Effects of agricultural and forest practices on biodiversity in North-West Spain

Abstract

The agricultural and forest practices affect biodiversity. This thesis studied how different agricultural and forest management practices affect the biodiversity that depends on the agro-forestry environments of North-West Spain. All birds, butterflies and plants benefited from organic farming, with higher species richness and abundance in organic than conventional farms. In addition, organic farming resulted in a higher functional diversity of butterflies. Finally, all bird and plant species richness and diversity were higher in native forests than Eucalyptus plantations. Organic agriculture and native forests play a key role for biodiversity, and they should be prioritised in order to conserve biodiversity in North-West Spain.