Sonja Kay

Agroscope · Agroecology and Environment

Agricultural intensification has profoundly changed agricultural landscapes with important biodiversity impacts. There is increasing knowledge on the general effects of landscape structure and management practices on plant and animal species but understanding the role of surrounding landscape structure for patch-scale biodiversity is more complex....

Moderne Agroforstsysteme – die Kombination von Gehölzen und landwirtschaftlicher Nutzung auf der gleichen Fläche – finden sich im Ackerbau, in der Tierhaltung, im Gemüse-, Obst- und Weinbau. Die Systeme haben positive Effekte auf Ökologie, Ökonomie und Soziales. So profitieren u.a. Boden (Erosions-Reduktion, Bodenqualität), Wasser (Wasserqualität...

Les systèmes agroforestiers sont multiples, ils varient en fonction du site et du type de plantation. C'est pourquoi leurs impacts sur l’environnement ne sont pas les mêmes. Ce guide montre comment les mesurer de manière systématique.

Legume-supported cropping systems affect environmental, production, and economic impacts. In Europe, legume production is still marginal with grain legumes covering less than 3% of arable land. A transition towards legume-supported systems could contribute to a higher level of protein self-sufficiency and lower environmental impacts of agriculture....

Recently, agroforestry (AF) has received growing recognition as a promising natural climate solution (NCS) – an improved land-use practice that helps mitigate climate change. As a first approximation, it is clear that the addition of woody biomass on agricultural lands will provide additional carbon sequestration and storage. However, our review of...

Orchard meadows, a traditional agroforestry system in Switzerland combining the dual use fruit and fodder production, are declining, even though the farmland managed under agri-environmental schemes (AES) has been expanding. Despite increasing interest in agroforestry research for developing sustainable agriculture, it is poorly understood how subs...

Agri-environmental schemes (AES) aimed at promoting farmland biodiversity are a key agricultural policy instrument in Switzerland. While the share of farmland managed under AES has expanded, traditional orchard meadows, regarded as agrobiodiversity hotspots, are declining. It is not clear yet what role AES play in maintaining orchard meadows, consi...

This chapter describes how to design appropriate and cost-effective forest green infrastructure for water payment schemes to protect and improve water quality. It is structured by the main steps involved in establishing a payment scheme, starting with identifying the water issues and how tree planting and forest management can help, managing potent...

Rural Europe encompasses a variety of landscapes with differing levels of forest, agriculture, and agroforestry that can deliver multiple ecosystem services (ES). Whilst provisioning and regulating ES associated with individual land covers are comparatively well studied, less is known about the associated cultural ES. Only seldom are provisioning,...

Context Agroecology combines agronomic and ecological concepts. It relies on the enhancement of biodiversity and related ecosystem services to support agricultural production. It is dependent on biological interactions for the design and management of agricultural systems in agricultural landscapes. Objectives We review the role of landscape ecolo...

In Switzerland-as in many other European countries-Agroforestry systems are long-term investments for farmers. The woody component provides income earliest after 5 years from a continuous fruit or energy production and latest after 30 or 100 years when timber is harvested in Europe. To guarantee a sustainable and resilient production over this whol...

Standard size cherry trees with high stems are a major element of traditional agroforestry systems in northern Switzerland. Nowadays the cultivation of standard fruit trees with cherries is under pressure in this area. High harvest and crop management costs combined with declining income make the cultivation of high stem trees in combination with g...

Wildfires have always been an integral part of the ecology of many terrestrial ecosystems, but their frequency is increasing in many parts of the world. Wildfires were once a natural phenomenon, but after humans learned to control fire, it has been used as a management tool to increase soil fertility, to regenerate natural vegetation for grazing an...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-021-00641-7

The aim of this document is to provide guidance on designing appropriate and cost-effective forests for water payment schemes that support tree planting and forest management to protect and improve water quality. The guide is structured by the main steps involved in establishing a payment scheme, starting with identifying the water issues and how t...

The continued influx of refugees into Uganda confronts people and hosting landscapes with severe challenges. Vast volumes of biomass resources are required for energy and building materials. Consequently, woodlands have come under pressure as the key source within refugee-receiving regions. This raises the question of how to simultaneously achieve...

Background Biodiversity loss, partly due to intensification of agriculture, has become a global issue. In this context, fruit producers have been looking for nature-friendly production methods. By reducing intensive pesticide use and enhancing orchard management, they aim to create habitats suitable for beneficial organisms. Fruit production, espec...

Der Hochstammfeldobstanbau mit Kirschen in der Schweiz steht zunehmend unter Druck. Steigende Kosten, sinkende Einnahmen und Schädlinge wie die Kirschessigfliege machen den Anbau wirtschaftlich unattraktiv. Als Alternative wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit das Potenzial der Mandel für einen Anbau in der Schweiz untersucht. Mittels Befragung von in- u...

