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A farming systems approach to assess synergies and trade-offs among ecosystem services
Abstract
Agricultural landscapes are linked to many functions that benefit human well-being, with a focus on food production. These functions are intrinsically linked with the management choices made by farmers, which are reflected in different farming systems (FS) and their shares in the landscape. However, there is a mismatch between the level where these decisions are taken-farm level-and the landscape level, where many ecosystem processes and interactions take place. The FS approach is one way to bridge the gap between both levels since it enables the joint assessment of multiple management decisions from adjacent farmers using farmlevel data and combining them at the landscape level through clustering techniques. The result is a spatial composition of different FS that enables us to capture landscape gradients and spatially relate them with biodiversity and ecosystem services, thus helping to inform and design policies to affect farming system choice. In Europe, the use of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) database, coupled with the Land Parcel Information System (LPIS), a high-resolution spatially-explicit identification system for agricultural plots, provides a potentially rich source of information on agricultural management (e.g., type of crop, livestock stocking, land use). In this study, we investigated the spatial associations between ecosystem condition and ecosystem services indicators; and explored relationships between landscape gradients and these indicators using a FS approach based on IACS and LPIS data. Agroforestry systems were shown to be linked to a greater ecosystem condition and ecosystem services delivery. In contrast, LG dominated by very intensive and specialized FS revealed the most pronounced negative effects on ecosystems.
... The use of the synthetic CESI provides decision-makers in environmental governance policy with an efficient and universal reference indicator based on physical volume-based measurements, balancing environmental effectiveness with management efficiency. In the field of ESs research, studies mainly focus on ESs assessment [15,16], spatiotemporal patterns and processes of ESs [17], driving mechanisms of ESs [18,19], trade-offs and supply-demand analysis of ESs, service flows, predictive simulations, and the optimal regulation of ESs [3,[20][21][22]. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of studies that have investigated the formation mechanisms of the spatiotemporal patterns of ESs from the perspective of spatial econometrics. ...
... Ecosystems provide humans with material services, including food, timber, and other raw materials, as well as non-material services like carbon sequestration, climate regulation, and esthetic benefits [1][2][3]. The surge in global population and intensified socioeconomic activities are placing growing pressure on ecosystems [4,5]. ...
Ecosystem services (ESs) are increasingly recognized as critical to sustainable development and human well-being and are frequently used as indicators in environmental governance policies. However, existing studies mostly assess the performance of isolated single ESs, ignoring the management data needs of local governments for comprehensive gate-keeping and the easy monitoring of regional ecosystems, and lacking holistic gate-keeping indicators for local ESs. To address these shortcomings, this study assessed the spatial changes in five main ESs in the Yangtze River basin (YTRB) in China by creating a comprehensive ESs indicator (CESI) using multi-source data, and introduced the hotspot analyses and spatial econometric models to explore the driving forces of CESI. Results showed that during the study period, the CESI in the YTRB increased from 0.44 in 2000 to 0.47 in 2020. High-value areas were mainly concentrated in the hilly and mountainous regions, whereas the low-value areas were predominantly situated in the plain areas. From 2000 to 2020, the hot spots of CESI were primarily located in the middle and the lower reaches of the YTRB. Conversely, the cold spots were situated in the upper reaches of the YTRB. The regression analysis revealed a significant negative association between socioeconomic factors and CESI, while a significant positive association between natural background factors and CESI. Of the natural background factors, average precipitation has the largest positive effect on CESI, with each 1% increase resulting in up to 0.369% increase in CESI. In contrast, GDP density had the greatest negative impact on CESI, with each 1% increase triggering a reduction in CESI of up to 6.210%. The findings suggest that CESI, which integrates multiple ESs, can effectively simplify the difficulty of regional ecological regulation. The driving mechanism indicates that environmental protection policies, when combined with the natural conditions and intensity of human activities in the region, would be more coherent with varying regulatory intensities.
... Under this approach, an FS refers to a group of farms with similar land-use and livestock patterns, using roughly the same resources and input combinations, which are therefore likely to cause identical environmental impacts and respond similarly to policy incentives [18][19][20][21]. This FSs approach has already been successfully tested in previous works exploring links between FSs and distinct environmental assets, such as biodiversity conservation [21,22], landscape assessment [23], or ecosystem services provision [24,25]. ...
... This study is an implementation of an FSs approach presented by Santos et al. [17] to link agricultural policies with biodiversity and ecosystem services, already tested and established in several previous studies [21][22][23]25]. In this study, we adjusted the approach to assess its feasibility and usefulness in supporting water quality management policies in areas where agriculture is the main economic activity and the main source of pressure on water resources. ...
Despite numerous published literature on the impacts of agriculture on water quality, knowledge gaps persist regarding which farming systems are of most concern for their impact on water quality, which would allow water resource planners to better target water management efforts. Seeking to understand how these relationships vary across different farming systems, we used data on water quality status in watersheds of an agricultural region in southern Portugal and overlaid it with a map of farming systems for the same region provided by a previous study. By intersecting both data layers, we characterized the areal shares of the farming systems in each watershed and inspected how these shares relate to water quality status using logistic regression. The results show that the impact of agriculture on water quality is primarily related to specific farming systems. We believe this type of information can be of significant interest to agricultural planners and policymakers interested in meeting water quality standards, and we conclude this study by suggesting innovative policy options based on payments to farmers operating selected farming systems as a cost-effective way to reconcile agricultural and environmental policy objectives.
... The PCA analysis projects the data onto a two-dimensional plane (biplot) defined by principal components that capture most of the variance in the data. In the biplot, the driving factors are depicted as vectors (arrows) and the correlation between these vectors is statistically assessed by the angle formed between the arrows representing each original variable (Silva et al. 2024;Wang et al. 2022). As explanatory variables in the PCA, we included mean annual precipitation, slope, soil organic matter (OM), and soil contents of clay and sand as they collectively accounted for 98% of the variance in the relationships, as determined by an analysis of variable importance conducted using the scikit-learn Python library on all input variables used for modeling hydrological regulation and erosion control. ...
Recent increases in societal demands for ecosystems have caused significant shifts in vegetation, land use, and ecological dynamics, particularly in sensitive mountain regions with strong environmental gradients like the tropical Andes, where environmental change is occurring rapidly, altering crucial services related to water and soil, including hydrological regulation and erosion control. These changes affect ecosystem functions at different time scales, and the effects can vary through space. However, most studies focus on individual services and rarely assess how these services interact across different spatial and temporal scales. By applying a disaggregated spatio-temporal approach, we investigate synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services under various land-use transition scenarios in the tropical Andes. Focusing on a strategic watershed in the central Andes of Colombia, we analyzed 22-years of land cover change and tested transitions between three hypothetical land cover scenarios: scenario 1—natural, scenario 2—pastures, and scenario 3—crops. The results show that while hydrological flows remained stable due to consistent land cover, hypothetical scenarios highlight the significant impact of vegetation cover on hydrological regulation, soil erosion, and their interactions. Our spatial analysis reveals 81 distinct land transition types, leading to synergies and trade-offs between services depending on environmental factors. Notably, the same transition may produce either a synergy or a trade-off depending on contextual variables. This approach offers a novel method for analyzing ecosystem service dynamics over space and time, providing valuable insights for targeted land management and conservation planning. These findings highlight the importance of understanding these dynamics for effective decision-making in critical ecosystems.
... The 3S technology was also used to extract ecological monitoring index data to measure regional EEQ. Some studies on measured EEQ index and ecosystem services value through land use/cover change data (Jiang et al., 2022;Silva et al., 2024;Costanza et al., 1997), while others based on multi-source remote sensing data (e.g., NDVI, soil erosion) weighted EEQ index (Xu et al., 2021;. EEQ, fusing multi-source remote sensing data, can make up for the dynamic monitoring of EEQ by remote sensing . ...
