Action 1

Establishment of a national network of sites to develop protocols for monitoring flora and fauna in agricultural systems

A biodiversity monitoring programme has been established at a range of potentially long-term and stable sites at Teagasc Research Centers, the UCD farm at Lyons Estate, and at commercial farms adjacent to Teagasc Centres throughout the south and east of Ireland. Sites have been selected to include the predominant types of intensive, and less intensive, grassland and mixed arable/grassland agriculture. Standardised programmes for the monitoring for a wide range of taxa have been designed and implemented for each taxonomic group at the appropriate scale of observation. The inclusion of paired commercial farms adjacent to each Teagasc Research Centre, is intended to ensure that the latter are truly representative of their surrounding farming type. Our aim is to identify the most suitable taxa to use as indicators of overall biological diversity and to develop appropriate protocols for the assessment of agri-environmental impact and policy.

On completion and assessment of the initial monitoring programme, it is intended that protocols will be re-evaluated, ammended as necessary, and sampling repeated in the fifth year of the project, in order to create suitable protocols for longer-term monitoring beyond the completion of Ag-Biota. Our intention is to provide the basis for an on-going intelligence gathering system that could provide the necessary documentary evidence concerning the changing status of biodiversity in agricultural land, to enable more effective policy making and provide a mechanism to alert researchers and funding agencies to the need for more specific research effort.

Location of Monitoring Sites, Predominant Types of Agriculture and Typical N Inputs On Monitored Fields:

Monitoring scales and taxonomic groups:

Sampling Methods for Action 1 Monitoring: