**Agricultural Science**

**Chapter 1** 

© 2012 Jaskulski and Jaskulska, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2012 Jaskulski and Jaskulska, licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Plant Diversity in** 

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/47729

**1. Introduction** 

Dariusz Jaskulski and Iwona Jaskulska

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Ekosystem Assessment 2005, Fisher and Lindenmayer 2007].

**Agroecosystems and Agricultural Landscapes** 

Agricultural landscapes represent a cultural landscape group. Their origin, structure and ecological relations differ from natural landscapes considerably. By (Kizos and Koulouri 2005) they are defined as the visual result of land uses. They are nature systems developed with a great participation of the man, used by the man and maintained in the state of internal equilibrium. At present the role of rural areas does not mean only foodstuffs production. The sustainable rural areas development should involve maintaining the equilibrium between the productive, economic and social function of agricultural landscape and its ecological function, including maintaining the biodiversity. Those are the areas of numerous plant and animal organisms not connected directly with agricultural production, however, playing important environmental functions. The human activity performed in them should thus also consider the need of environmental protection [Millennium

The basic elements of the rural landscapes are the agroecosystems. Those are mainly grasslands and cultivated fields. Very important is their proportion in the agricultural landscape. The correct structure allows the agricultural production and maintain environmental values [Kovalev et al. 2004]. Biodiversity of agricultural fields is very small. Altieri [1999] citing Fowler and Mooney indicates that more than one billion hectares in the world are cultivated only about 70 species of plants. Therefore it is very important is the

presence in the area of islands, corridors and other environmental elements.

**1.1. The structure of agricultural landscapes and the biodiversity of plants** 

The biodiversity in agricultural landscape depends on its structure, including the share of natural components, land use structure and the intensity of farming. To evaluate the
