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--></style><title>Wildlife-friendly farming: Consequences for crop
yield</title></head><body>
<div><i>Proceedings of Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</i></div>
<div><font
color="#1A1718">http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1740</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Geneva"><b>Wildlife-friendly farming increases crop
yield: evidence for ecological intensification</b></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva">Richard F. Pywell et al</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva">Abstract<b> (Bold added)</b></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva"><b><br></b></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva">Ecological intensification has been promoted
as a means to achieve environ- mentally sustainable increases in crop
yields by enhancing ecosystem functions that regulate and suppor t
production. There is, however, little direct evidence of yield
benefits from ecological intensification on commer- cial farms growing
globally important foodstuffs (grains, oilseeds and pulses).<b> We
replicated two treatments removing 3 or 8% of land at the field edge
from production to create wildlife habitat in 50-60 ha patches over
a 900 ha commercial arable farm</b> in central England, and compared
these to a business as usual control (no land removed). In the control
fields, crop yields were reduced by as much as 38% at the field
edge.<b> Habitat creation in these lower yielding areas led to
increased yield in the cropped areas of the fields, and this positive
effect became more pronounced over 6 years. As a consequence, yields
at the field scale were maintained-and, indeed, enhanced for some
crops-despite the loss of cropland for habitat creation.</b> These
results suggested that over a 5-year crop rotation, there would be no
adverse impact on overall yield in terms of monetary value or
nutritional energy. This study provides a clear demonstration that
wildlife-friendly management which supports ecosystem services is
compatible with, and can even increase, crop yields.</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva"><b>This one is open access. Get your pdf
here:</b></font></div>
<div><font
face="Geneva"
>http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royprsb/282/1816/2015<span
></span>1740.full.pdf</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva"><br></font></div>
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"Ignorance of remote causes disposeth men to attribute all events
to the causes immediate and instrumental: for these are all the causes
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Attributed to Thomas Hobbes<br>
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"Making connections is the essence of scientific progress."<br>
<br>
Chris Quigg, "Aesthetic Science,"</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="-1" color="#000000"><i>Scientific
American,</i> April 1999</font><font face="Geneva" size="-1"
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