10.3 Species diversity and human activities

Question 1

What agricultural practices have directly removed habitats and reduced species diversity

Answer 1

1. Removal of hedgerows and grubbing out woodland
2. Creating monocultures, for example replacing natural meadows with cereal crops or gross for silage
3. Filling in ponds and draining marsh and other wetland
4. Over-grazing of land, e.g. upland areas by sheep, thereby preventing regeneration of woodland
5. Use of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers
6. Escape of effluent from silage stores
7. Absence of crop rotation

Question 2

What are some conservation techniques that can be used which increase species diversity

Answer 2

1. Maintain existing hedgerows at the most beneficial height. An A-shape provides better habitats
2. Plant hedges rather than fences
3. Maintain existing ponds and if possible create new ones
4. Leave wet corners of fields without draining them
5. Plant native trees with a low species diversity rather than in species-rich area
6. Reduce the use of pesticides
7. Use organic fertilisers
8. Use intercropping
9. Create natural meadows and use hay rather than grasses for silage
10. Leave the cutting of verges and field edge until after flowering and when seeds have dispersed
11. introduce conservation headlands - areas at the edges of fields where pesticides are used restrictively so that wild flowers and insects can breed.