Global population growth has increasingly intensified human interferences with natural ecosystems. These interferences often exhibit complexity and diversity characteristics. Understanding the relationship between population growth and environmental issues has become a focus in the current scientific community. This study, leveraging multi-source remote sensing and census data from China for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020, utilized multiple spatial econometric models to investigate the pressure of population dynamics on Ecological Environment Quality (EEQ). A bivariate local spatial autocorrelation model was applied to pinpoint regions that experienced significant population pressure in China over the past two decades. Results showed that there was a rise in population density, with larger cities attracting more migrants to become residents and EEQ declining in most counties. The analysis revealed a strong spatial dependence between changes in EEQ and population. Spatial regression models were more effective than non-spatial models in explaining population pressure on EEQ. Population growth was significantly associated with EEQ decline. Based on the spatial regression model, EEQ decreased by 0.029% for every 1% increase in population from 2000 to 2010. During 2010–2020, this impact was more pronounced, with a 1% population associated with a 0.069% decline in EEQ. Pressure zones analysis showed the most widespread regions were unsustainable zones (decreases in population and EEQ), followed by areas with both population increases and EEQ declines, with fewer regions demonstrating coordinated development improvements. Effective solutions to address the challenges of population pressure on EEQ involve government regulation, strategic planning, cross-regional management, and the sharing of responsibilities and benefits.
The increasing demand for tea has resulted in the swift expansion of tea plantations, leading to significant alterations in the local ecosystem. This has garnered considerable attention. However, research on rationally modifying land use structures (LUSs) in specialized tea regions to achieve a balance with ecosystem services (ESs) and enhance their synergistic effects remains limited. In this study, we quantified the values of water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), carbon storage (CS), and habitat quality (HQ) by the InVEST model, utilized K-means clustering to categorize the LUSs of the village areas in Anxi County from 2010 to 2020, and then investigated the influences of the LUSs on the ESs by the improvement of the constraint line tool, according to which we utilized the ecosystem services trade-off degree (ESTD) and the Pearson correlation coefficient to explore the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services. The findings indicated that: (1) LUSs in Anxi County are tea garden structure (TS), forest land-tea garden structure (FTS), and construction land-cropland-tea garden structure (CCTS); (2) In LUSs, to achieve a balance among WY, SC, CS, and HQ, the dominant land use proportions were as follows: 0.5 for tea plantations in TS; a range of 0.55–0.6 for forest land and 0.05–0.1 for tea plantations in FTS; and CCTS, 0.25–0.3 for built-up land, 0–0.1 for cropland, and 0.2 for tea plantations; (3) The trade-offs and synergies of ESs vary across different LUSs. The synergy is particularly evident in FTS. Increasing the quantity of forest area is helpful in enhancing the synergy of ESs. This study offers an analysis of the effect of LUSs on ESs and their interconnections in specialized tea planting regions. It serves as a valuable insight into informing urban planning for future land usage and ecological conservation efforts.
The main purpose of the study was to investigate the ecological status, ecosystem services (ESs) with their relative importance, and the local communities’ perception of the management of Washa and Borale artificial wetlands located in the Semiarid Ethiopian Highlands. The results revealed that many of the communities relied mainly on farming and livestock rearing with small land size (≤ 1 ha) and large family size. Grass harvesting, free grazing, farming, wetland conversion, and water extraction were the main anthropogenic factors causing the wetlands’ ecological disturbance. The ecological status of Washa and Borale wetlands were thus moderately (67) and highly degraded (80), respectively. Yet, the various ESs categorized as provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services, were still delivered from both sites. Vegetables (carrots, potatoes, garlic), crops (barley, beans), grass, water, and crafting materials were the products obtained from the wetlands. Some educational, research, and recreational services were also delivered mainly from the Washa site. Still, erosion, flooding, carbon regulation, and biota (plants, birds, fish) supporting services were provided at both sites. Yet, many of the ESs provided had low and medium importance due to the wetlands’ impairedness. Yet, the water and food delivered from the wetlands had high and even higher importance than the other services due to their being designed for providing water mainly for irrigation and livestock watering. Still, Washa provided higher cultural, regulating, and supporting services than the Borale’s owing to its being moderately impaired and lesser buffer and catchment area disturbance. Overall, many of the ESs delivered had low and medium importance because of the wetlands’ biodiversity loss, ecological degradation, and water reduction chiefly in the dry season. Yet, the people had good perceptions of the wetlands’ management. Hence, for the wetlands’ restoration, urgent action is required via developing a management plan.
Agriculture is a major driver of change with manifold impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. As social-ecological systems, agricultural landscapes result from the intertwined interaction between farmers and nature, and contribute to several ecosystem services key to human well-being. The social-ecological outcomes of farmlands ultimately reflect the management practices of the dominant farming systems (FS) at the landscape level. However, data-driven research linking agricultural management and biodiversity is still scarce, a knowledge gap limiting our understanding on the impacts of different farming systems on biodiversity at the landscape level.
