Réconcilier production et conservation dans les paysages agricoles: importance de l'hétérogénéité

International audienceHomogenisation of agrolandscapes is one of the causes of biodiversity loss. Agrolandscapes can be described by the proportion of land uses and their spatial arrangement. If the proportion of land uses has strong implications on the productive performance of farming systems, the spatial arrangement of land uses seems to be an important way to improve ecological performances at landscape scale with minor production loss. The objective of this study was to asses the relative effects of the proportion of land uses and their spatial arrangement on ecological dynamics. We focused on the conservation of lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) in grassland landscapes. We developed a modelling approach linking grass dynamics in grazed and mown grasslands to lapwing population dynamics. We tested contrasting landscapes composed of different pairs of land uses depending on whether they compensate or complement each other. Our results show that the proportion of land uses is the first driver of population dynamics. Spatial arrangement of land uses in the landscape is an important although secondary driver of bird population trends. Managing the spatial arrangement of land uses could therefore be an important target of conservation policies. We finally discuss the importance of heterogeneity in conciliating production and biodiversity conservation