09 March 2022
FAIRshare (Farm Advisory Digital Innovation Tools Realised and Shared) is an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project launched in November 2018. It aims to encourage farm and agricultural advisors to adopt existing Digital Advisory Tools and Services, enabling a more digital, productive, and sustainable agriculture.
To engage directly with farm, agricultural,...
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...
21 December 2021
With our recent first birthday and with the festive season approaching, SHOWCASE wants to wish you happy holidays! During this year we achieved a lot and progressed towards integrating new farming practices on biodiversity. We layed the foundations of our research and we believe that these will help us execute our future plans towards the aims we have.
Let...
13 December 2021
SHOWCASE partners Ignasi Bartomeus and Elena Velado-Alonso recently participated in a TV programme of the Andalusian local TV and radio channel CanalSur.
Within the programme, experts present the Gudalquivida Experimental Biodiversity Area where EBD-CSIC researchers, key enterprises and farmers cooperatives codesign measures to promote biodiversity...
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...
06 December 2021
SHOWCASE just published its brand new animated video titled "Making biodiversity an essential ingredient of farming”. The video demonstrates the essence of biodiversity and how important it is for optimal functioning of the ecosystem. Often threatened by conventional farming, biodiversity suffers due to the abuse of pesticides, climate change and more....
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...
23 November 2021
Project members and representatives of the SHOWCASE experimental biodiversity areas (EBAs) met up between 15 and 17 November 2021. The four-day meeting was marked by insightful presentations, vivid discussions and an overview of the project’s developments and future initiatives. The 2021 SHOWCASE annual general meeting was hosted by project partners...
13 October 2021
SHOWCASE coordinator Prof. David Kleijn of Wageningen University and Research and project partners from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Centre for Ecological Research (Hungary), and the University of Reading took part in a recently conducted Expert consultation workshop on EU actions for pollinators in agricultural landscapes. The...
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...
15 September 2021
It has been a busy summer for SHOWCASE researchers!
A recently conducted online workshop between SHOWCASE project partners set the stage for upcoming large-scale research endeavours, which would be conducted in a number of European countires, featuring farmers from various backgrounds. Throughout the workshop partners coordinated their future actions,...
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...