Biodiversity Assessment

FarmDyn comprises three methods for an post-model estimation of the effect of a simulated agricultural production programme on biodiversity. The method according to Paracchini and Britz (2010) uses crop diversity, fertiliser use and a proxy for management intensity to draw conclusions about biodiversity. The more sophisticated method based on the biodiversity part of the Sustainablity Monitoring and Assessment Routinge (SMART) of the Swiss FibL Institute determines a variety of biodiversity indicators based on the production programme. This method goes into more detail and distinguishes not only the overall impact but also the impact on ecosystem diversity, genetic diversity and species diversity. An implementation of the advanced SALCA-Biodiversity (SALCA-BD) method developed by the Swiss Competence Centre Agroscope can be used to determine the influence of different management practices or the entire agricultural production programme on a total of eleven indicator species groups.

The calculation of the post-model biodiversity assessments can be activated in FarmDyn's Graphical User Interface (GUI) in the tab "Environmental Impacts and Restrictions". Furthermore, a selection can be made between the methods.

It should be noted that the calculations according to the SALCA method are not freely available, but are only possible on request.