Agroforstsysteme, die Kombination von Gehölzen und landwirtschaftlicher Nutzung auf der gleichen Fläche, haben als Hochstamm-Feldobst (= Streuobst), Waldweiden und Kastanienselven eine lange Tradition in der Schweiz. In den letzten Jahren wurden die Systeme in moderner Form reaktiviert, d.h. ihr Pflanzdesign wurde an die Mechanisierung angepasst un...

Agroforestry systems have been compared to agricultural and forestry alternatives, providing a land-use solution for additional environmental benefits while maintaining similar levels of productivity. However, there is scarce research assessing such patterns across a pan-European scale using a common methodology. This study aims to improve our unde...

There is an increasing demand to study the long-term effects of land use from both local farm and wider societal and environmental perspectives. This study applied an approach to evaluate both the financial profitability of arable, agroforestry, and tree-only systems and the wider societal benefits over a period of 30-60 years. The biophysical inpu...

Mosaics of agricultural land, forests, and other semi-natural areas represent landscapes providing valuable habitats and resources for various insect groups. We investigated the added value of agroforestry, the combination of crops or grasslands with woody elements, for important pollinating insects e.g. wild bees and associated pollination service...

Agroforestry systems, in which trees are integrated in arable or pasture land, can be used to enable sustainable food, material, and energy production (i.e. provide provisioning ecosystem services) whilst reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with farming. However, one constraint on the uptake of agroforestry in Europe is a lack of...

Rural development policies in many Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries promote sustainable landscape management with the intention of providing multiple ecosystem services (ES). Yet, it remains unclear which ES benefits are perceived in different landscapes and by different people. We present an assessment...

Agroforestry, relative to conventional agriculture, contributes significantly to carbon sequestration, increases a range of regulating ecosystem services, and enhances biodiversity. Using a transdisciplinary approach, we combined scientific and technical knowledge to evaluate nine environmental pressures in terms of ecosystem services in European f...

The study assessed the economic performance of marketable ecosystem services (ES) (biomass production) and non-marketable ecosystem services and dis-services (groundwater, nutrient loss, soil loss, carbon sequestration, pollination deficit) in 11 contrasting European landscapes dominated by agroforestry land use compared to business as usual agricu...

Context Agroforestry systems in temperate Europe are known to provide both, provisioning and regulating ecosystem services (ES). Yet, it is poorly understood how these systems affect ES provision at a landscape scale in contrast to agricultural practises. Objectives This study aimed at developing a novel, spatially explicit model to assess and qua...

Whilst the benefits of agroforestry are widely recognised in tropical latitudes few studies have assessed how agroforestry is perceived in temperate latitudes. This study evaluates how stakeholders and key actors including farmers, landowners, agricultural advisors, researchers and environmentalists perceive the implementation and expansion of agro...

Agroforestry systems are known to provide ecosystem services which differ in quantity and quality from conventional agricultural practices and could enhance rural landscapes. In this study we compared ecosystem services provision of agroforestry and non-agroforestry landscapes in case study regions from three European biogeographical regions: Medit...

Agroforestry in Switzerland makes up approximately twelve per cent of the country"s farmland, with forest pastures, hedgerows and traditional fruit orchards being the most widespread systems. Those traditional agroforestry systems receive policy support due to the ecosystem services they provide, notably for biodiversity and landscape scenery. Unde...

Whilst numerous studies have examined the environmental benefits of introducing additional trees within wood pasture systems few studies have assessed the impact on farm profitability. This paper describes a model, called Forage-SAFE, which has been developed to improve understanding of the management and economics of wood pastures. The model simul...

Background: Biodiversity loss, due in part to intensification of agriculture, has become a global issue. In this context, fruit producers are looking for nature-friendly production methods. Their aim is to reduce intensive pesticide use and to enhance orchard management in terms of optimising habitats for beneficial organisms. However, fruit produc...

Cascading use of biomass is identified as a significant element to increase resource efficiency in nu-merous environmental strategies and political programs. However, the technical term of “cascading use” has been defined rather vaguely. The definition developed in the course of this project clarifies the distinctions between the technical terms in...

Investitionen in die kommunale Infrastruktur sind seit einigen Jahren massiv rückläufig. Wurden noch Anfang der 90er Jahren etwa 60 % der öffentlichen Bauinvestitionen von den Kommunen getragen, ist dieser Wert seit 1993/94 sowohl im Verhältnis zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt als auch pro Einwohner gesunken. Gleichzeitig verfügen Deutschland und Europa üb...

Ziel des hier beschriebenen Vorhabens war es, eine regionalisierte Strategie für einen nachhaltigen Ausbau / eine nachhaltige Stabilisierung der Holzenergienutzung unter Berücksichtigung der Holzkaskadennutzung zu formulieren und zu begründen. Diese Strategie sollte dabei neben dem Leitbild einer nachhaltigen Holzenergienutzung v.a. konkrete Handlu...