Regenerative agriculture is promoted as a farming system that can improve agricultural sustainability, address soil degradation, and provide ecosystem service benefits. However, there remains limited evidence for the quantifiable benefits of a widespread transition to regenerative agriculture on soil, biodiversity, and crop quality, particularly at the landscape scale, and poor integration of findings across disciplines. Social and cultural aspects of the transition, such as the positioning of regenerative agriculture as a grassroots movement, farmers' perspectives on defining regenerative practices, and social or political barriers to implementation, are harder to quantify and often overlooked in evidence-based approaches. Here, we present the detailed methodology for our interdisciplinary, co-designed landscape-scale experiment measuring changes in soil health, biodiversity, yield, and grain quality, as well as social and political dimensions of the implementation of regenerative practices. Our unique approach, through the co-production process, the landscape-scale, and the focus on a systemic transition instead of individual practices, will bring strong evidence of the benefits of regenerative agriculture for sustained agricultural productivity, the mitigation of climate change and biodiversity depletion in agroecosystems. Our research aims to guide future studies transforming theoretical ecology into testable hypotheses in real-world systems and provide actionable evidence to inform agricultural policies in the UK and beyond.

Capsule: Small mammal abundance was greatest in landscapes with a high coverage of grassy field margins, which was also associated with increased fledging success of Barn Owls. Aims: To determine the potential value of agri-environment scheme (AES) habitats for small mammals and, in turn, predatory Barn Owls. Methods: Monitoring of small mammals was conducted across 14 1-km(2) British National Grid squares. Survey squares were selected according to a known distribution of Barn Owls derived from monitoring during 2018-2020. We analysed relationships between small mammal activity and coverage of grass-dominated field margins, floristic margins, hedgerows, and tree lines. Barn Owl nest box occupancy in 2021 was analysed in relation to prey abundance (small mammal activity) and the described habitat types. Barn Owl fledging success was then modelled in relation to the prey abundance and the coverage of different habitat types. Results: Our findings suggest that grass field margin habitats are among the AES options most likely to be of value to Barn Owls, as positive relationships with fledging success and prey species were identified. This research is important in providing evidence to support continued implementation and valuing of grass margins under future versions of AES. Conclusion: The study findings suggest that breeding Barn Owls benefit from the provision of grassy field margin habitat, more so than those sown with wildflowers. Our findings add to the body of evidence demonstrating the positive relationships between AES and wildlife and support continued implementation of grass margins on arable farmland.

The global decline in pollinators is likely to negatively affect the yield of insect pollinated crops such as field beans (Vicia faba). To understand the impact of such declines it is important to investigate how the abundance, composition and behaviour of the pollinator community relates to crop yield. We observed pollinators (specifically Bombus spp. and Apis mellifera) foraging in field bean fields. Some bees actively pollinated flowers whereas others robbed the nectar without actively pollinating the flowers. As legitimate foraging visits are more likely to pollinate the crop, we explored infield and landscape scale factors affecting this variation in behaviour. Infield factors included sowing time (winter/spring) and plant density. Landscape factors were the area of flower-rich habitat, and of mass-flowering crops within 1 km of the bean field. We also explored how the abundance and behaviour of different functional groups (short-tongued bumblebees, long-tongued bumblebees or honeybees) responded to these factors. Finally, we assessed how the abundance and behaviour of these pollinators affected field bean yield. Pollinators were more abundant in bean crops that were spring sown and where there was a smaller area of mass-flowering crops in the landscape. Functional groups varied in their predominant foraging behaviour and in how their behaviour was influenced by external factors. There was no relationship between pollinator abundance and bean yield however the proportion of pollinators legitimately foraging was negatively related to yield. Our findings align with previous research in suggesting that the benefits of insect pollinators for field beans are context specific. Additional work is required to develop pollinator conservation measures that will facilitate crop pollination.

