Amy Arnott
Introduction
Amy’s project, entitled “The efficacy of agri-environment schemes in promoting biodiversity in upland grasslands” focuses on the role of subsidised wildlife-friendly farming in shaping invertebrate biodiversity and ecological webs in improved and semi-natural grasslands. The project spans multiple taxonomic groups using innovative approaches to investigate the response of invertebrate trophic networks to contrasting farmland management. The aim is to inform government with recommendations for future agri-environment scheme awards to maximize ecosystem service delivery in the post-Brexit era.
Within this project, 90 agri-environment scheme and conventionally managed grassland fields were studied across Northern Ireland. Below-soil, soil emergent, soil surface and aerial invertebrates were sampled, along with vegetation for an ecosystem-based approach to provide evidence of agri-environment effects on whole communities. This project explores invertebrate groups common to temperate grassland habitats such as Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Collembola, Acarina, Araneae, etc. The taxa studied are part of key ecosystem food webs and are known to be sensitive to changes in farming practice, hence they are useful bio-indicators for management changes in agricultural land.
This project will define the appropriate targeting of conservation management practices in grassland pastures to identify appropriate conditions for invertebrate taxa in the uplands. The effect of landscape-wide farmland abandonment on biodiversity has also been examined, to assess the uncertain future of subsidy-reliant upland farming.
