Göttingen Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Biodiversity and Ecology Series B Volume 9 Stefan Meyer Impoverishment of the arable flora of Central Germany during the past 50 years: a multiple-scale analysis Published as volume 9 in the Series B as part of the „Biodiversity and Ecology Series“ Göttingen Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology 2013 Stefan Meyer Impoverishment of the arable flora of Central Germany during the past 50 years: a multiple-scale analysis Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 2013 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License 3.0 “BY-ND”, allowing you to download, distribute and print the document in a few copies for private or educational use, given that the document stays unchanged and the creator is mentioned. Bibliographische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Daten sind im Internet über <http://dnb.ddb.de> abrufbar. Editor Dr. Dirk Gansert Göttingen Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, www.biodiversitaet.gwdg.de Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultäten der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen vorgelegt von Stefan Meyer Referent: Prof. Dr. Christoph Leuschner Koreferent: PD Dr. Karsten Wesche Anschrift des Autors Stefan Meyer e-mail: [email protected] Typesetting and layout: Stefan Meyer Cover image: Stefan Meyer DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3249/webdoc-3898 Impoverishment of the arable flora of Central Germany during the past 50 years: a multiple-scale analysis Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Fakultät für Biologie und Psychologie der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen vorgelegt von Stefan Meyer aus Eisleben Göttingen, Mai 2013 Referent: Prof. Dr. Christoph Leuschner Korreferent: PD Dr. Karsten Wesche Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 31.05.2012 Table of contents General introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Arable plant vegetation – the ongoing conflict between agriculture and nature conservation ....................................................................................................................... 2 The need for long term studies to analyze shifts in arable plant vegetation in Central Europe ................................................................................................................................ 4 Study design and chapter outline ....................................................................................... 6 References ....................................................................................................................... 10 The impact of agricultural intensification and land use change on the European arable flora ..................................................................................................................... 14 Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 15 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 16 Material and Methods ...................................................................................................... 17 Results ............................................................................................................................. 21 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 26 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 29 References ....................................................................................................................... 30 Massive changes in Central Europe’s arable plant communities since the 1950s/60s ......................................................................................................................... 34 Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 35 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 36 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................... 37 Results ............................................................................................................................. 41 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 47 Supporting information ................................................................................................... 50 References ....................................................................................................................... 50 Dramatic losses of specialist arable plants in Central Germany since the 1950s/60s – a cross-regional analysis ........................................................................... 55 Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 56 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 57 Material and Methods ...................................................................................................... 59 Results ............................................................................................................................. 62 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 69 Conclusions – Implications for conservation measures .................................................. 74 Supporting information ................................................................................................... 75 References ....................................................................................................................... 75 Landscape complexity has limited effects on genetic structure of two arable plant species, Adonis aestivalis and Consolida regalis .......................................................... 81 Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 82 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 83 Material and Methods ...................................................................................................... 85 Results ............................................................................................................................. 89 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 94 Supporting information ................................................................................................... 97 References ....................................................................................................................... 98 Are current agri-environment schemes suitable for long-term conservation of arable plants? – A short review of different conservation strategies from Germany and brief remarks on the new project ‘100 fields for diversity’ ............ 103 Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 104 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 105 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................. 106 Results and Discussion .................................................................................................. 106 Conclusions and Outlook .............................................................................................. 111 References ..................................................................................................................... 113 Synopsis ........................................................................................................................ 115 Key lessons learnt ........................................................................................................ 116 Threat status of arable plants – an European level assessment ..................................... 116 Turnover in arable plant communities – do we need a new syntaxonomy of arable vegetation? ..................................................................................................................... 117 Dramatic impoverishment of biodiversity in arable plant communities ....................... 118 The influence of habitat fragmentation on the genetic structure of rare arable plants .. 119 Effectiveness of current schemes and programs............................................................ 120 Examples: Trends in selected characteristic species ................................................ 121 Effective conservation measures for arable plants ................................................... 125 The current state of arable plant conservation in Germany 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