Europ. J. Agronomy 24 (2006) 165–181 Assessing the intensity of temperate European agriculture at the landscape scale F. Herzog a,∗ , B. Steiner a , D. Bailey a , J. Baudry b , R. Billeter c , R. Buk´ acek d , G. De Blust e , R. De Cock e , J. Dirksen f , C.F. Dormann g , R. De Filippi a , E. Frossard c , J. Liira h , T. Schmidt g , R. St ¨ ockli c , C. Thenail b , W. van Wingerden f , R. Bugter f a Agroscope FAL Reckenholz, Eco-Controlling, Reckenholzstrasse 191, CH-8046 Zurich, Switzerland b INRA, SAD Armorique Unit, 65, rue de Saint Brieuc, CS 84215, F-35042 Rennes, France c Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zentrum, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland d Nature Conservation Authority, Nuselsk´ a 39, CZ-14000 Praha 4, Czech Republic e Institute of Nature Conservation, Kliniekstraat 25, BE-1070 Brussels, Belgium f ALTERRA Green World Research, P.O. Box 9101, NL-6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands g UFZ-Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany h University of Tartu, Lai 40 St, EE-51005 Tartu, Estonia Received 14 October 2004; received in revised form 13 May 2005; accepted 6 July 2005 Abstract The intensity of agricultural production was assessed in 25 landscape test sites across temperate Europe using a standardised farmer questionnaire. The intensity indicators, nitrogen input (to arable crops and to permanent grassland), density of livestock units and number of pesticide applications (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and retardants), were recorded and integrated into an overall intensity index. All three components were needed to appropriately characterise the intensity of agricultural management. Four hypotheses were tested. (i) A low diversity of crops is related to higher intensity. The contrary was observed, namely because diverse crop rotations contained a higher share of crops which are more demanding in terms of nitrogen and of plant protection. (ii) Intensity decreases when there is more permanent grassland. This was confirmed by our study. (iii) Large farms are managed more intensively. There was no relation between farm size and intensity. (iv) Large fields are managed more intensively. There was a tendency towards higher nitrogen input and livestock density in landscapes with larger fields but only a few of the results were statistically significant. The aggregated overall intensity index was of limited usefulness mainly because of limitations in interpretability. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Nitrogen; Livestock density; Pesticide; Intensity index; Crop diversity; Grassland; Farm size; Plot size; Biodiversity; Water quality 1. Introduction The intensity of agricultural production in Europe strongly increased during the 20th century, resulting in higher yields and a secure supply of the population with food at affordable prices. In the last decades, however, environmental damage caused by agri- culture increased as well and is usually imputed to high intensity levels of industrialised agriculture (Stoate et al., 2001; Baldock et al., 2002). Environmental damage such as water and air pollution and the loss of biodiversity occur at the landscape level. Measuring the ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 1 377 74 45; fax: +41 1 377 72 01. E-mail address: Felix.Herzog@fal.admin.ch (F. Herzog). intensity of agricultural management at the landscape level is, however, not straightforward and often conceptually not clear. Aspects of agricultural management and landscape properties are sometimes intermingled (Matson et al., 1997; Wardle et al., 1999; Zechmeister and Moser, 2001). For example, the size of agricultural fields are often used as an indicator of agricultural intensity (B¨ uhler-Natour and Herzog, 1999). Similarly, the num- ber of crops in the rotation are cited as an indicator for potentially higher biodiversity and/or for reduced intensity (EU, 1999). It is questionable as to whether these can be considered as correct assumptions. In the context of a European research project, we were given the task to provide a framework for the quantification of agricul- tural land-use intensity at a regional scale for selected landscapes across temperate Europe. In this paper, we detail the methods 1161-0301/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eja.2005.07.006