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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

The use of marginal land, especially that which has already been used for agricultural purposes in the past two decades, for biomass cultivation is seen as an important approach for the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. Marginal land can provide many other important ecosystem services than biomass provisioning for bioenergy and biobased products such as erosion mitigation, groundwater protection and nursery services to promote biodiversity. However, marginal land is also often subject to dynamic processes, mostly soil degradation and climate change, which make its fauna and flora particularly vulnerable to land-use changes. This study provides insights into marginal land’s potential biodiversity characterization and critically discusses further steps towards applicable management approaches. Not all commonly used indicators apply to all types of marginal land, especially regarding the site-specific biophysical constraints and the landscape heterogeneity. This is because both the biodiversity and biophysical constraints are sensitive to disturbances. Therefore, when marginal lands are used for biomass production, all available measures should be taken to allow for predominantly positive impacts on local biodiversity, such as a survey of the status quo using camera traps, area mapping, or caterpillar mimics and a forecast of potential biophysical and agrobiological impacts of management.

Details

Title
Towards Managing Biodiversity of European Marginal Agricultural Land for Biodiversity-Friendly Biomass Production
Author
Burland, Anna; Moritz von Cossel  VIAFID ORCID Logo 
First page
1651
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20734395
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2829695974
Copyright
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.