DOI: 10.5061/dryad.n8pk0p2x1
title: Data from: Turnover and nestedness drive plant diversity benefits of organic farming from local to landscape scales

description: Biodiversity-benefits of organic farming have mostly been documented at
 the field scale. However, these benefits from organic farming to species
 diversity may not propagate to larger scales, because variation in the
 management of different crop types and semi-natural habitats in
 conventional farms might allow species to cope with intensive crop
 management. We studied flowering plant communities using a spatially
 replicated design in different habitats (cereal, ley and semi-natural
 grasslands) in organic and conventional farms, distributed along a
 gradient in proportion of semi-natural grasslands. We developed a novel
 method to compare the rates of species turnover within and between
 habitats, and between the total species pools in the two farming systems.
 We found that the intra-habitat species turnover did not differ between
 organic and conventional farms, but that organic farms had a significantly
 higher inter-habitat turnover of flowering plant species compared to
 conventional ones. This was mainly driven by herbicide-sensitive species
 in cereal fields in organic farms, as these contained 2.5 times more
 species exclusive to cereal fields compared to conventional farms. The
 farm-scale species richness of flowering plants was higher in organic than
 conventional farms, but only in simple landscapes. At the inter-farm
 level, we found that 36% of species were shared between the two farming
 systems, 37% were specific to organic farms while 27% were specific to
 conventional ones. Thus, our results suggest that that both community
 nestedness and species turnover drive changes in species composition
 between the two farming systems. These large-scale shifts in species
 composition were driven by both species-specific herbicide and nitrogen
 sensitivity of plants. Our study demonstrates that organic farming should
 foster a diversity of flowering plant species from local to landscape
 scales, by promoting unique sets of arable-adapted species that are scarce
 in conventional systems. In terms of biodiversity conservation, our
 results call for promoting organic farming over large spatial extents,
 especially in simple landscapes, where such transitions would benefit
 plant diversity most.
description: Data about flowering plant communities collected in cereal
 fields, leys and semi-natural grasslands and used for the
 analyses.
 <strong>Authors:</strong> Name:
 Romain Carrié<br> Insititution: Centre for Environmental and Climate
 Research, Lund University<br> Email: romain.carrie@cec.lu.se
 (corresponding author) Name: Johan Ekroos<br>
 Insititution: Department of Agricultural Sciences, Plant Production
 Sciences, University of Helsinki Name: Henrik
 Smith<br> Insititution: Department of Biology, Lund
 University <strong>Two
 files:</strong> 
 data_Carrie_et_all_Ecol_Appl_dryad: contains the data for the
 analysis on flowering plant species richness (habitat and farm scales) and
 the proportion of exclusive species at the plot, habitat and regional
 scales. data_traits_Carrie_et_all_Ecol_Appl_dryad:
 contains the same data but for each trait (herbicide and nitrogen
 sensitivity), at the habitat and regional scales. 
 <strong>Tabs for the file
 data_Carrie_et_all_Ecol_Appl_dryad</strong>: 
 species richness habitat: Flowering plant species richness at
 the habitat scale species richness farm: Flowering
 plant species richness at the farm scale exclusive
 plot: proportion of plot-exclusive plant species per habitat type and
 farming system (intra-habitat turnover) exclusive
 habitat: proportion of habitat-exclusive plant species per habitat type
 and farming system (inter-habitat turnover) exclusive
 farming syst: proportion of farming system-exclusive plant species for
 each possible organic-conventional farm pair (regional
 turnover) <strong>Tabs for the file
 data_traits_Carrie_et_all_Ecol_Appl_dryad:</strong>
 herbicide excl habitat: proportion of herbicide
 sensitive/tolerant habitat-exclusive plant species per habitat type and
 farming system (inter-habitat turnover) nitrogen excl
 habitat: proportion of nitrogen sensitive/tolerant habitat-exclusive plant
 species per habitat type and farming system (inter-habitat
 turnover) herbicide excl farming system: proportion
 of herbicide sensitive/tolerant farming system-exclusive plant species for
 each possible organic-conventional farm pair (regional
 turnover) nitrogen excl farming system: proportion of
 nitrogen sensitive/tolerant farming system-exclusive plant species for
 each possible organic-conventional farm pair (regional
 turnover) 
 <strong>Variables</strong> 
 farm.ID: farm ID Habitat.type: Habitat type
 sampled (cereal, ley and sng = semi-natural grassland)
 Farm.syst: farming system of the corresponding farm (org =
 organic, conv = conventional) p.SNG: average
 proportion of semi-natural grasslands around the sampling plots
 flower.SR: Flowering plant species richness (response
 variable) p.excl: proportion of exclusive flowering
 plant species (plot, habitat and regional scales) (response
 variable) Sensitivity.MCPA: sensitivity to the MCPA
 herbicide (MCPA is one of the most used herbicide in Sweden), measuring
 herbicide sensitivity in the analysis (Y = sensitive, N =
 non-sensitive). Family: plant species family (Legume,
 Non-legume) measuring nitrogen input sensitivity in the analysis (Legume =
 nitrogen sensitive, Non-legume = nitrogen tolerant).
 <strong>Variables specific to tab
 'exclusive farming syst' in file
 'data_Carrie_et_all_Ecol_Appl_dryad'</strong>
 These variables are calculated at the scale of a farm pair
 (conventional-organic pair) Id.pair : ID of the
 conventional-organic farm pair Farm.ID.conv: ID of the
 conventional farm Farm.ID.org: ID of the organic
 farm sr.conv:
 Flowering plant species richness of the conventional farm
 sr.org: Flowering plant
 species richness of the organic farm nb.shared: Number of shared
 species between the two farms of the pair p.shared: Proportion of shared
 species between the two farms of the pair  (response variable, Fig.
 6b) sr.change:
 Change in species richness when shifting from conventional to organic
 (response variable, Fig. 6a) p.excl.org: proportion of
 exclusive flowering plant species to the organic farm in the pair
 (response variable, Fig. 6b) p.excl.conv: proportion of
 exclusive flowering plant species to the conventional farm in the pair
 (response variable, Fig. 6b)