Biodiversity and energy from wildflowers
Abstract
In Europe, biodiversity decreased dramatically in the last decades. Intensification of agriculture is one of the main drivers for this loss of species. Till 2007, European farmers received subsidies for set-aside arable land. Hence there was much fallow land that favoured biodiversity. However, due to growing demand for arable land to produce energy from crops EU subsidies for the establishment of set-aside arable land were abolished since 2008. Therefore, most arable fallows disappeared, which led to a loss of biodiversity and related ecosystem services. Due to the establishment of wildflower areas the proposed project aims to gain energy and promote biodiversity, thus covering two actual challenges at once, namely maintaining biodiversity and producing energy from renewable resources. In Austria there are no studies on “Biodiversity and energy from wildflowers” so far. As the demand on energy produced from renewable resources under consideration of biodiversity protection will probably increase it is wise to cover this research topic in Austria. The proposed project aims to observe whether i) biodiversity and species composition of plants and six target animal groups (spiders, carabid beetles, heteropteran bugs, hoverflies, wild bees, small mammals) differ significantly between several wildflower mixtures and maize serving as control crop, ii) there is a significant difference in energy gain and the key ecosystem services biological pest control and pollination between the wildflower mixtures and maize.
keywords Biodiversity Energy Wildflowers
Publikationen
Project staff
Thomas Frank
Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Thomas Frank
thomas.frank@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-83311
Project Leader
01.01.2013 - 12.11.2014
Andreas Gronauer
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Andreas Gronauer
andreas.gronauer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-93111
Project Staff
01.01.2013 - 12.11.2014
Klaus Hackländer
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Biol. Dr.rer.nat. Klaus Hackländer
klaus.hacklaender@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-83211
Project Staff
01.01.2013 - 12.11.2014
BOKU partners
External partners
Bayerische Landesanstalt für Weinbau und Gartenbau
Dr. Birgit Vollrath
partner
Environment Agency Austria
Dr. Klaus Peter Zulka Dr. Wolfgang Rabitsch
partner