After 25 years of work, data now show how agriculture can be organized to benefit animals, plants, and ecosystems.

Researchers from Aarhus University have used advanced computer simulations to map out how agriculture can be organized to benefit biodiversity. The results could have a decisive impact on the implementation of the green tripartite agreement, which aims to convert 140,000 hectares of low-lying farmland into nature. This is stated by Aarhus University in a press release. "Strengthening biodiversity is not as simple as it sounds, because it depends on which species you want to help," says Trine Poulsen, a postdoc at the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University. Recently, she completed a four-year research project that can help us design a landscape where agriculture takes greater consideration of animals, plants, and ecosystems. "Things like creating hedgerows and thickets between fields are really good for most species. But then you have the skylark, which thrives best in large, open fields with clear sightlines. If the landscape becomes more divided, its population may decline," she explains, pointing to a classic dilemma in nature management. The difference this time is that she and her colleagues can demonstrate this using an advanced computer program that has been under development for 25 years and now provides a detailed picture of Denmark's future. Hunger Games meets Minecraft The simulation program is called ALMaSS, Animal, Landscape and Man Simulation System, and was developed by researchers at the Department of Agroecology. It is a relatively new way of working with biodiversity, and based on a wide range of weather and landscape data, the simulations can help individual farmers identify the most effective measures on their farms. "The effort you need to make as a farmer can depend on where you live. For example, if you are in a place that already has many field boundaries, creating an additional boundary might not help much. Instead, it might be better to add more flower strips, so you always need to consider the landscape you are surrounded by," explains Trine Poulsen. In a setting reminiscent of a mix between Hunger Games and Minecraft, different species are released into a simulated world—one at a time. Researchers can then determine how they react to the landscape, and whether they can find food and build nests. "One of the things that really surprised us was simulations with the wild bee, the red mason bee. It turned out that flower strips in a field had no effect on the population of these bees because they bloom too late relative to when the bee is active. We found that hedgerows and thickets— which bloom earlier—are much more helpful for the bee, partly because they provide a habitat," she says. Green tripartite as a safety net One of the main points of the green tripartite agreement is the conversion of 140,000 hectares of low-lying farmland, which is land that produces a lot of CO2 when cultivated. Here, Trine Poulsen hopes that the research project can contribute to a better understanding of how the landscape should be organized in the coming years. But she also fears that the Green Tripartite might become a safety net for the involved parties: "I fear that the green tripartite could overshadow the part of the work we are dealing with. The tripartite mainly involves taking large areas out of cultivation and converting them into nature, which is both important and necessary. But if farmers afterward think that they have already given up land for biodiversity in large nature areas and therefore can do whatever they want on the rest of their fields, we will face a problem. Biodiversity should not only be strengthened in national parks—we also need to create better conditions in the agricultural land that is still being cultivated." Trine Poulsen will present her research results at the Nature Meeting in Hirtshals on May 29. She is already working on a follow-up project aimed at making biodiversity measurable on farmland. See the program for the Nature Meeting here.