Effect of field margins.pdfVIP

Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 129 (2009) 302–309 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment journal h om epage: ww w.el /locat e/agee Effect of field margins on moths depends on species mobility: Field-based evidence for landscape-scale conservation Thomas Merckx a,*, Ruth E. Feber a, Rebecca L. Dulieu b, Martin C. Townsend a, Mark S. Parsons c, Nigel A.D. Bourn c, Philip Riordan a, David W. Macdonald a a Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Abingdon OX13 5QL, UK b Centre for Wildlife Assessment and Conservation, University of Reading, School of Biological Sciences, Environmental Biology, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AS, UK c Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham BH20 5QP, UK A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Agri-environment schemes (AES) are widely used policy instruments intended to combat widespread Received 15 April 2008 biodiversity declines across agricultural landscapes. Here, using a light trapping and mark-release- Received in revised form 30 September 2008 recapture study at a field-scale on nine common and widespread larger moth species, we investigate the Accepted 3 October 2008 effect of wide field margins (a popular current scheme option) and the presence of hedgerow trees (a Available online 11 November 2008 potential scheme option in England) on moth abundance. Of these, we show that wide field margins