agriculture Article Effects of Agricultural Use on Endangered Plant Taxa in Spain José Luis Molina-Pardo 1, * , Emilio Rodríguez-Caballero 2 , Miguel Cueto 3 , Pablo Barranco 3 , Manuel Sánchez-Robles 1 , Azucena Laguía-Allué 1 and Esther Giménez-Luque 3   Citation: Molina-Pardo, J.L.; Rodríguez-Caballero, E.; Cueto, M.; Barranco, P.; Sánchez-Robles, M.; Laguía-Allué, A.; Giménez-Luque, E. Effects of Agricultural Use on Endangered Plant Taxa in Spain. Agriculture 2021, 11, 1097. https:// doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111097 Academic Editors: José Luis Vicente-Vicente, Cristina Quintas-Soriano and María D. López-Rodríguez Received: 9 October 2021 Accepted: 2 November 2021 Published: 4 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 CECOUAL, Universidad de Almería, Carretera de Sacramento s/n, 04120 Almería, Spain; msr725@ual.es (M.S.-R.); ala147@ual.es (A.L.-A.) 2 Departamento de Agronomía, CECOUAL, Universidad de Almería, Carretera de Sacramento s/n, 04120 Almería, Spain; rce959@ual.es 3 Departamento de Biología y Geología, CECOUAL, Universidad de Almería, Carretera de Sacramento s/n, 04120 Almería, Spain; mcueto@ual.es (M.C.); pbvega@ual.es (P.B.); egimenez@ual.es (E.G.-L.) * Correspondence: jmp648@ual.es Abstract: Agriculture is one of the most widespread human activities and has the greatest impact on terrestrial ecosystems, as it transforms natural ecosystems into artificial landscapes using, in many cases, large amounts of pesticides as well as overexploiting natural resources. Therefore, for effective biodiversity conservation, it is necessary to include agricultural systems in conservation programs. In this work, the 50 plant taxa described for Spain as threatened by agricultural use were selected. These were divided according to the type of threat into those affected by crop extension, intensification, or abandonment. In addition, information was obtained concerning their conservation status, level of protection and functional traits (life form, pollination, and dispersal). Finally, the evolution of land use, in the areas near the populations of the selected species, was identified. The selected taxa belong to 21 families and present different life forms and modes of dispersal or pollination. Forty-six percent are endangered (EN) and most are included in legal protection lists. Nearly three-quarters are threatened by crop expansion and land use dynamics, reflecting an expansion of cultivated areas, which adds further pressure to these species. In addition to agricultural expansion, taxa are also at risk, due to important rates of agricultural land abandonment, and mention agricultural intensification. Nevertheless, conservation measures do exist to promote biodiversity in agricultural landscapes that may help to reverse the negative effect of land use dynamics on selected species, but few are specific to threatened flora. Therefore, if threatened plants are to be conserved in agricultural areas, it is necessary to promote a profound transformation of our socioecological systems. One of these transformative changes could come from the human-nature reconnection. Keywords: threatened plant; agriculture; Spain; land use; conservation; human-nature reconnection 1. Introduction Anthropogenic activities have been altering the natural environment for thousands of years, affecting the structure and functioning of ecosystems [1,2]. Anthropogenic biomes occupy more than 75% of the terrestrial land surface [3], and humans currently appropriate more than one third of global net primary productivity [4]. This has contributed to overcom- ing several of the planetary boundaries proposed as a safe operating space for humanity [5]. In order to provide resources, food, and contribute to global food security, agriculture has extended during the last decades and actually occupies one-third of the ice-free land surface and almost half of potentially productive land area [2,6]. Thus, it is considered one of the most widespread human activities worldwide [7]. Agriculture transforms natural ecosystems into artificial ones created and managed by humans [8]. This has, in many cases, severe environmental impacts such as soil degradation [9], greenhouse gas emissions [10], depletion and degradation of water resources [11–13], pollution [14,15], or habitat loss [16]. Indeed, agriculture is a major contributor to the transgressing of four planetary boundaries: Agriculture 2021, 11, 1097. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111097 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture