Cathy Hawes

The carbon footprints of food crop production.

The agriculture sector contributes significantly to global carbon emissions from diverse sources such as product and machinery manufacture, transport of materials and direct and indirect soil greenhouse gas emissions. In this article, we use farm survey data from the east of Scotland combined with published estimates of emissions for individual farm operations to quantify the relative contribution of a range of farming operations and determine the carbon footprint of different crops (e.g. legumes, winter and spring cereals, oilseed rape, potato) and farming practices (conventional, integrated and organic). Over all crops and farm types, 75% of the total emissions result from nitrogen fertilizer use (both organic and inorganic)—from production, application, and direct nitrous oxide emissions from the soil resulting from application. Once nitrogen is accounted for, there are no major differences between organic, integrated or conventional farming practices. These data highlight opportunities for carbon mitigation and will be of value for inclusion in full life cycle analyses of arable production systems and in calculations of greenhouse gas balance associated with land-use change.

Effects on weed and invertebrate abundance and diversity of herbicide management in genetically modified herbicide-tolerant winter-sown oilseed rape

We evaluated the effects of the herbicide management associated with genetically modified herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) winter oilseed rape (WOSR) on weed and invertebrate abundance and diversity by testing the null hypothesis that there is no difference between the effects of herbicide management of GMHT WOSR and that of comparable conventional varieties. For total weeds there were few treatment differences between GMHT and conventional cropping, but large and opposite treatment effects were observed for dicots and monocots. In the GMHT treatment, there were fewer dicots and more monocots than in conventional crops. At harvest, dicot biomass and seed rain in the GMHT treatment were one-third of that in the conventional, while monocot biomass was threefold greater and monocot seed rain almost fivefold greater in the GMHT treatment than in the conventional. These differential effects persisted into the following two years of the rotation. Bees and butterflies that forage and select for dicot weeds were less abundant in GMHT WOSR management in July. Year totals for Collembola were greater under GMHT management. There were few other treatment effects on invertebrates, despite the marked effects of herbicide management on the weeds.

Soil strength and macropore volume limit root elongation rates in many UK agricultural soils

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Simple indicators of crop and cultivar performance across a range of soil types and management are needed for designing and testing sustainable cropping practices. This paper determined the extent to which soil chemical and physical properties, particularly soil strength and pore-size distribution influences root elongation in a wide range of agricultural top soils, using a seedling-based indicator. METHODS Intact soil cores were sampled from the topsoil of 59 agricultural fields in Scotland, representing a wide geographic spread, range of textures and management practices. Water release characteristics, dry bulk density and needle penetrometer resistance were measured on three cores from each field. Soil samples from the same locations were sieved, analysed for chemical characteristics, and packed to dry bulk density of 1.0 g cm(-3) to minimize physical constraints. Root elongation rates were determined for barley seedlings planted in both intact field and packed soil cores at a water content close to field capacity (-20 kPa matric potential). KEY RESULTS Root elongation in field soil was typically less than half of that in packed soils. Penetrometer resistance was typically between 1 and 3 MPa for field soils, indicating the soils were relatively hard, despite their moderately wet condition (compared with <0.2 MPa for packed soil). Root elongation was strongly linked to differences in physical rather than chemical properties. In field soil root elongation was related most closely to the volume of soil pores between 60 µm and 300 µm equivalent diameter, as estimated from water-release characteristics, accounting for 65.7 % of the variation in the elongation rates. CONCLUSIONS Root elongation rate in the majority of field soils was slower than half of the unimpeded (packed) rate. Such major reductions in root elongation rates will decrease rooting volumes and limit crop growth in soils where nutrients and water are scarce.

The impact of wood ants (Formica rufa) on the distribution and abundance of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in a Scots pine plantation

The importance of wood ants (Formica rufa) in determining the community structure (defined as the relative abundance of component species) and small-scale distribution of carabids was examined in a mature Scots pine stand in the New Forest, southern England. Carabids and wood ants were sampled by pitfall trapping throughout the forest stand from March to September 1998. The abundance of individual carabid species were modelled using vegetation type (grass or bracken), litter depth and wood ant density as independent explanatory variables. Models were fitted using a maximum-likelihood method (GLIM v.3.77; Baker 1985) with the assumption of a Poisson distribution, using a log-link function. Areas of high wood ant density were characterised by low abundance and species richness of carabids and high percentage dominance by the most commonly sampled species, Abax parallelepipedus. The extent and type of vegetation cover was found to influence the distribution and abundance of certain carabid species but only in areas where the density of wood ants was low. Large-bodied species occurred more frequently in bracken-dominated patches where the litter layer was deeper and the density of potential prey items was higher. Wood ant density was found to be the most important determinant of carabid species abundance in the study site.