Arable field margins provide important floral resources for insect foragers. This study assessed the significance of cultivated margins and floristically enhanced margins, both English agri-environment scheme (AES) options, to foraging bumble bees (Bombus species). We examined plant foraging preferences in each habitat according to species and caste. Additionally, detailed botanical surveys were carried out to determine vascular plant densities on the study margins. Overall, our results emphasised the importance of spontaneous (Asteraceae) species emerging from the seed bank in the provision of forage across Bombus species and castes, and highlighted that Bombus foraging preferences appeared to be only weakly related to floral species densities. Although found only occasionally in high densities, the popularity of these dicots was likely due to high nectar sugar mass. Bombus queens were recorded relatively infrequently, implying that these habitats are failing to provide the preferred floral resources of all Bombus spp. queens. Queens that were observed were found to favour earlier-flowering species (e.g. Anchusa arvensis) and species with longer corollas (e.g. Vicia sativa). Worker bees across Bombus spp. showed high overlap in plant preferences (e.g. Cirsium arvense, Ononis spinosa). However, some variability in preferences between castes within a species were noted, for example, only B. terrestris/lucorum drones were found to forage on Crepis vesicaria in cultivated margins. Additionally, bumble bee abundance was only found to increase as dicot cover increased. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of continuing to utilise multiple AES types in order to fully support Bombus and other pollinating insect populations on farmland.

Use of species-specific field methods may be required for taxa that are inherently difficult to survey, for example species with cryptic camouflage or secretive behaviour. However, these methods often require more manual effort and therefore cost. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is now an established tool to reduce manual effort to monitor species, and analysis of spectrograms provides the means to discriminate individuals by call characteristics. At night, male Eurasian Woodcock Scolopax rusticola make distinct, audible 'roding' displays above the tree canopy to advertise to females. Studying this behaviour at an individual level while using PAM presents opportunities to improve monitoring methods of this cryptic, Red-Listed species. This study evaluates the potential use of vocal individuality measurements in distinguishing Woodcock individuals and interpreting spatial and temporal patterns in their roding displays across woodland sites. Woodcock roding calls were recorded from woodland fragments across two regions comprising 20 sites. A random forest classifier was applied to reduce the time needed to find and manually verify calls. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering algorithms were used on call measurements, describing duration and frequency differences in calls. When clusters formed, they were used to qualitatively assess supposed individual spatial and temporal variation in roding behaviour. The variance of dimensionally reduced measurements was used to interpret local Woodcock abundance and changes over time. Supposed individuals used many sites within a region, and many sites were used by multiple birds. However, sites showed clusters of calls from supposed individuals in different proportions. It was difficult to discriminate individuals using PCA with more than six birds because the degree of call overlap increased. Though the call measurement variance is associated with number of call events, it may provide a suitable method for representing population size without call count bias.

Abstract1. Across Europe, farmland bird populations have continued to decline since the 1970s owing to the intensification of farming practices. Studies of such declines have tended to focus specifically on either the impacts of habitats (nesting and foraging), nest predators or prey availability on bird demographics. The study presented here provides new insights into the relative effects of each of these factors on yellowhammer nest survival. The yellowhammer was selected for this study as it is a UK Red‐Listed bird species whose population is in decline across much of Europe.2. We use a long‐term dataset of 147 nests, monitored between 1995 and 2007, to provide an insight into how yellowhammer nest survival is influenced by nesting habitat (nest concealment and nest height), foraging habitats (habitat coverage within 100 m of nests), the removal of nest predators (magpiePicaabundance as an inverse measure of avian predator removal through gamekeeping) and food availability (measured with a D‐vac invertebrate suction sampler).3. Our results indicated that yellowhammer hatching success was negatively related to the coverage of spring agri‐environment scheme habitats, a group which represents invertebrate‐rich agri‐environment habitats, but hatching success increased with nest height. Fledging success was positively related to the coverage of the seed‐rich habitat wild bird seed mixture. The farm‐level abundance of yellowhammer chick‐food invertebrates declined over the study period.4. Our results highlight the importance of simultaneously considering multiple agents that shape avian breeding success, that is their ability to produce offspring, to inform conservation management. Our key finding for land managers relates to the positive relationship between the proportion of seed rich foraging habitat within the yellowhammer's average foraging range and yellowhammer fledging success, which shows that a habitat intended primarily to provide winter food resources is also important to breeding birds. Chick food abundance in this habitat was, however, similar to broadleaf and cereal crops. We recommend that this habitat should be provided near to potential yellowhammer nesting sites and adjacent to invertebrate‐rich agri‐environment scheme habitats such as beetle banks and conservation headlands to further boost invertebrate resources for a declining farmland bird.

