Importance of seminatural habitats for biodiversity of organic olive groves in CW Spain.

MORENO, G; JUÁREZ, E; LÓPEZ-DÍAZ, ML; PULIDO, F; GONZÁLEZ BORNAY, G; LENCINAS, MV

Helsinki

Congreso; 12th Congress of the European Society for Agronomy; 2012

European Society for Agronomy

Organic farming systems are expected to have less environmental impact than intensive agriculture. Among other environmental benefits, an increase of biodiversity is expected in organic farms compared to conventional ones. Apart of management practices (pressure to the ecosystem), the occurrence and abundance of organisms could also depend on the abundance, size and spatial location of different habitats (state of the ecosystem).  The EU FP7 research project BIOBIO - Indicators for biodiversity in organic and low-input farming systems - has monitored the species richness and abundance of four biological key groups for agroecosystems functioning, plants (primary producers), bees (pollinators), earthworms (detritivores)  and spider (depredators) in most representative organic farming system across Europe. Olive groves, with more than 250000 ha cultivated organically in Europe, was studied in Spain, where olive grove is the main organic farm system, with more than 100000 ha.