Abstract Land-use changes, both in terms of land abandonment and intensification, have led to fragmentation and loss of traditional agricultural habitats. Extensive grazing is among the forms of land use that have undergone the greatest changes. This represents one of the main threats to biodiversity; consequently, a comprehensive overview about the impacts on the biodiversity of changes that are happening in pastoral activities is needed. Moreover, a clear picture of the most widely studied geographical areas, habitats, and taxonomic groups needs to be developed in order to understand the situation. In this framework, we carried out a systematic review and a meta-analysis of the publications related to the impacts of pastoral activities on animal biodiversity in Europe. We analysed 223 articles by searching the ISI Web of Science platform and combining keywords related to "pastoral activities" and "biodiversity indicators”, applying a vote count approach, i.e. simply dividing articles into categories depending on their results (non-significant ones, significant positive results, significant negative ones). Moreover, we conducted a meta-analysis on 33 articles, selecting those focusing on Arthropods (the most studied taxa). To understand the main gaps in this scientific topic, we focused on: i) the identification of the geographical, environmental, and temporal structure of the studies; ii) the description of the main target groups used as bio-indicators; iii) the comparison of different management practices (overgrazing, traditional, agri-environment schemes - AESs), plus land abandonment, to determine which is the best for biodiversity conservation and to evaluate the effectiveness of AESs. There was a bias towards lowlands in comparison to uplands, as well as a lack of long-term studies. Plants were more sensitive than animals to grazing changes. Arthropods’ orders are the taxa used most frequently as indicators, in comparison with vertebrates, especially birds. We identified a generalised negative impact of overgrazing in all the habitats and geographical areas, apparently except in mountainous shrubland. Conversely, land abandonment resulted in a negative influence on biodiversity only in the mountainous areas of southern Europe (underlining the important role of traditional activities), whereas short term abandonment had a beneficial role in central Europe, where overgrazing was more widespread. The meta-analysis suggested that arthropod richness was higher in short to mid-term abandoned pastures than under either extensive or intensive grazing systems. Finally, the effectiveness of AESs for conservation purposes was not confirmed by the vote count approach, whilst meta-analysis detected a positive effect for Arthropods of these same management practices when compared to overgrazing. We highlight a lack of data on AESs, especially when compared with traditional extensive grazing or abandonment. Our findings suggest that AES seems to effectively mimic traditional pastures, contrasting overgrazing, which is one of its main goal. Since AES have a strong potential in influencing sustainable management and promoting biodiversity conservation, the European Union should focus on the most effective and well targeted AES based on research, and further studies will be necessary to continuously assess their effect.

中文翻译：

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欧洲牧民活动对动物生物多样性的影响：系统回顾和荟萃分析

摘要 土地利用的变化，包括土地放弃和集约化，导致了传统农业栖息地的破碎和丧失。粗放放牧是发生了最大变化的土地利用形式之一。这是对生物多样性的主要威胁之一；因此，需要全面概述牧区活动中发生的变化对生物多样性的影响。此外，需要对研究最广泛的地理区域、栖息地和分类群进行清晰的描述，以了解情况。在此框架内，我们对与牧区活动对欧洲动物生物多样性的影响相关的出版物进行了系统审查和元分析。确定哪种最适合生物多样性保护并评估 AES 的有效性。与高地相比，人们更倾向于低地，并且缺乏长期研究。植物对放牧变化比动物更敏感。与脊椎动物，尤其是鸟类相比，节肢动物目是最常用作指标的分类群。我们在所有栖息地和地理区域中发现了过度放牧的普遍负面影响，显然除了山区灌木丛。相反，仅在南欧山区，土地遗弃对生物多样性产生负面影响（强调了传统活动的重要作用），而短期遗弃在过度放牧更为普遍的中欧则产生了有益作用。荟萃分析表明，中短期废弃牧场的节肢动物丰富度高于粗放或集约放牧系统。最后，AESs 用于保护目的的有效性没有得到投票计数方法的证实，而荟萃分析发现，与过度放牧相比，这些相同的管理实践对节肢动物有积极的影响。我们强调缺乏关于 AES 的数据，特别是与传统的粗放放牧或遗弃相比。我们的研究结果表明，AES 似乎有效地模仿了传统牧场，对比过度放牧，这是其主要目标之一。由于 AES 在影响可持续管理和促进生物多样性保护方面具有强大的潜力，因此欧盟应根据研究重点关注最有效和针对性最强的 AES，