Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes

Abstract In the intensively farmed, homogenous agricultural landscape of the North China Plain, family graveyards form distinct cultural landscape features. In addition to their cultural value, these graveyards represent semi-natural habitat islands whose potential roles in biodiversity conservation...

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Autores principales:	Cheng Gong, Liangtao Li, Jan C. Axmarcher, Zhenrong Yu, Yunhui Liu
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/26f4b863cc464a38bed3e58c756c05df
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:26f4b863cc464a38bed3e58c756c05df2021-12-02T11:50:30ZFamily graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes10.1038/s41598-020-80362-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/26f4b863cc464a38bed3e58c756c05df2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80362-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract In the intensively farmed, homogenous agricultural landscape of the North China Plain, family graveyards form distinct cultural landscape features. In addition to their cultural value, these graveyards represent semi-natural habitat islands whose potential roles in biodiversity conservation and ecological functioning has remained poorly understood. In this study, we investigated plant species richness on 199 family graveyards of different ages and sizes. In accordance with biogeography theory, both overall and insect-pollinated plant species richness increased with area and age of graveyards. Even small graveyards show a strong potential for conserving local plant richness, and a mosaic of both large and small family graveyards could play an important role in the conservation of farmland biodiversity and related ecosystem functions. The launch of agri-environmental measures that conserve and create semi-natural habitats, in turn benefitting agricultural biodiversity and ecological functioning, has proven difficult in China due to the shortage of dispensable arable land. Given the great value of family graveyards as semi-natural habitats reflected in our study, we propose to focus preliminary efforts on conserving these landscape features as existing, widespread and culturally important semi-natural habitat islands. This would represent an effective, complementary policy to a subsequent re-establishment of other semi-natural habitats for the conservation of biodiversity and ecological functioning in agricultural landscapes.Cheng GongLiangtao LiJan C. AxmarcherZhenrong YuYunhui LiuNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Cheng Gong Liangtao Li Jan C. Axmarcher Zhenrong Yu Yunhui Liu Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes
description	Abstract In the intensively farmed, homogenous agricultural landscape of the North China Plain, family graveyards form distinct cultural landscape features. In addition to their cultural value, these graveyards represent semi-natural habitat islands whose potential roles in biodiversity conservation and ecological functioning has remained poorly understood. In this study, we investigated plant species richness on 199 family graveyards of different ages and sizes. In accordance with biogeography theory, both overall and insect-pollinated plant species richness increased with area and age of graveyards. Even small graveyards show a strong potential for conserving local plant richness, and a mosaic of both large and small family graveyards could play an important role in the conservation of farmland biodiversity and related ecosystem functions. The launch of agri-environmental measures that conserve and create semi-natural habitats, in turn benefitting agricultural biodiversity and ecological functioning, has proven difficult in China due to the shortage of dispensable arable land. Given the great value of family graveyards as semi-natural habitats reflected in our study, we propose to focus preliminary efforts on conserving these landscape features as existing, widespread and culturally important semi-natural habitat islands. This would represent an effective, complementary policy to a subsequent re-establishment of other semi-natural habitats for the conservation of biodiversity and ecological functioning in agricultural landscapes.
format	article
author	Cheng Gong Liangtao Li Jan C. Axmarcher Zhenrong Yu Yunhui Liu
author_facet	Cheng Gong Liangtao Li Jan C. Axmarcher Zhenrong Yu Yunhui Liu
author_sort	Cheng Gong
title	Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes
title_short	Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes
title_full	Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes
title_fullStr	Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes
title_full_unstemmed	Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes
title_sort	family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in china's agricultural landscapes
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/26f4b863cc464a38bed3e58c756c05df
work_keys_str_mv	AT chenggong familygraveyardsformunderappreciatedlocalplantdiversityhotspotsinchinasagriculturallandscapes AT liangtaoli familygraveyardsformunderappreciatedlocalplantdiversityhotspotsinchinasagriculturallandscapes AT jancaxmarcher familygraveyardsformunderappreciatedlocalplantdiversityhotspotsinchinasagriculturallandscapes AT zhenrongyu familygraveyardsformunderappreciatedlocalplantdiversityhotspotsinchinasagriculturallandscapes AT yunhuiliu familygraveyardsformunderappreciatedlocalplantdiversityhotspotsinchinasagriculturallandscapes
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Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes

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