Comparison of land cover and farming intensity-based models for mapping High Nature Value farmland in Cyprus

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of Cyprus showing the location of the 47 study sites and the areas identified as High Nature Value farmland (HNVf) under the CORINE land cover-based map (‘CLC map’) and the Cyprus Environment Department map (‘ED map’), as well as the overlap between these two maps (‘Overlap ED & CLC maps’).

Table 1. CORINE Land Cover (CLC) classes defined as High Nature Value farmland for Cyprus under the CORINE land-cover based mapping model (‘CLC map’).

CLC class code & name	Notes
223 ‘Olive groves’	Included only areas above 400 m elevation
231 ‘Pastures’	Grazing land
321 ‘Natural grasslands’	Grazing land
323 ‘Sclerophyllous vegetation’	Grazing land
241 ‘Annual crops associated with permanent crops’	‘mixed farmland’ class
242 ‘Complex cultivation patterns’	‘mixed farmland’ class
243 ‘Land principally occupied by agriculture’	‘mixed farmland’ class

Table 2. Classification of the 47 study sites into farmland type (arable, olives or vines) and as High Nature Value farmland (HNV) or non-HNV, under the two different models for mapping HNVf examined in this study. ‘CLC map’ refers to the CORINE Land Cover based map and ‘ED map’ to the Cyprus Environment Department map (see text for details of the two mapping systems).

	Classification under the two models
	CLC map	ED map
Arable sites – HNV	13	16
Arable sites – non-HNV	12	9
Olive grove sites – HNV	7	9
Olive grove sites – non-HNV	5	2
Vineyard sites – HNV	5	11
Vineyard sites – non-HNV	6	0
Totals	47	47

Table 3. Results of GLMs with identity link function for (i) overall bird diversity, (ii) abundance of farmland species of conservation priority, and (iii) abundance of Cyprus Warbler Sylvia melanothorax as response variables (highlighted in bold are variables included in the best supported model). AICc score for best supported and full models given under each table.

(i)	Estimate	St. Error	t value	P
Intercept	−1.988	1.972	−1.008	0.319
HVN ED map	0.088	0.068	1.284	0.206
HNV CLC map	0.069	0.096	0.729	0.470
HNV map overlap	0.198	0.066	2.986	0.005
Crop type Olives	0.099	0.052	1.906	0.061
Crop type Vines	0.149	0.063	2.371	0.023
Elevation	−0.0001	0.0001	−0. 436	0.665
Latitude	0.229	0.259	0.883	0.383
Longitude	0.064	0.059	1.085	0.285
AICc scores (best-supported model −39.78, full model −34.39)
(ii)	Estimate	St. Error	t value	P
Intercept	0.969	0.078	12.483	<0.000
HVN ED map	−0.291	0.199	−1.457	0.153
HNV CLC map	−0.474	0.244	−1.945	0.059
HNV map overlap	−0.270	0.204	−1.327	0.192
Crop type Olives	−0.086	0.128	−0.670	0.506
Crop type Vines	−0.361	0.143	−2.519	0.015
Elevation	0.001	0.0001	3.249	0.002
Latitude	−0.861	0.608	−1.417	0.164
Longitude	−0.059	0.141	−0.424	0.674
AICc scores (best-supported model 36.25, full model 45.58)
(iii)	Estimate	St. Error	t value	P
Intercept	30.879	20.111	1.535	0.133
HVN ED map	0.195	0.188	1.037	0.306
HNV CLC map	−0.143	0.229	−0.625	0.536
HNV map overlap	0.425	0.192	2.215	0.033
Crop type Olives	0.166	0.129	1.283	0.207
Crop type Vines	−0.193	0.172	−1.122	0.269
Elevation	0.0004	0.0002	1.734	0.091
Latitude	−1.319	0.572	−2.307	0.026
Longitude	0.425	0.132	3.211	0.002
AICc scores (best-supported/ full model 39.86)

Table 4. Association of four potential indicator bird species with Cyprus farmland (arable, vine and olive grove sites) classified as High Nature Value (HNVf) under both examined mapping systems, the Environment Department (‘ED’) and the CORINE-based (‘CLC’). Study sites where two or more of the four species (Cyprus Wheatear Oenanthe cypriaca, Cyprus Warbler Sylvia melanothorax, Great Tit Parus major and Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra) were recorded during the breeding season, are likely to be one classified as HNVf under both mapping models. The association model shown below was significant (Pearson’s χ²= 28.5578, P < 0.001).

	Number of the four species Cyprus Wheatear, Cyprus Warbler, Great Tit and Corn Bunting recorded at study sites				Totals
	0	1	2	3
Sites classified as HNVf under both the ED and CLC mapping systems	0	6	3	12	21
Sites not classified as HNVf under either the ED and CLC mapping systems	5	3	0	0	8