The impact of pastoral activities on animal biodiversity in Europe: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Land-use changes, both in terms of land abandonment and intensification, have led to fragmentation and loss of traditional agricultural habitats. Extensive grazing is among the forms of land use that have undergone the greatest changes. This represents one of the main threats to biodiversity; consequently, a comprehensive overview about the impacts on the biodiversity of changes that are happening in pastoral activities is needed. Moreover, a clear picture of the most widely studied geographical areas, habitats, and taxonomic groups needs to be developed in order to understand the situation. In this framework, we carried out a systematic review and a meta-analysis of the publications related to the impacts of pastoral activities on animal biodiversity in Europe. We analysed 223 articles by searching the ISI Web of Science platform and combining keywords related to "pastoral activities" and "biodiversity indicators”, applying a vote count approach, i.e. simply dividing articles into categories depending on their results (non-significant ones, significant positive results, significant negative ones). Moreover, we conducted a meta-analysis on 33 articles, selecting those focusing on Arthropods (the most studied taxa). To understand the main gaps in this scientific topic, we focused on: