20 June 2022
When we talk about habitat richness, what variables affect the diversity of ecosystem types and which of those is most important? How do interactions among these variables influence habitat richness? An article titled “Diversity of European habitat types is correlated with geography more than climate and human pressure” was published in the...
30 May 2022
A new article investigating novel research about the state of insects in the Netherlands was published by journalist Ronald Veldhuizen in the third largest Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. The article focuses on the work of SHOWCASE’s early career researchers Reinier de Vries and Michele Torresani, of the Dutch and Italian teams respectively, who are...
11 May 2022
How can the natural value of farmland be boosted so that it becomes attractive for insects and birds again, but without farmers feeling the pinch in their pockets? SHOWCASE’s coordinator, Prof David Kleijn reflects on this and more questions in a magazine issue on European research collaborations.
SHOWCASE’s coordinating institution, the Wageningen...
10 May 2022
SHOWCASE partners Dr Felix Herzog and Chiara Durrer met up with the Italian-speaking Swiss news outlet Radiotelevisione svizzera to discuss the synergies between biodiversity and economics.
According to a recent report by the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), the destruction of biodiversity threatens...
08 March 2022
Biodiversity has been drastically affected by intensive agricultural production, resulting in the loss of public goods, such as iconic wildlife and cultural landscapes. The SHOWCASE project is dedicated to stopping this decline in biodiversity by promoting sustainable farming, which includes practices, such as the use of seed mixtures increasing biodiversity.
To...
02 February 2022
A recently published article reviews the effects of land use heterogeneity on arthropod species richness through meta-analysis.
The authors of “Increasing landscape complexity enhances species richness of farmland arthropods, agri-environment schemes also abundance – A meta-analysis”, amongst whom SHOWCASE partner Péter Batáry, analysed 29 studies...
27 December 2021
A recently published article in the Scientific Reports journal analyses how certified organic farming and conventional farming affect the quantity and taxonomic richness of several species groups in vineyards.
The authors of the article discovered that field-scale farming techniques are more important determinants of community abundance than landscape...
09 December 2021
Pest control services provided by naturally occurring species, also called biocontrol services, are widely recognised as a key component in biodiversity conservation. However, there is still a lack of rigorous approaches, evaluating synergies between the biocontrol potential of vertebrates and landscape‐scale features to better inform land-use...
30 November 2021
A new research article in the latest issue of the Science for Environment Policy’s newsletter presents a study which uses decision science to evaluate nine biodiversity indices.
The researchers performed a structured evaluation based on decisсon science on indices commonly used to report on biodiversity targets across marine, freshwater and terrestrial...
05 October 2021
A research article recently published in the British Ecological Society’s Functional Ecology journal, examines how the quantity of floral resources affects pollinator activity and how this relates to the structure and robustness of pollination networks. The paper titled “Patterns of pollination interactions at community-level are related to the type...
New research examines effects of wildflower strips on ground-dwelling natural enemies and crop yield
04 August 2021
A recent study, published in the online journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, examines the effects of wildflower strips on natural pest control and crop yield in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) fields with contrasting management in the Netherlands. The paper called “Flower availability drives effects of wildflower strips on ground-dwelling...
29 July 2021
A recent paper by Beaumelle, L., Auriol, A., et al., published in the online journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence, examines how the benefits of increased cover crop diversity for predators and biological pest control depend on the landscape context.
In agricultural areas, increasing plant diversity is a powerful method to strike the balance...