Abstract Agricultural areas make up over one third of the worlds’ terrestrial area, with past and ongoing agricultural land use change and intensification being a major threat to many animal populations. In Europe, maize grown for biofuel and fodder is increasingly replacing traditional crop types, which might affect wildlife populations. Here, we used spotlight counts to estimate densities of the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a declining farmland species, on a landscape scale in Denmark. Our main objective was to investigate if hare density was affected by the proportion of maize and other vegetation types, while controlling for other factors including habitat heterogeneity and predator abundance. We found that hare density decreased with increasing maize cover, whereas no other vegetation type affected hare density. This suggests that continued expansion in maize cultivation will likely lead to further population declines of hares, potentially because greater maize cover replaces crops and areas that are more valuable for wildlife. Thus, incentivizing maize as energy source for biogas production will likely have adverse effects on animal populations such as hares and other farmland species, ultimately leading to decreased biodiversity.

中文翻译：

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玉米种植对欧洲野兔丰度的作用

摘要 农业区占世界陆地面积的三分之一以上，过去和正在进行的农业用地变化和集约化是对许多动物种群的主要威胁。在欧洲，用作生物燃料和饲料的玉米越来越多地取代传统作物类型，这可能会影响野生动物种群。在这里，我们使用聚光灯计数来估计欧洲野兔（Lepus europaeus）的密度，这是一种在丹麦的景观尺度上下降的农田物种。我们的主要目标是调查野兔密度是否受玉米和其他植被类型比例的影响，同时控制其他因素，包括栖息地异质性和捕食者丰度。我们发现野兔密度随着玉米覆盖率的增加而降低，而没有其他植被类型影响野兔密度。这表明玉米种植的持续扩大可能会导致野兔数量进一步下降，这可能是因为更大的玉米覆盖面积取代了对野生动物更有价值的作物和地区。因此，鼓励玉米作为沼气生产的能源可能会对野兔和其他农田物种等动物种群产生不利影响，最终导致生物多样性减少。