Using beta diversity to inform agricultural policies and conservation actions on Mediterranean farmland

摘要

1. Spatial variation in species composition (beta-diversity) is an important component of farmland biodiversity, which together with local richness (alpha-diversity) drives the number of species in a region (gamma-diversity). However, -diversity is seldom used to inform conservation, due to limited understanding of its responses to agricultural management, and lack of clear links between beta-diversity changes and conservation outcomes.