Agrobiodiversity Indicators

Agriculture plays a dual role in the conservation of European biodiversity, with extensive agricultural lands providing habitats for more than half of Europe's species, but intensification and abandonment of farmland threatening these species' habitats. Consequently, the preservation of agrobiodiversity, i.e., biodiversity on agricultural land, is increasingly the focus of conservation strategies. This study compared four existing agrobiodiversity indicators, representing species and ecosystem levels of agrobiodiversity, by mapping them on extensive agricultural land in Europe. The normalised indicator maps are available for download here: The "Landscape Complexity" indicator represents the landscape dimension of agrobiodiversity in terms of linear landscape elements. The "European Vertebrates" indicator represents the species dimension of agrobiodiversity, showing the absolute species richness for 721 vertebrate species, calculated based on the species' landuse suitability and preferred distance to water. The "Redlist European Vertebrates" indicator filters the above indicator to only include species listed on the IUCN redlist (129 of 721). The "Agrobiodiversity Species" indicator also represents the species dimension of agrobiodiversity, showing the relative species richness of 132 European plant and vertebrate species. Further details can be found in the linked publication.