Arable land with unmixed crops grown by low-intensity agricultural methods

This habitat includes arable fields managed using low-intensity agricultural techniques with occurrence of rare native or archaeophyte weed species, survivors of a farming style that has existed in Europe since the Neolithic. The most common crops of such fields have been cereals including Avena sativa, Hordeum vulgare, Triticum aestivum, T. turgidum and Secale cereale, managed without herbicides, without application of non-organic fertilizers and often without irrigation systems. They were originally sown manually, which resulted in more patchy distribution of crop plants than when mechanical sowing is used, thus leaving space for the development of weeds and the crop seeds were often contaminated with weed seed.

Traditionally managed rain-fed fields have been preserved especially in the mountainous areas of the Mediterranean and although they are no longer profitable for corn production, they are still used locally for planting winter cereals as a source of fodder for livestock. Wheat is the most common crop but rotation with other cereals is common. Such fields are small in size, often located on terraces and are ploughed and sown in autumn and, when the crop biomass increases, they are either grazed or mown for hay. The fields are rich in low-competitive winter-annual weed species which reach their peak of biomass development in spring. Their species composition differs considerably from the irrigated Mediterranean fields, which are rich in weeds that germinate only in warmer periods in spring and reach their phenological optimum in summer or autumn. The latter also contain many more neophytes.

Outside the Mediterranean, the traditionally managed low-intensity fields are much rarer . They occur locally especially on soils with limited water-storage capacity such as on limestone slopes or on sandy plains but most arable fields in such unproductive environments have been abandoned during the last decades. Also here, cereals are the most common crop in such low-intensity farming systems as survive. Wherever low site fertility does not allow the development of dense stands of the crop and the use of herbicides is limited, species-rich weed communities including several archaeophytes of the Mediterranean and Near East origin may develop. Some of these weed species were relatively common until the first half of the 20th century, but they declined dramatically due to agricultural intensification including the use of herbicides, chemical fertilizers, improved seed-cleaning methods, sowing highly productive and competitive varieties of cereals, and removal of refugial habitats in the landscape due to merging of small fields into large ones. Nowadays in many cases, species-rich weed communities only occur in narrow stripes along field margins that are not treated with herbicides or in restoration initiatives.

Indicators of good quality:

·      Occurrence of rare or declining, native or archaeophytic weed species

·      Low incidence of neophytic weeds

·      No use of mineral fertilizers

·      No or limited use of herbicides

·      No irrigation in dryland areas

Synthesis of Red List assessment

Confidence in the assessment

Pressures and threats