Ban on triazine herbicides likely to reduce but not negate relative benefits of GMHT maize cropping

The UK Farm-Scale Evaluations (FSE) compared the effects on biodiversity of management of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) spring-sown crops with conventional crop management. The FSE reported larger weed abundance under GMHT management for fodder maize, one of three crops studied. Increased seed production may be important for the long-term persistence of these arable weeds and may benefit invertebrates, small mammals and seed-eating birds. In three-quarters of FSE maize fields, growers used atrazine on the conventionally managed half, reflecting contemporary commercial practice. Withdrawal of the triazine herbicides atrazine, simazine and cyanazine from approved lists of EU chemicals could therefore reduce or even reverse the reported benefits of GMHT maize. Here we analyse effects of applications of triazine herbicides in conventional maize regimes on key indicators, using FSE data. Weed abundances were decreased greatly relative to all other regimes whenever atrazine was applied before weeds emerged. Here, we forecast weed abundances in post-triazine herbicide regimes. We predict weed abundances under future conventional herbicide management to be considerably larger than that for atrazine used before weeds emerged, but still smaller than for the four FSE sites analysed that used only non-triazine herbicides. Our overall conclusion is that the comparative benefits for arable biodiversity of GMHT maize cropping would be reduced, but not eliminated, by the withdrawal of triazines from conventional maize cropping.

Using functional traits to quantify the value of plant communities to invertebrate ecosystem service providers in arable landscapes

1. The loss of farmland biodiversity threatens the sustainability of ecosystem services delivered within agricultural landscapes. The functional trait approach has been successfully used in grassland systems to quantify trade-offs and synergies between services delivered directly by plant communities. Many of the services delivered by arable landscapes, however, depend on invertebrate consumers, and the application of the trait-based approach to these systems depends on quantifying functional relationships between trophic levels. 2. Two data sets of plant and invertebrate communities from a range of annual crops and uncropped land habitats were analysed. The community-weighted means of plant functional traits were calculated for the vegetation samples and used as the explanatory variables in a multivariate analysis of plant species composition across habitats. The constrained axes scores were used in statistical models to explain the variance in associated total invertebrate abundance, phytophagous invertebrates and invertebrate numbers weighted by importance in the diet of farmland bird chicks. 3. The multivariate analysis discriminated between plant communities characterized by ruderal traits (high specific leaf area and early flowering) and those with more competitive traits. More ruderal communities also supported proportionally more invertebrates. The suite of traits included in the analysis explained a greater proportion of the variance in invertebrate abundance between uncropped habitats, as opposed to between annual crops. 4. The overlap between the plant traits that respond to disturbance (functional response traits) and those that affect the abundance of phytophagous invertebrates (functional effect traits) and the diet of farmland birds demonstrates the potential for using common functional metrics to integrate the assessment of an ecosystem service across different habitats particularly on uncropped land where intensity of disturbance is the main environmental driver. 5. Synthesis. The quantification of functional linkages between arable plants and the abundance of their associated invertebrate consumer communities is the first step in extending the trait-based approach to quantify trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services developed in grassland systems to landscapes dominated by arable crops. However, applying the functional approach to in-crop weed communities and other service providers such as pollinators will require the incorporation of additional response and effect traits.

Effects of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant cropping systems on weed seedbanks in two years of following crops

The Farm Scale Evaluations (FSEs) showed that genetically modified herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) cropping systems could influence farmland biodiversity because of their effects on weed biomass and seed production. Recently published results for winter oilseed rape showed that a switch to GMHT crops significantly affected weed seedbanks for at least 2 years after the crops were sown, potentially causing longer-term effects on other taxa. Here, we seek evidence for similar medium-term effects on weed seedbanks following spring-sown GMHT crops, using newly available data from the FSEs. Weed seedbanks following GMHT maize were significantly higher than following conventional varieties for both the first and second years, while by contrast, seedbanks following GMHT spring oilseed rape were significantly lower over this period. Seedbanks following GMHT beet were smaller than following conventional crops in the first year after the crops had been sown, but this difference was much reduced by the second year for reasons that are not clear. These new data provide important empirical evidence for longer-term effects of GMHT cropping on farmland biodiversity.

Cumulative impact of GM herbicide-tolerant cropping on arable plants assessed through species-based and functional taxonomies

Background, aim and scopeIn a gradualist approach to the introduction of crop biotechnology, the findings of experimentation at one scale are used to predict the outcome of moving to a higher scale of deployment. Movement through scales had occurred for certain genetically modified herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) crops in the UK as far as large-scale field trials. However, the land area occupied by these trials was still <1% of the area occupied by the respective non-GM crops. Some means is needed to predict the direction and size of the effect of increasing the area of GMHT cropping on ecological variables such as the diversity among species and trophic interactions. Species-accumulation curves are examined here as a method of indicating regional-scale impacts on botanical diversity from multiple field experiments.Materials and methodsData were used from experiments on the effect of (GMHT) crops and non-GM, or conventional, comparators in fields sown with four crop types (beet, maize, spring and winter oilseed rape) at a total of 250 sites in the UK between 2000 and 2003. Indices of biodiversity were measured in a split-field design comparing GMHT with the farmers’ usual weed management. In the original analyses based on the means at site level, effects were detected on the mass of weeds in the three spring crops and the proportion of broadleaf and grass weeds in winter oilseed rape, but not on indices of plant species diversity. To explore the links between site means and total taxa, accumulation curves were constructed based on the number of plant species (a pool of around 250 species in total) and the number of plant functional types (24), inferred from the general life-history characteristics of a species.ResultsSpecies accumulation differed between GMHT and conventional treatments in direction and size, depending on the type of crop and its conventional management. Differences were mostly in the asymptote of the curve, indicative of the maximum number of species found in a treatment, rather than the steepness of the curve. In winter oilseed rape, 8% more species were accumulated in the GMHT treatment, mainly as a result of the encouragement of grass species by the herbicide when applied in the autumn. (Overall, GMHT winter oilseed rape had strong negative effects on both the food web and the potential weed burden by increasing the biomass of grasses and decreasing that of broadleaf weeds.) In maize, 33% more species—a substantial increase—were accumulated in the GMHT than in the conventional, consistent with the latter’s highly suppressive weed management using triazine herbicides. In the spring oilseed rape and beet, fewer species (around 10%) were accumulated in the GMHT than the conventional. The GMHT treatments did not remove or add any functional (life history) types, however. Differences in species accumulation between treatments appeared to be caused by loss or gain of rarer species. The generality of this effect was confirmed by simulations of species accumulation in which the species complement at each of 50 sites was drawn from a regional pool and subjected to reducing treatment at each site. Shifts in the species-accumulation parameters, comparable to those measured, occurred only when a treatment removed the rarer species at each site.DiscussionSpecies accumulation provided a set of simple curve-parameters that captured the net result of numerous local effects of treatments on plant species and, in some instances, the balance between grass and broadleaf types. The direction of effect was not the same in the four crops and depended on the severity of the conventional treatment and on complex interactions between season, herbicide and crop. The accumulation curves gave an indication of potential positive or negative consequences for regional species pools of replacing a conventional practice with GMHT weed management. In this and related studies, a range of indicators, through which diversity was assessed by both species and functional type, and at both site and regional scales, gave more insight into effects of GMHT treatment than provided by any one indicator.ConclusionsSpecies accumulation was shown to discriminate at the regional scale between agronomic treatments that had little effect on species number at the field scale. While a comprehensive assessment of GM cropping needs to include an examination of regional effects, as here, the costs of doing this in all instances would be prohibitive. Simulations of diversity-reducing treatments could provide a theoretical framework for predicting the likely regional effects from in-field plant dynamics.Recommendations and perspectivesAccumulation curves potentially offer a means of linking within-site effects to regional impacts on biodiversity resulting from any change in agricultural practice. To guide empirical measurement, there is a scope to apply a methodology such as individual-based modelling at the field scale to explore the links between agronomic treatments and the relative abundance of plant types. The framework needs to be validated in practice, using species-based and functional taxonomies, the latter defined by measured rather than inferred traits.

Interference competition, not predation, explains the negative association between wood ants (Formica rufa) and abundance of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

Intraguild interactions between predators have significant implications for how multiple predators impact on their prey. Carabid assemblages are not generally thought to be structured by interspecific competitive interactions, species relative abundances instead being determined mainly by abiotic factors. However, several field studies report negative associations between the abundance of certain carabid species and the presence of wood ants. Replicated laboratory experiments were used to monitor the behaviour of individual female Abax parallelepipedus (Piller & Mitterpacher) in the presence of a range of wood ant (Formica rufa L.) densities (including ant‐free controls) over 23 h. Carabids did not feed when wood ants were present. Running and defence activities were high at low ant densities but decreased with increasing ant density. At the highest ant density, all carabids were killed within the first 2 h of the experiment, but the ants did not consume the carabids after they had killed them. Carabid diurnal activity increased at the higher wood ant densities. Female A. parallelepipedus and Pterostichus madidus (F.) maintained individually in the presence of five wood ants had significantly lower mean body weights and carried fewer eggs after 21 days compared to control beetles that had been kept without ants. The results help to explain the reduced abundance of these two carabid species under field conditions when wood ants are present. We interpret these findings to mean that the interaction between wood ants and carabids is one of asymmetric aggressive interference competition rather than predation.

Statistical models to evaluate invertebrate-plant trophic interactions in arable systems.

Over the past 40 years there have been marked shifts in arable farmland management that are widely believed to have had a considerable impact on flowering plants and invertebrates and the small mammals and birds that rely upon them. It is not yet possible to predict the dynamics of plants and invertebrates either with past or future changes in farmland management. This study investigates whether a basic invertebrate classification, formed of broad trophic groups, can be used to describe interactions between invertebrates and their resource plants and evaluate management impacts for genetically modified, herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) and conventional herbicide management in both spring- and winter-sown oilseed rape. It is argued that the analyses validate trophic-based approaches for describing the dynamics of invertebrates in farmland and that linear models might be used to describe the changes in invertebrate trophic group abundance in farmland when driven by primary producer abundance or biomass and interactions between invertebrates themselves. The analyses indicate that invertebrate dynamics under GMHT management are not unique, but similar to conventional management occurring over different resource ranges, and that dynamics differed considerably between spring- and winter-sown oilseed rape. Thus, herbicide management was of much lower impact on trophic relationships than sowing date. Results indicate that invertebrate dynamics in oilseed rape are regulated by a combination of top-down and bottom-up trophic processes.