Agriculture accounts for about 62% of Ireland?s land area. Due to the intensification of agricultural methods, there has been a drastic change in the farmed landscape since the second half of the last century, and a widely perceived decline in Irish biodiversity similar to that experienced across much of Western Europe. This integrated study, informally known as the Ag-Biota Project, was funded as a 5-year capability development? project starting in 2001, to develop capacity and expertise in biodiversity research within the context of agriculture. The Project had four specified objectives: 1. To develop research capacity and methodologies for biodiversity monitoring within agroecosystems 2. To identify and investigate key aspects of agricultural practice that influence biodiversity 3. To develop a better understanding of the benefits and utilisation of natural populations within agricultural production systems 4. To address fundamental ecological questions regarding the functional value of biological diversity.
The Ag-Biota Project set out to develop a greater understanding of the relationships between Irish
agriculture and biodiversity in its widest sense. At the start of the Project, relatively little work on this specific topic had been done. Even the question of specifying how to begin the process of monitoring and assessment of the sectoral impact of agriculture on biodiversity had not been addressed in an integrated way. The Ag-Biota Project has therefore focused very strongly on the generation of practical knowledge to inform REPS policy development, in addition to the acquisition of ecological knowledge and understanding regarding the intrinsic value of biodiversity in agricultural systems. Ag-Biota bird surveys also highlighted significant relationships between the ecological quality of field
boundaries, quantified by Field Boundary Evaluation and Grading System (FBEGS) scores (Collier and
Feehan, 2003), and bird species richness and diversity within the same field boundaries. In the surveys done at the original Ag-Biota monitoring sites, the total FBEGS Index score was found to be a useful indicator of total observed bird species richness in both the breeding and the winter season. These positive relationships were largely confirmed and elaborated on by the follow-up study of 50 commercial farm sites. In this much larger survey, a very strong link was found between the total FBEGS Index and both the species richness and Shannon diversity of bird populations in the same boundaries during the breeding season

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It is important for the EPA and the Environmental Research Community to know that the data and information products we distribute are useful to the user community we support. One way of doing this is by tracking the use of data and information in publications. Parts of or all of the datasets, data, or digital information products available here can be freely downloaded for further use in scientific applications under the condition that the source will be properly quoted in published papers, journals, websites, presentations, books, etc. Whenever possible the EPA strongly urge you to cite the use of these data, information, and web resources in the reference section of your publications. For convenience an automatically generated citation is available below which can be used immediately for citation purposes.

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Suggested Citation Information

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An example of this citation in proper usage:

Purvis, G. Bolger, T. Kennedy, T. Breen, J.   "Ag-Biota: Monitoring, Functional Significance and Management for the Maintenance and Economic Utilisation of Biodiversity in the Intensively Farmed Landscape". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=f0314697-6c16-102c-9c91-0a68ec663af0 (Last Accessed: 2024-12-13)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=108
Resource Keywords	Ag-BIOTA Biodiversity REPS ecological agriculture landscape farming farmed habitats
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2001-CD/B1-M1
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Biodiversity
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	In the event of obtaining access to datasets corresponding to this resource any datasets, data, or information resources being used in a journal article or other means of publication the original authors should be informed of this usage and an appropriate acknowledgement or citation is included within the published article. The EPA advise that this acknowledgement should take one of the following forms dependent upon how heavily the published work relates to the downloaded data: * Co-Authorship(s) for the original author(s)* Written acknowledgement within the body of the article* Written acknowledgement by means of the inclusion of a bibliography entry which clearly cites the original authors.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	9
Project Start Date	Thursday 1st March 2001 (01-03-2001)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Friday 1st March 2002 (01-03-2002)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Wednesday 31st December 2008 (31-12-2008)
Published on SAFER	Friday 27th March 2009 (27-03-2009)
Date of Last Edit	Friday 27th March 2009 at 16:09:01 (27-03-2009)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Friday 27th March 2009 at 16:09:01 (27-03-2009)

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Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
The current Project's survey of 50 commercial farm sites, totalling 2,577.1 ha in south-east Ireland, indicates that about 15% of land on such farms (7.83 ha per farm) is currently maintained as ?non-cropped? habitat, including an extensive network of hedgerows, accounting for approximately 9% of the total surveyed land area, or about 9 km/km2. This Project therefore made use of a number of pre-existing grassland husbandry experiments with a formally replicated design, which were available at the Teagasc Grange and Johnstown Castle Research Centres, to assess the likely influence of specific grassland husbandry practices on biological diversity.

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In this section some supplementary information about this resource is outlined. Lineage information helps us to understand why this project was carried out, what policy or research requirements did it fulfil, etc. Lineage is important in understanding the rationale behind the carrying out of a project or the collection of a specific dataset etc. Links to web sites, applications, papers, etc are outlined to provide you with additional information or supplementary reading about the project or dataset

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The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource Ag-Biota: Monitoring, Functional Significance and Management for the Maintenance and Economic Utilisation of Biodiversity in the Intensively Farmed Landscape. You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.

• Environmental Sustainability and Future Settlement Patterns in Ireland View Full Metadata Description
• Critical Analysis of the Potential of Mechanical Biological Treatment for Irish waste Management View Full Metadata Description
• Water Framework Directive: Recharge and Groundwater Vulnerability View Full Metadata Description
• CO2 flux data and meteorological data from UCC Flux Sites View Full Metadata Description
• Economy wide material flow analysis and ecological footprint of Ireland View Full Metadata Description

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