This research contributes to fill this knowledge gap, by being among the few explicitly exploring the relationship between FS and patterns of biodiversity at the landscape level, using as illustrative case the region of Galicia, northwest Spain. Using data from agricultural policies paying agencies, and protected species and habitats data, the following research questions were pursued: (1) Can farm-level data be used to map and characterize different FS at the landscape-level? and, (2) Is the occurrence of specific FS linked with higher levels of biodiversity?
Results allowed the identification and characterization of seven different FS distributed across Galicia, which dominance allowed to identify seven landscape types. Moreover, besides depicting the dominance of cattle-based farming systems in Galicia, results showed a gradient of management from the most intensive located in coastal lowlands (west) towards less intensive mountain areas (east). Such gradient of decreasing management intensity matched a gradient of increasing nature value of farmlands, reflected as higher habitat diversity and richness for some of the targeted taxonomic groups.
To our knowledge, this research is among the few explicitly addressing the relationship between FS and biodiversity at the landscape level. By highlighting potential links (positive or negative) between specific landscape types and habitats and/or species richness across targeted taxonomic groups, these results constitute a preliminary assessment of the agricultural practices promoting species and habitat richness. Further scrutinizing this assessment can support the identification of farm-level indicators that can be then translated into the design of policies (biodiversity or agriculture-related) fostering biodiversity at several scales of decision making.
The concept of fire regime can be used to describe, with different degrees of complexity, the spatial and temporal patterns of fires and their effects within a given area and over a given period. In this work, we explore the relations between fire regime and a set of potential biophysical controls at a local scale, for 972 civil parishes in central Portugal. The fire regime was characterized with reference to a 44-year period (1975–2018) using three properties: cumulative percentage of parish area burned, area-weighted total number of wildfires, and the Gini concentration index of burned area over time. Potential control variables included topography, seasonal temperature and rainfall, and land use/land cover type and patch fragmentation. Ordinal logistic regression was used to model the relations between the fire regime properties and the potential control factors. Results show that the fire regime properties have important spatial contrasts within the study area, and that land use/land cover distribution, spring rainfall and summer temperatures are the major controls over their variability. The percentage of each parish occupied by shrubland and spontaneous herbaceous vegetation is the single most important factor influencing cumulative percentage of parish area burned and the Gini concentration index of burned area, whereas spring rainfall is the foremost factor regarding area-weighted total number of wildfires. Along with the role of spring rainfall in promoting fuel availability later in the year, our results highlight the importance of the speed of regrowth of shrubland and spontaneous herbaceous vegetation after burning, pointing out the need of tailoring fuel management strategies to the properties of each parish.
Agriculture has been identified as one of the main drivers of environmental degradation in the European Union (EU). It can have negative impacts on air, water, soil and biodiversity. The condition of agroecosystems is affected by soil degradation, especially by soil erosion, which reduces agroecosystems’ capacity to provide essential ecosystem services. Therefore, it is necessary to explore synergies and trade-offs between pressures,
ecosystem condition and services to create relevant information for policy and decision-makers to implement sustainable response actions.
As part of the EU environmental policy, the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) Working Group developed appropriate concepts to assess and link ecosystem condition and services. This study aims to test the indicators proposed by MAES to assess ecosystem condition and link it with the ecosystem services provision. For this, we applied a suggested operational framework developed in the context of the
Biodiversity Strategies 2020 and 2030 for the integrated assessment of agroecosystems and regulating ecosystem service control of erosion rates supply at European scale. We quantified and mapped indicators for ecosystem condition, environmental and anthropogenic pressures and soil erosion control. We explored the relationships
between the respective indicators and the capacity of agroecosystems to control soil erosion across the different Environmental Zones (EZ).
Our results indicate that, in general, European agroecosystems have a high capacity to control soil erosion with some variations within the EZ. Supply capacity is positively, negatively and not correlated with the various pressure and condition indicators. Management and climate indicators play a significant role in the assessment of
this service. These results highlight that conservational management practices are fundamental to reduce soil loss and improve agroecosystem condition. However, the design and implementation of such management practices must consider regional and local landscape characteristics, agricultural practices and the needs and opportunities
of stakeholders.
