EVALUATION OF FIELDS AND FIELD MARGINS IN NATURE PRODUCTION CAPACITY WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO PLANT-PROTECTION

Biotic diversity in rural areas is one of the key paints of sustainabl e agriculture and rural development. Biotic diversity and species rest oration are closely connected with habitats and thus plant cover diver sity. Hungarian agriculture is in a state of transition towards market oriented production and development. Changes in property rights, farm size, land use and the greater importance of environmental issues dem and new approaches for plant protection and habitat evaluation. In our study some examples will be given showing the importance both of fiel ds and field margins and about their contribution to plant protection and nature production. Plant species and predators (carabids, spiders) were studied in winter wheat fields and in the field margins. Evidenc e was found of the importance of the field margin for the number and c omposition of plant species. Parallel to this, carabids and spiders (a s significant predators) were studied. For both carabids and spiders, species number and diversity were significantly higher in field margin s compared with fields. The species distribution of carabids among the se two different habitats, however, indicates that some species are ty pical 'field species'. Thus, proper management of both habitats is nec essary so that they may contribute to biotic diversity, A possible eva luation of the contribution of habitats to native flora and fauna is d iscussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.