Strokovna izhodišča za monitoring izbranih organizmov nadzemne in podzemne biote v kmetijski krajini za spremljanje učinkovitosti naravovarstvenih ukrepov Skupne kmetijske politike
Project number: V4-2221 Duration: 1. 10. 2022 - 30. 9. 2025 (3 years)
Project financing: Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije (ARRS) in Ministrstvo za kmetijstvo, gozdarstvo in prehrano v okviru izvajanja Ciljnega raziskovalnega programa » Naša hrana, podeželje in naravni viri« v letu 2022
Project team: Agricultural Institute of Slovenia (AIS); GEODETSKI ZAVOD CELJE, izvajanje strokovno-operativnih del in storitev v zadevah geodetske službe,ter drugih strokovno tehničnih del,d.o.o.
Project manager: dr. Robert Leskovšek
Informations: dr. Irena Bertoncelj (irena.bertoncelj@kis.si)
Project background:
Biodiversity is crucial for the production of high-quality food as it provides several important ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. Therefore, balancing of economic, production, and nature conservation objectives within agricultural landscapes is very important. One of the key specific objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027 (CAP) is to "contribute to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, enhance ecosystem services and preserve habitats and landscapes". To reduce the negative impacts of agriculture on biodiversity, the EU has introduced agri-environment schemes promoting the use of wildlife-friendly farming methods, reflecting traditional low-intensity agricultural practices. These at the same time enable food production, maintenance of the landscape elements, and preservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.
CAP agri-environment schemes have generally been shown to be beneficial for farmland biodiversity in intensively farmed areas of Northern and Western Europe, however, they are expensive and should be carefully planned, targeted, and monitored. Currently, no monitoring of the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes exists in Slovenia. For this purpose, more general results of butterfly and bird monitoring and surveys of the number of hectares of agricultural land participating in agri-environment schemes are used.
Expected results:
In our research project, we will prepare initial expertise for monitoring of selected above- and underground organisms in agricultural landscapes with the aim of future evaluation of agri-environment scheme effectiveness. When preparing the expertise, we will take into account experience from abroad and the existing or announced mandatory forms of monitoring at the EU level. We will focus on selected organisms, namely the monitoring of plants and soil animals. The European Commission (EC) is introducing monitoring of the state of agricultural land at the EU level using the EMBAL methodology. We will check the applicability of the EMBAL methodology and the already existing network of sampling points of international monitoring such as EMBAL, LUCAS, and LULUCF, and propose an extended network. We will study the EMBAL methodology of vegetation inventories in agricultural landscapes, compare it with other methods and propose upgrades for the area of Slovenia. With the review of the EMBAL vegetation censuses in agricultural landscapes, we will obtain an assessment of the adequacy of the methodology and propose an extended set of indicator species. The presence of species of nature conservation importance (orchids) and alien and invasive species not mentioned in the existing EMBAL methodology is expected to be of great importance.
In light of the announced EU Soil Health Directive, we will prepare initial expertise with a proposal for establishing monitoring of soil animals (mesobiota and macrobiota) based on a review of the literature and field testing of the selected methods. We will examine existing methods of sampling, determination, and analysis of soil animals and explore the indices already used abroad as indicators of the quality and fertility of agricultural land. The fieldwork will provide the first insight into soil animals in agricultural land in Slovenia, as well as the first systematic sampling of soil mesobiota and macrobiota in Slovenia.
We will also test remote sensing methods, as the EC and CAP stakeholders believe that the use of Copernicus Sentinel satellite data and other public and private databases has great potential for monitoring the effectiveness of CAP measures. We will check the usefulness of this data for monitoring biodiversity in the agricultural landscape.
The results of the project will significantly contribute to the development of science and practice on the topic of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Results will be useful to support decisions within the agricultural sector in designing CAP measures and consequently contribute to healthy food, environmental protection, and sustainable management of natural resources.