The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 was a driving force behind spatially explicit quantifications of Ecosystem Services (ES) in Europe. In Portugal, the MAES initiative (ptMAES–Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem and their Services) was conducted in 2014 to address Target 2 (Action 5) of the Strategy, namely mapping and assessing ecosystems, ecosystems’ condition (EC), and ES. In this study covering the NUTS II Alentejo region, EC was assessed and mapped based on four indicators (soil organic matter, plant and bird diversity, and ecological value of plant communities) and five ES were assessed and mapped (soil protection, carbon sequestration, and fiber/crop/livestock production). Assessments were performed under a multi-tiered approach, ranging from spatialization of statistical data to analytical modeling, based on the most detailed land-use/land-cover cartography available. In this paper, we detail the methodological and analytical framework applied in ptMAES and present its main outcomes. Our goal is to (1) discuss the main methodological challenges encountered to inform future MAES initiatives in Portugal and other member states; and (2) further explore the outcomes of ptMAES by looking into spatial relationships between EC and ES supply. We highlight the advantages of the proposed analytical framework and identify constraints that, among others, limited the number of ES and EC indicators analyzed. We also show that MAES can provide useful insights to landscape planning at the regional scale, for instance, red-flagging areas where ES supply may be unsustainable over time.
Many countries are reshaping their agricultural policies to better enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) in farmlands, but measuring the effectiveness of policy instruments in BES delivery is challenging. Using the European Agricultural Policy as an
example, we propose the application of a farming systems (FS) approach as a cost-effective tool for linking policy design and expected BES outcomes. On the basis of available data from subsidy payment agencies, such an approach can identify groups of
farms that share similar management practices as well as the associations between FS and corresponding BES potential, and improve modeled outputs of farm management responses to policies and other drivers of change. We describe how this relatively
unexplored source of information can help to support applied ecological research and relevant policy, and call for these data to be made available across Europe and elsewhere.
Trade-offs between incommensurable values of services are a challenge to the implementation of the ecosystem services framework. The International Platform of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) recommends pluralistic valuations of ecosystem services that include intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values. To understand how value pluralism may affect trade-offs between ecosystem services, we conducted a study quantifying ecosystem service proxies along a tree species diversity gradient in plantation forests in the coastal Pacific Northwest, USA. Further, we developed four frameworks emphasizing different bundles of ecosystem services based on how the services clumped within a matrix of value types and level of social organization at which benefits are likely to accrue. We then determined tree species compositions that optimized ecosystem services emphasized under the four frameworks. Some ecosystem services responded in sync, but we found trade-offs between provisioning services with primarily instrumental value and cultural services with relational values. Most single ecosystem services were maximized by monocultures. In contrast, high levels of tree species diversity supported the largest variety of value types. We hypothesized that biodiversity may be important not just for increasing ecosystem functions and services, but also for value pluralism.
Periods of consecutive days with heavy rain of high intensity are common in the red soil region of China, increasing unpredictable risks of soil erosion and non-point source pollution on sloping orchards. Grass cover, as a type of vegetation management, is useful for controlling soil erosion and pollution. However, the potential of different kinds of groundcover plants in combating soil erosion and non-point source pollution remains unclear under the rainfall conditions in this region of China. This study included 7 d of simulated rainfall applied to a set of six treatments: Bare soil control, natural grass, and four groundcover treatments, Trifolium repens, T. repens, and Lolium perenne, Vicia sativa and Festuca elata, Medicago polymorpha, and Cynodon dactylon. The effects of the treatments on runoff volume, and soil, nitrogen, and phosphorus losses were evaluated. The results indicated that greater soil erosion and non-point source pollution occurred over the first 3d of daily 1-h simulated rainfall events. Also, the beneficial effects of the groundcover plants were greater earlier in the 7-d period of daily heavy rain, particularly in reducing runoff and nitrogen loss on the second and third day. Compared with bare soil, all the groundcovers showed a reduction effect in varying degrees, among which T. repens treatment was more effective. T. repens treatment showed an overall reduction in runoff and soil loss by 25.5% and 91.5%, respectively, and total nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen and total phosphorus loss by 25.5%, 74.6%, 90.7%, and 81.8%, respectively. These findings indicated that single planting of perennial pasture T. repens with short stems is an effective management option to limit soil erosion and non-point source pollution in sloping citrus orchards of southern China.
