Decline of Biodiversity




Quantitative research conducted in many regions has revealed that agrotechnical measures eliminated from cultivated fields and meadows many species of fauna and flora and that the composition of soil microorganisms are simplified. The biomass of invertebrates living in the soil of many different crops in the Wielkopolska region is 12 to 30 times lower in comparison with levels in mixed forests which previously grew in that area.

To maintain rich assemblages of wild plants and animals on cultivated fields conflicts with agricultural goal. Large area ploughfields, especially those where annual crops are grown such as crop rotation of grains only, suffer from strong biological impoverishment. So strong in fact that the process of natural regulation of herbivorous animals by predator, parasite and pathogenic organisms fails to function properly. The process of soil regeneration also stops. These problems to a lowering of soil fertility and forces farmers to spend additional money on intensification of mineral fertilizing and chemical defenses which in turn increases the hazards of pollution by non-point sources.A relevant fact for biodiversity protection is that in Poland, 60% of the land cover is agricultural. Agriculture surrounds and permeates all other types of ecosystems. Thus, improper farming and creation of hazards in rural areas must also influence regions that are designated as biologically valuable and whose fundamental function is the protection of natural resources and biodiversity of organisms. This is why only proper farming, in accordance with sound ecological practices, will allow for the preservation of diversified organism populations.

It is obvious that agriculture alone, even after the introduction of the most rational forms of farming, will not eliminate all environmental hazards, especially those generated by public utilities, communication, recreation facilities and others. This is why in order to most effictive improve the state of the environment, system-wide cooperation is necessary to moderate the impact of hazards. The structural and property changes now occuring in the agricultural sector provides a convenient opportunity to introduce improved ecological farming principles. For example, reforestation of farmland classified in the low fertility class, creation of a network of tree plantings and field retention reservoirs, limiting the extent of melioration especially to stop systematic drainage, increase the acreage of perennial crops and replace chemical methods with biological and agrotechnical in order to combat dieseases and control plant pests.


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