We investigate the potential benefits to pollinators of two agri-environment scheme habitats, annually cultivated and floristically enhanced grass margins. The former encourages annual plant species whereas the latter targets the provision of perennial plants, both may benefit foraging pollinators, many of which have declined in the UK since the 1980s. We surveyed thirty cultivated margins and thirty floristically enhanced grass margins across the UK for pollinators, which included bumblebees Bombus spp., solitary bees and hoverflies Syrphidae. Pollinator abundance was then related to margin attributes such as age, width, soil fertility and adjacent habitat type. For cultivated margins we also investigated relationships with cultivation and rotation, and for floristically enhanced margins time cut. Plant preferences of foraging pollinators were recorded in 2019. On cultivated margins, target annual plants were frequently recorded on plots and were repeatedly visited by pollinators with management significantly influencing visitation rates. For example, plots which had been created with ploughing attracted fewer solitary bees and bees overall than those created with minimum tillage. Annually rotated cultivated margins were associated with lower flower abundance, broad leaved species cover and vegetation heights which resulted in lower total bee abundance. We therefore advise that cultivated margins be left in situ on farmland over longer periods. Older floristically enhanced grass margins became dominated by grass and contained fewer flowerheads to support foraging pollinators. Compared to those established via natural regeneration, sown margins were associated with increased bee and Syrphidae abundance, which is probably linked to the high flowerhead abundance and coverage of broad-leaved species on sown plots. Our pollinator foraging data from 2019 showed that tolerance of some agricultural weeds should be advocated. Our results highlight the complementary benefits of these agri-environment scheme habitats to pollinators. We suggest that where arable pollinator conservation is a priority both habitats be provided.

BACKGROUND Neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments were withdrawn from use on cereal crops in the European Union (EU) in 2018 exposing the crops to yellow dwarf viruses transmitted by cereal aphids. To reduce prophylactic pyrethroid sprays there is a need for easier, field-specific monitoring techniques given that pest incidence is spatially and temporally highly sporadic. A field-specific monitoring method based on the use of yellow sticky traps mounted horizontally just above the crop was developed and evaluated to determine: (i) predictive capabilities of the sticky trap system, (ii) practicalities of use by farmers and agronomists, and (iii) whether landscape composition, boundary type and type of tillage affect immigration of aphid vectors. RESULTS Yellow sticky traps effectively sampled winged cereal aphids and identified spatial differences in immigration patterns within- and between fields. Farmers and agronomist's aphid identification skills need improving, although they could detect aphid trends with minimal training. At least three times more cereal aphids were captured in crop headlands, especially next to taller field boundaries indicating that wind currents determined aphid immigration patterns within fields. Considerable between field aphid immigration was detected (24% of fields had no aphid immigration) even on the same farm. Levels of immigrating grain aphids were positively related to the proportion of grassland in the landscape. Tillage type had no impact on levels of immigrating aphids. CONCLUSION Field-based monitoring and different management of headland areas could be used to reduce insecticide usage when controlling of cereal/barley yellow dwarf virus.

Pollination services to crops may be worsening because of declines in farmland pollinators, but the consequences for yields have been uncertain. We therefore investigated pollination limitation in four entomophilous crops (oilseed rape, sunflower, pears and pumpkin) by quantifying the difference in harvestable mass between open-pollinated and saturation-pollinated (hand-pollinated) flowers. We also examined whether pollination limitation in the four crops was associated with the number of flower visits by insects. Across 105 commercial fields in six European countries, the average decrease in harvestable mass due to pollination limitation was 2.8 % (SE = 1.15). Among crops, the highest decreases were in sunflowers (8%) and in one of three oilseed rape production regions (6%). We observed substantial variation among crops in the numbers of insect visits received by flowers, but it did not significantly correspond with the levels of pollination limitation. Our results suggest that yields in these crops were not severely pollination-limited in the regions studied and that other factors besides visitation by pollinators influenced the degree of pollination limitation.

