The surrounding landscape’s impact on species density in species-rich grasslands

Abstract: When the agricultural revolution took place, the biodiversity decreased and during the last century more than 90 % of the area of species-rich grasslands has been lost. Fragmentation has occurred with the area lost and insects, e.g. butterflies, suffer because of this. I investigated the impact that surrounding landscapes have on vegetation in species-rich grasslands, by using data from NILS and land use land cover data. I used the area of grassland, forest, water and arable land at radii from 100 m to 40000 m. All landscape structures showed a significant effect on the species density, but at different ranges. Arable and forest were both positive at large radii. Water had a negative effect at short ranges but positive at large ranges. The same was shown for grassland, and that is likely explained by grassland making up a very small proportion of the total area. In conclusion, species density in species-rich grasslands can partly be explained by the surrounding landscape. These results have implication for reserve selection, monitoring and restoration.