Edges within farmland: Management implications of taxon specific species richness correlates

Abstract In intensively farmed landscapes worldwide, edges separating fields from managed forests represent potential biodiversity reservoirs. We examine variables strongly associated with species richness of several taxa representing diverse ecological guilds – vascular plants, carabids, butterflies, birds and small mammals – inhabiting farmland-forest edges in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. Our main objective was to assess the edge characteristics that could be managed for enhancing species richness of the studied taxa. We found only weak between-taxon correlations and hence often taxon-specific responses to geography, vegetation, adjoining site management, and surrounding habitat diversity and edge density. Therefore, the environmental variables associated with species richness in one taxon are not influential in other taxa. Still, edge width, diversified management of adjoining farmland or forest patches, and surrounding landscape heterogeneity in taxon-specific distances contributed to the species richness of all studied groups, suggesting that these parameters should be targeted by managers in order to enhance farmland biodiversity.