Applying a biocomplexity approach to modelling farmer decision-making and land-use impacts on wildlife

1. The biocomplexity approach refers to a fully integrated social-ecological systems (SES) simulation that represents bidirectional feedbacks between social and ecological components. This method is essential to accurately assess impacts of economy and policy on SES such as agroecosystems, where feedbacks between the drivers and impacts of cropping changes need to be simulated. Here we exemplify the biocomplexity approach using energy maize, which is becoming an important source of bioenergy in Europe, and thus, might cause a significant change in land use with knock on-effects on wildlife.
2. The integrated simulation tool consisted of a farmer decision making agent-based model fully coupled to the Animal Landscape and Man Simulatin System (ALMaSS)an agent-based simulation system for predicting impacts of land use on a range of Danish wildlife species: the brown hare (Lepus europaeus), the grey partridge (Perdix perdix), the skylark (Alauda arvensis), a carabid beetle (Bembidion lampr...