2009; Collen et al. 2012). These processes are less severe in regions with low-intensity farming systems; conservation initiatives implemented in low-intensity farmlands are therefore particularly desirable, successful and cost-effective (Kleijn et al. 2009). At a local scale, non-arable semi-natural lands are recognized biodiversity hotspots, standing in dramatic

contrast with species-poor, homogenous “crop-seas”. They may also be local centers of endangered species, but this aspect has been little studied (Zechmeister and Moser 2001; Diekötter et al. 2006). In many regions, field Selleckchem Ruxolitinib margins are the most common form of semi-natural habitat, having many agronomic, environmental, recreational and wildlife functions (reviewed by Marshall et al. (2002)). For example, margins increase species richness, functional group diversity and the abundance of many taxa by providing seed banks, breeding and sheltering sites and food resources, practically unavailable in the adjoining cropland. On a landscape IDH inhibition level margins provide linkages between habitats, maintain landscape diversity, harbor organisms of economic interest for farmers, such as pollinators and predators of pests, and have positive

aesthetic effects (Jacot et al. 2006; Herzon and O’Hara 2007; Vickery et al. 2009; Morelli 2013). However, boundary structures are also subject to strong agricultural pressure, and support mostly disturbance-tolerant generalist species (Liira et al. 2008). The occurrence of species of conservation interest in field margins is poorly understood.

Specifically, no studies examining the numbers and distribution of threatened taxa in field margins have to our knowledge been conducted in central and eastern Europe. This is a notable gap, since this part of Europe, including Poland, is a large continental center where traditional landscape structures have survived (Palang et al. 2006; Batáry et al. 2007; Herzon and Helenius 2008; Sklenicka et al. 2009). With its large area (312,679 km2) and with regions of extensively Ketotifen managed farmland, Poland plays an important role in the preservation of European biodiversity. Butler et al. (2010) assessed that land-use and -management changes in Poland have had the second-largest (after Spain) impact on European farmland bird populations among all EU Member States. The high degree of biological diversity, due primarily to the surviving variety of linear features (Sanderson et al. 2009; Kędziora et al. 2012), has facilitated studies of occurrence patterns of threatened taxa and recommendations for wider conservation practice. A variety of environmental factors are likely to affect the occurrence of threatened species in field margins, the structure of tall vegetation being particularly important.