Abstract Context The recent decline in biodiversity, which is of particular concern in agriculturally managed landscapes, pushes researchers and practitioners to evaluate potential solutions, such as agricultural diversification. This requires the ability to provide robust conclusions about causal relationships in agroecosystems, which is hindered by limitations of conventional research methods. Findings from controlled plot experiments do not always translate to real-world conditions, while analysis of real-world data is often constrained by methodological difficulties. Objectives The objectives of this study are (1) to apply a novel analytical framework in ecological and agricultural sciences in order to (2) provide robust evidence on ground beetle responses to different aspects of diversification in real-world agricultural landscapes. Methods We applied the propensity-score analytical framework to ecological data collected in the landscape experiment patchCROP on species richness and activity density of carabid beetles. Results The shift from large sole-cropped to small-scale and diversified fields and reduced agricultural management intensity led to a significant increase in species’ richness and activity density of carabids. Edge effects mainly manifested through increased species richness. Locations adjacent to flower strips did not show a significant increase in either response variable on average, but temporal variation of this effect was observed. Conclusion Patch cropping combines the effects of small‑scale crop heterogeneity and high edge density. Combined with less intense agricultural management, it represents a beneficial strategy for supporting carabid beetle species richness and activity density. Further research is needed to explain the effect of flower strips, including sampling within the flower strips and accounting for predation.
Pereponova et al. (Sat,) studied this question.