AN APPROACH TO LINKING AN ECOLOGICAL VEGETATION MODEL TO AN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIC-MODEL

Agricultural policy measures are directed increasingly towards encoura ging production systems that are deemed to be favourable for ecologica lly valued plant communities and species. This paper presents an appro ach to linking an ecological model of vegetation with a regional econo mic model of agricultural production to provide a means of estimating the costs of achieving a given area of a desired vegetation type. This is demonstrated by an empirical study of heather and hay meadow conse rvation in River Tyne catchment in northern England. The results show that policy measures need to take account both of spatial linkages wit hin agriculture and temporal links between ecological processes and ag ricultural productivity.