Arthropod reaction to landscape and habitat features in agricultural landscapes

Determining explanatory environmental factors that lead to patterns of biodiversity in cultivated landscapes is an important step for the assessment of the impact of landscape changes. In the context of an assessment of the effect of agricultural national extensification programme on biodiversity, field data of 2 regions were collected according to a stratified sampling method. A distribution model of 3 indicator species taxa (butterflies, spiders, and carabid beetles) is related to influencing factors by means of multivariate statistics (CCA, partial CCA). Hypothetical influencing factors are categorised as follows: (1) habitat (habitat type, management techniques) and (2) landscape (habitat heterogeneity, variability, diversity, proportion of natural and semi-natural areas). The correlation models developed for spider, carabid beetle and butterfly assemblages revealed that there are no general rules relating species diversity to habitat and landscape features. The relationship strongly depends on the organism and on the region under study. Therefore, biodiversity response to landscape and habitat changes has to be identified by means of a multi-indicator concept in different landscape situations.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.