AQA · A-Level · Biology
Course version: 7402 · Version from Sept 2016
Farming techniques reduce biodiversity. The balance between conservation…
Full specification wording
Biodiversity within a community: Farming techniques reduce biodiversity. The balance between conservation and farming.
Farming raises yield but often reduces biodiversity.
Checked against the AQA 7402 specification (opens in a new tab) on .
- Point 4 of 4
- 3 key terms
Study notes
From the checked teaching notes for this specification point.
The idea
Farming raises yield but often reduces biodiversity. Woodland clearance and hedgerow removal destroy habitats and food sources. Monoculture replaces mixed communities with a single species, reducing available niches. Pesticides kill non-target insects, disrupting food webs, while herbicides remove wild plants. Draining wetlands and overgrazing further eliminate habitats. However, conservation measures can balance biodiversity with agricultural production. Effective strategies include maintaining hedgerows, leaving field margins uncultivated, crop rotation, intercropping, and restricting pesticide use. Delaying hedge cutting allows wildlife to eat berries, and preserving ponds maintains aquatic habitats, all without stopping farming.
What earns the marks
- Identify specific farming practices that reduce biodiversity, such as hedgerow removal, monoculture, or pesticide use.
- Explain the ecological mechanism behind the reduction, such as the loss of specific habitats, food sources, or ecological niches.
- Describe conservation measures that retain agricultural production, such as maintaining field margins, crop rotation, or preserving hedgerows.
- Explain how conservation measures increase biodiversity by restoring habitats, providing food sources, or creating new niches.
- Evaluate the balance between conservation and farming by considering economic factors like crop yield, costs, or government stewardship subsidies.
Common mistakes and how to put them right
Naming a practice such as monoculture without explaining its ecological impact.
Put it right: State what the practice removes from the community, such as specific habitats or food sources.
Stating that pesticides 'kill the environment'.
Put it right: Be specific by identifying that they kill non-target species or disrupt specific food chains.
Suggesting conservation measures that would stop farming altogether.
Put it right: Focus on compromises that maintain yield, such as leaving field margins, rather than abandoning agriculture.
Confusing hedgerow removal with deforestation.
Put it right: Use the correct terminology for farmland ecosystems rather than general global environmental issues.
Exam tips
- When evaluating the balance between farming and conservation, provide points for both sides and conclude with a compromise, such as financial stewardship payments.
- Use precise ecological vocabulary, such as 'habitats', 'niches', and 'food sources', to clearly explain the consequences of farming practices.
Try the lesson
The start of the Biodiversity within a community: Farming techniques reduce biodiversity. The balance between conservation and farming. lesson, made from checked teaching notes for this specification point.
Have a go first
Which farming technique removes hedgerows and therefore reduces biodiversity on a farm?
Listen
Farming raises yield but often reduces biodiversity. Woodland clearance and hedgerow removal destroy habitats and food sources. Monoculture replaces mixed communities with a single species, reducing available niches. Pesticides kill non-target insects, disrupting food webs, while herbicides remove wild plants. Draining wetlands and overgrazing further eliminate habitats. However, conservation measures can balance biodiversity with agricultural production. Effective strategies include maintaining hedgerows, leaving field margins uncultivated, crop rotation, intercropping, and restricting pesticide use. Delaying hedge cutting allows wildlife to eat berries, and preserving ponds maintains aquatic habitats, all without stopping farming. A strong answer earns marks for these points. Identify specific farming practices that reduce biodiversity, such as hedgerow removal, monoculture, or pesticide use. Explain the ecological mechanism behind the reduction, such as the loss of specific habitats, food sources, or ecological niches. Describe conservation measures that retain agricultural production, such as maintaining field margins, crop rotation, or preserving hedgerows. Explain how conservation measures increase biodiversity by restoring habitats, providing food sources, or creating new niches. A common slip: Naming a practice such as monoculture without explaining its ecological impact. Instead, state what the practice removes from the community, such as specific habitats or food sources. Exam tip: When evaluating the balance between farming and conservation, provide points for both sides and conclude with a compromise, such as financial stewardship payments.
Watch it explained
What is the one idea the video explains? Say it in a sentence.
Read the described scene instead
Farming raises yield, but it often reduces biodiversity within a community. This lesson looks at which practices cause that loss, and how conservation can sit alongside production. Woodland clearance and hedgerow removal destroy habitats and the food sources that depend on them. Monoculture replaces a mixed community with a single species, so fewer niches are available. Pesticides kill non-target insects and disrupt food webs, while herbicides remove wild plants. Draining wetlands and overgrazing remove habitats too. Follow one chain. A hedgerow is removed, so the habitat and its berries disappear. Insects and birds lose food and shelter, so their populations fall, and the species richness of the community drops. Pesticides act in a similar way, removing non-target insects from the food web. Here is how to explain a conservation measure. Take leaving field margins uncultivated. Step one, identify the change: a strip of farmland is no longer cultivated. Step two, name what that restores: habitat and food sources for insects. Pause here and work out step three, the effect on the community. The answer is more species and new niches, because the returning insects and plants add food sources. The farm still produces crops, so yield is largely maintained. Conservation does not have to stop farming. Maintaining hedgerows and leaving field margins uncultivated restores habitat and food. Crop rotation and intercropping break up monoculture, so more niches are available. Restricting pesticide use protects non-target insects, and preserving ponds keeps aquatic habitats. Delaying hedge cutting lets wildlife eat the berries first. Four traps. Naming monoculture without saying what it removes is not an explanation: state the habitats, food sources or niches that are lost. Pesticides do not kill the environment; they kill non-target species and break food chains. Conservation measures should maintain yield, not abandon farming. And hedgerow removal is a farmland issue, not deforestation. In an evaluation, give both sides. Farming practices such as monoculture, hedgerow removal and pesticide use raise yield but cut biodiversity by removing habitats, food and niches. Conservation measures restore those while keeping production going. Then conclude with a compromise, such as government stewardship subsidies that pay farmers for wildlife-friendly practice.
Key words
Say what each word means before you turn the card.
monoculture
Try answering aloud or in your head before turning the card.
pesticides
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conservation measures
Try answering aloud or in your head before turning the card.
See every definition
- monoculture
- Replaces mixed communities with a single species, reducing available niches.
- pesticides
- Kill non-target insects, disrupting food webs.
- conservation measures
- Can balance biodiversity with agricultural production, such as maintaining hedgerows, leaving field margins uncultivated, crop rotation, intercropping, and restricting pesticide use.
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