The diversity of agricultural practices and landscapes dynamics : the case of a hill region in the southwest of France
Résumé
Farming activites can manage, neglect, or breakdown agroecosystems. In this project, we studied the diversity of the impact of agricultural practices on landscape dynmics. The spatial coexistence and contiguity of different practices, and the uncertainty about the local scale of social and ecological heterogeneity forced us to study an entire territory. The area is located in southwest France. The we investigated the relationship between the diversity of the agricultural practices (at field and farm levels) and the position of landscape units along ecological gradients. For comparative purposes, we used a method that allowed us to link these three different patterns. The results show the impact of the practices which characterize each field, and the importance, at a higher level, of practices involving whole-systems which correspond to different family/farm systems