al. 2009). An arable farm had on average an area of 0.32 km2 crop land in 2006 (CBS 2022). Parcels have no natural boundaries, but are typically bounded by ditches, roads, hedges, or dykes.
In the Netherlands, subsidised schemes for promoting agri-environmental management have been in place since 1975 (De Snoo et al. 2016). Non-crop field margins became part of those schemes later (around 2000) and were a popular option in Zeeland. ..., , # Data from: People’s appreciation of colorful field margins in intensively used arable landscapes and the conservation of plants and invertebrates

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j9kd51cjx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j9kd51cjx)

## Description of the data and file structure

Journal: Agronomy for Sustainable Development.
DOI: 10.1007/s13593-023-00933-5.
Title: People’s appreciation of colorful field margins in intensively used arable landscapes and the conservation of plants and invertebrates.

To ensure the protection of participants' privacy, several steps were undertaken to de-identify the data. Firstly, we ensured that the data does not contain any information that could directly reveal the identity of the participants such as names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Additionally, the data was modified by limiting the number of indirect identifiers to three and aggregating age to age range. By so doing, the risk of re-identification was significantly reduced.

Participants were i...