It is widely recognized that landscape factors affect the biological control of weed seeds and insect pests in arable crops, but landscape effects have been found to be inconsistent between studies. Here, we compare six different types of sentinels (surrogate prey that was either live insects or seeds) to measure the effects of semi-natural habitats at field to landscape scales on levels of biological control in winter wheat in the UK. Sentinels were located in fields adjacent to three boundary types: grassy margin, hedgerows or woodland to study the local scale effects and in landscapes of varying heterogeneity in study areas of 1-km radius. Overall, mean levels of predation were higher for most insect prey (60.8%) located on the ground compared to the crop (12.2%) and was lower for seeds (5.8%). Predation of sentinels on the ground was attributed to generalist predators. Semi-natural habitats had both positive and negative effects at field and landscape scales, but the response varied with the sentinel type. Herbaceous linear semi-natural habitats had positive effects at local scales for Calliphora vomitoria and Sitobion avenae sentinels and provide evidence that farmers can introduce linear herbaceous features to benefit biological control. In contrast, our distance-weighted kernel models identified a positive relationship between woody habitats and the predation of C. vomitoria and Chenopodium album. Natural aphid infestations were lower in landscapes with more semi-natural habitat. Synthesis and applications. Sentinels may be sensitive enough to detect variation in levels of biological control influenced by semi-natural habitats, but this study confirms that landscape effects differ for different types of sentinel prey. This implies that it may not be possible to categorize landscapes as pest suppressive using a single sentinel type. Future studies should therefore consider using multiple sentinels to give a better perspective on predation intensity. The resulting recommendations for farm management include planting woodland adjacent wheat fields infested with seed predators and positioning herbaceous linear habitats adjacent wheat fields infested with Sitobion avenae, particularly if fields are bordered by woody liner habitats due to their association with decreased S. avenae predation.

Across Europe agri-environment schemes (AES) have been introduced which attempt to counteract biodiversity losses relating to agricultural intensification. However, the potential benefits of AES to non-target groups such as bats are unclear. In the study presented here, we assessed how the vegetative characteristics (e.g. dicot coverage and bare ground coverage) of four commonly employed AES habitat types influenced the occurrence and activity of bats. AES plots were monitored using static acoustic bat detectors and each plot was surveyed three times between April and September, with detectors set to record over three consecutive nights during each survey. Analysis of this data identified some preferences for specific AES habitat characteristics by bats, but preferences differed between species. Relationships between bats and AES habitat type were not investigated due to structural similarities between habitats which were identified through principal component analysis. Our study therefore identifies simple species-specific habitat management practices which could be implemented as part of current AES to increase the suitability of these habitats to bats. For example, habitat management targeted towards Pipistrellus pygmaeus and Barbastellus barbastellus could focus on providing floristically diverse foraging sites, which are attractive to their invertebrate prey, in close proximity to potential woodland roost sites, whilst Pipistrellus pipistrellus may benefit from AES with high dicot coverage if such habitats are located along tall field boundaries with trees, which provide shelter for their prey.

Capsule: Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica were more likely to forage along arable field margins that were enhanced with wildflowers or legumes than control grass margins.Aims: To determine if foraging Barn Swallows displayed preferences for specific arable field boundary habitats (grass margins versus floristically enhanced margins) that were managed as part of an agri-environment scheme. We also aim to determine how Barn Swallow food abundance related to these habitats.Methods: Two foraging activity surveys took place on all grass and floristically enhanced margins (n=56) present within the 600 m foraging range of seven Barn Swallow colonies during June and July 2016. Margin habitat use was measured by recording the presence/absence of foraging individuals during surveys, the total number of individuals and by calculating an index of foraging activity. Habitat information relating to adjacent boundary type, transect crop type and neighbouring crop type were also recorded.Results: Foraging Barn Swallows were significantly more likely to be recorded when survey transects included a floristically enhanced margin, but there was no significant impact of floristically enhanced margins on the total number of individuals recorded or on the index of foraging activity. Foraging activity was higher along grass verges and hedgerows when compared to treelines and was positively related to length weighted Diptera abundance (a measure of food biomass).Conclusion: Our results suggest that there may be a role for floristically enhanced margins in the conservation of Barn Swallows on arable farmland. More research, however, is needed to determine whether invertebrate-rich agri-environment scheme habitats can influence colony size or improve the breeding success of this species.

