Biodiversity impacts of legume-supported cropping in Europe

Abstract

Current global biodiversity loss is mainly driven by anthropogenic activities including land use change, pollution and over exploitation. Legumes have for millennia been used as a source of nitrogen in agriculture, and may be increasingly used in low-input agricultural systems as an alternative to chemical fertilisers. It is widely stated that this may have subsequent beneficial effects on the agroecosystem. This thesis aims to investigate the biodiversity impacts of a variety of legume-supported cropping systems which are currently in use, and in future may be further encouraged due to recent changes to the EU Common Agricultural Policy, in different pedoclimatic regions of Europe.