Identification

Title

Flora and fauna data from agricultural land under differing crop and management regimes, 2006-2010 - RELU Effects of scale in organic agriculture

Abstract

This dataset consists of ecology data from 16 paired field sites; each pair consisting of an organic and conventional farm. A multiscale sampling design was employed to assess the impact of (i) location-within-field (field margin vs. edge vs. centre), (ii) crop type (arable cereal vs. permanent pasture), (iii) farm management (organic vs. conventional) and (iv) landscape-scale management (landscapes that contained low or high fractions of organic land) on a wide range of taxa. Studied taxa include birds, insect pollinators (hoverflies, bumblebees and solitary bees), epigeal arthropods, aphids and their natural enemies, earthworms and plants. The study is part of the NERC Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme. A move to organic farming can have significant effects on wildlife, soil and water quality, as well as changing the ways in which food is supplied, the economics of farm business and indeed the attitudes of farmers themselves. Two key questions were addressed in the SCALE project: what causes organic farms to be arranged in clusters at local, regional and national scales, rather than be spread more evenly throughout the landscape; and how do the ecological, hydrological, socio-economic and cultural impacts of organic farming vary due to neighbourhood effects at a variety of scales. The research was undertaken in 2006-2007 in two study sites: one in the English Midlands, and one in southern England. Both are sites in which organic farming has a 'strong' local presence, which we defined as 10 per cent or more organically managed land within a 10 km radius. Potential organic farms were identified through membership lists of organic farmers provided by two certification bodies (the Soil Association and the Organic Farmers and Growers). Most who were currently farming (i.e. their listing was not out of date) agreed to participate. Conventional farms were identified through telephone listings. Respondents' farms ranged in size from 40 to 3000 acres, with the majority farming between 100 and 1000 acres. Most were mixed crop-livestock farmers, with dairy most common in the southern site, and beef and/or sheep mixed with arable in the Midlands. In total, 48 farms were studied, of which 21 were organic farmers. No respondent had converted from organic to conventional production, whereas 17 had converted from conventional to organic farming. Twelve of the conventional farmers defined themselves as practicing low input agriculture. Farmer interview data from this study are available at the UK Data Archive under study number 6761. Soil data from agricultural land under differing crop and management regimes,are also available. Further documentation for this study may be found through the RELU Knowledge Portal and the project's ESRC funding award web page (see online resources).

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/data/010bcde5-e4f3-4b48-a2f4-53cdc9083c02

name: Download the data

description: Download a copy of this data

function: download

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/sd/010bcde5-e4f3-4b48-a2f4-53cdc9083c02.zip

name: Supporting document

description: Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset

function: information

Unique resource identifier

code

1310549740505

codeSpace

CEH:EIDC:

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

biota

environment

farming

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Land Use

originating controlled vocabulary

title

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Keyword set

keyword value

farmland birds

pollinators

hoverflies

bumblebees

solitary wild bees

epigeal arthropods

aphids

natuaral enemies

earthworms

farmland plants

2006-2010

Effects of Scale in Organic Agriculture

Rural Economy and Land Use Programme

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-2.99

East bounding longitude

0.14

North bounding latitude

53.85

South bounding latitude

50.57

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2007-03-04

End position

2008-08-31

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2012-09-21

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

Research funded by Economic and Social Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Award Number: RES-227-25-0006 Botanical inventory and soil analyses on 42 selected case study farms with biodiverse grassland types: 12 lamb farms, 15 beef farms, 12 cheese farms, 3 control farms. Three grassland communities (mesotrophic, acid and calcareous) were so selected, represented by saltmarsh, moorland and heather for sheep farming; acid, calcareous and wet-neutral grasslands for beef farming; and circumneutral for on-farm cheese production. These were located using existing vegetation maps and surveys. For the botanical survey plant species were identified and their frequency recorded, as well as site and vegetation description, soil profile, soil depth, slope, aspect, stand area, sample area, mean height of layers of vegetation, altitude and geology. The data recorded on species cover and the calculated frequency class was then used to assign the assessed stand of vegetation to a published community or sub-community. For soil analyses 100 g soil samples were taken for each site to determine: ? sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in soil by ICP-AES ? phosphate-phosphorus in soil by colorimetry ? pH in soil and water

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-08

degree

explanation

Data format

name of format

Microsoft Excel

version of format

12

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

University of Leeds

email address

D.Gabriel@leeds.ac.uk

responsible party role

owner

Responsible party

organisation name

University of Leeds

email address

T.G.Benton@leeds.ac.uk

responsible party role

owner

Responsible party

organisation name

University of Leeds

email address

W.E.Kunin@leeds.ac.uk

responsible party role

owner

Responsible party

organisation name

University of Sussex

email address

sigrid.stagl@wu.ac.at

responsible party role

principalInvestigator

Responsible party

organisation name

University of Leeds

email address

S.M.Sait@leeds.ac.uk

responsible party role

owner

Responsible party

organisation name

NERC Environmental Information Data Centre

email address

info@eidc.ac.uk

responsible party role

publisher

Responsible party

organisation name

NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre

email address

info@eidc.ac.uk

responsible party role

custodian

Responsible party

organisation name

UK Data Archive

email address

veerle@essex.ac.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Environmental Information Data Centre

full postal address

Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg

Lancaster

LA1 4AP

UK

email address

info@eidc.ac.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2021-06-25T18:36:14

Metadata language

eng