Changes in land use due to agricultural intensification are a key anthropogenic cause of biodiversity declines impacting invertebrate, plant and bird populations. This study assesses whether fledging success in the tree sparrow, a farmland bird that has declined by over 94% since 1970, is best described by patterns of agricultural habitat coverage or by the quality (measured by invertebrate chick food abundance) of these habitat patches. We were particularly interested in the effect of agri-environment scheme (AES) habitats on reproductive success, as AES's include habitat prescriptions that are employed to alleviate biodiversity problems. Our results indicated that the habitat coverage model best fitted the fledging success data and estimates from this model show that fledging success decreased with the area of wild bird seed mix and grassland cover within the average adult foraging range. Habitat coverage models are currently the most popular method of investigating AES – bird relationships and our findings provide support to such studies. These models could be used to assess whether AES farmland bird conservation strategies are successfully improving reproductive success.

Agricultural intensification is a key cause of the population declines shown by many farmland bird species across Europe. Changes in land management through agri-environment schemes (AES) are frequently cited as the best tool to reverse these trends, to date however they have received mixed support. This study tested whether AES options in England that provide winter seed food or insect-rich foraging during the breeding season, were associated with improved breeding performance in tree sparrow, Passer montanus, and/or the formation of larger breeding colonies. Breeding attempts (n=428) representing 210 pairs of tree sparrow comprising 22 colonies were compared in Wiltshire, England in 2013 and 2014. The area of margin AES, an insect-rich habitat, was positively correlated with fledgling success per breeding attempt and per breeding pair. Colony size increased with increasing wild bird seed mix AES area, a winter seed food resource, but this option negatively affected hatching success and the number of fledglings produced per breeding attempt. The observed association between colony size and this habitat was expected given that wild bird seed mixtures provide important seed food resources for granivorous birds during winter. The negative correlation with fledgling success, on the other hand, requires further investigation to determine whether this relationship relates to a lack of invertebrate and seed food during the breeding period. These results highlight the importance of providing a suite of AES habitats that are appropriately located to deliver both overwintering and breeding requirements of target, declining farmland birds.

It has been suggested by some authors that the UK agri-environment 'wild bird seed' option negatively impacts Tree Sparrow populations in the UK. Here we provide evidence for a change in nestling diet with increasing wild bird seed coverage and propose a possible mechanism for its negative impact on population trends.

Agri-Environment Schemes (AES) have been implemented across Europe in an attempt to address biodiversity losses associated with agricultural intensification. For many declining farmland bird species, the reduced availability and suitability of nesting and foraging habitats are thought to play a major role in population declines and some AES have hoped to counteract this by encouraging the provision of such habitats. This study aimed to determine the relative importance of AES on the territory selection of a widespread but declining farmland bird, the Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella. Yellowhammers were more likely to locate territories in areas containing 'enhanced margins'; i.e. where field margin habitats were sown with wild flowers and/or agricultural legumes. An average of 0.033 +/- 0.008 ha of this 'enhanced margin' habitat was present within 100 m of Yellowhammer territories compared to 0.020 +/- 0.008 ha within 100 m of random points. This preference may reflect the higher invertebrate chick food-abundance associated with this habitat as they contained, on average 46.3% and 36.8% more invertebrate food items than cereal and floral crops respectively. Alternatively, given that chick food abundance was similar between grass and enhanced field margins, this observed preference may be the result of a more open sward structure which increases prey accessibility and improves predator avoidance. Yellowhammers selected territories containing early succession hedgerows, as these constitute the most suitable nesting sites, and preferred territories containing a suitable songpost. Our results suggest that management strategies aiming to conserve breeding Yellowhammers should focus on increasing the coverage of invertebrate rich AES habitats such as floristically-enhanced margins and pollen and nectar plots, and ensure that they are located within typical foraging ranges of cut hedges with elevated songposts.

Summary Invertebrate-rich foraging habitats are included in Environmental Stewardship (ES) schemes in the UK, with the aim of increasing the productivity of farmland birds and thus boosting population recovery. This preliminary study investigated the role of ES foraging resources in determining territory site selection and breeding distribution of a declining farmland bird species, yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella. This involved a presence-absence comparison of habitat composition within the foraging ranges of 36 occupied and unoccupied territories. ES foraging habitats were found to be important in the territory site selection of yellowhammer, implying both that foraging resources are important in determining the distribution of yellowhammer and that ES options represent valuable foraging habitat. This also suggests that a lack of foraging resources could place a limitation on breeding densities, and highlights the importance of co-ordinating the distribution of foraging habitat with suitable nesting habitat.