Landscape context affects patch habitat contributions to biodiversity in agroecosystems

Effective conservation schemes are needed to advance dual objectives of biodiversity conservation and agronomic production in agricultural landscapes. Understanding how plant and arthropod taxa respond to both local habitat patch characteristics and landscape complexity is crucial for planning effective agri-environment schemes. This study investigated the relative effects of local (≤ 100 m from patch habitat center) and landscape (≤ 5 km from patch habitat center) variables on diversity of plants and arthropods within non-crop habitat patches (i) at different spatial extents ranging from 0.1 km to 5 km, while (ii) quantifying differential effects of local and landscape variables on unique components of diversity (i.e. species richness and abundance), and accounting for (iii) unique components of landscape extent (0.1, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 km radii) and complexity (i.e. landscape composition and configuration). Landscape variables were significantly correlated with local plant and arthropod ..., This landscape-scale study was conducted within large-scale wheat production systems in the Northern Great Plains. To quantify the relative importance of local and landscape variables explaining local diversity, local response variables and local explanatory variables were collected at the local scale, which was defined as ≤ 100 m from the patch habitat, or ecological refuge (ER) center. Landscape explanatory variables were extracted for spatially nested buffers at the landscape scale, which was defined as ≤ 5 km from ER center. As buffers were nested circles rather than concentric rings, larger spatial extents included smaller spatial extents. At the local spatial extent, arthropod and plant species richness and abundance were observed at 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 m from the center of the ER, which included the crop field margin. Percent cover of crop field and ER were calculated at each local spatial extent. For landscape analysis, five nested circular buffers were created around each E..., , # Landscape context affects patch habitat contributions to biodiversity in agroecosystems

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pk0p2ngww](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pk0p2ngww)

Datasets include local biodiversity observations obtained from field surveys and landscape data obtained from the Cropland Data Layer (USDA, 2023). Local variables included percent cover of ecological refuge (ER) and crop field, plant species richness, plant abundance (i.e. percent cover), arthropod species richness, and arthropod abundance within 100 meters from the ER center. All data from each transect were summed by taxonomic group (plants or arthropods) across the two years of data collection, and placed in the response variable matrix for analysis. Local biodiversity datasets were analyzed using the *vegan* package in R. Landscape variable data were obtained from the Cropland Data Layer and extracted for the five landscape spatial buffers surrounding each ER using the *LandscapeMetric* package in R. Landsc...