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 and to control competing vegetation. However, currently uncontrolled wildfires threaten not only natural vegetation, landscape biodiversity, communities and economies, but they also release large amounts of carbon dioxide, thus contributing to global temperature increase. Higher temperatures and drier summers have increased the risk of wildfires in biodiversity rich areas of European Mediterranean countries and have resulted in human casualties. The aim of this article is to investigate whether agroforestry, the practice of integrating woody vegetation and agricultural crops and/or livestock, could be a management tool to reduce wildfires in European Mediterranean countries. Fire events from 2008 to 2017 and data of land cover and land use were spatially correlated. Results indicated that agroforestry areas had fewer wildfire incidents than forests, shrublands or grasslands, providing evidence of the potential of agroforestry to reduce fire risk and protect ecosystems.
In densely populated fire-prone regions, interactions between global change drivers, such as land-cover changes and climate change, may increase the frequency and severity of wildfires impacting forest ecosystems, thus diminishing their capability of provisioning key ecosystem goods and services for these societies. Yet, landscape mosaics play a crucial role in fire dynamics and behaviour. Here, we argue that promoting heterogeneous agro-forest mosaics could reduce the area affected by future fires. Specifically, we evaluated 24 landscape-scale management scenarios based on agricultural conversion, i.e. the creation of new agricultural land, that also explicitly incorporated fire suppression. Scenarios differed in the annual rate of such conversion, the spatial pattern (aggregate vs. scattered), and the location of new agricultural patches. To quantify the interactions between vegetation dynamics, fires, land-cover changes, and fire suppression, we coupled two spatially explicit models: a landscape dynamic fire-succession model and a land-cover change model. When applied to the Mediterranean region of Catalonia (NE Spain), new landscape mosaics favoured firefighting extinction capacity only after 15 years (on average) of cumulative land transformations. Agricultural conversion of at least 100 km² year⁻¹ was required to reduce total area burnt. A conversion rate of 200 km² year⁻¹ substantially improved fire suppression effectiveness, but subsequent conversion increases did not. When aggregated, new agriculture patches contributed more effectively to reduction in total area burnt and decreased the edge effect on remaining forest patches. Agricultural conversion in Mediterranean landscapes opens a new window for long-term spatial planning aimed at minimizing negative impacts of wildfire on forest ecosystems. These alternative strategies could help to develop landscape management practices in other fire-prone regions.
Context
Around 30% of European agricultural landscapes are classified as high nature value (HNV) farmlands. Current policies emphasize the multifunctionality of these landscapes, but little is known about the positive and negative associations of multiple ecosystem services within HNV farmland.
Objectives
This study aims to identify perceived ecosystem services synergies, trade-offs, and bundles in agricultural landscapes of HNV from a socio-cultural perspective.
Methods
We performed a participatory mapping survey of 10 ecosystem services categories among 2301 rural residents in 13 European sites. We analyzed bivariate synergies and trade-offs between perceived ecosystem services through nonparametric correlation analyses. Spatial bundles of perceived ecosystem services were identified through hierarchical cluster analysis. Multinomial logit models were used to assess the influence of land cover on generating associations of ecosystem services.
Results
We find two strong and 16 moderate synergies of perceived ecosystem services (out of 46 possible ecosystem services pairs), mainly among different cultural ecosystem services. We do not reveal moderate or strong trade-offs. We identify five spatial bundles of ecosystem services, termed “Ecosystem services coldspots”, “Wild harvesting ranges”, “Nature areas”, “Recreational spaces”, and “Ecosystem services hotspots”. Of all land-cover co-variates, natural areas, urban areas, and roads have the strongest explanatory power.
Conclusions
Our study complements prevailing biophysical and economic analyses of ecosystem services synergies, trade-offs and bundles by a spatially explicit, socio-cultural perspective. We conclude that socio-cultural mapping of ecosystem services is useful for understanding the perceived multifunctionality of a landscape.
Sustainable and resilient agricultural systems are needed to feed and fuel a growing human population. However, the current model of agricultural intensification which produces high yields has also resulted in a loss of biodiversity, ecological function, and critical ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. A key consequence of agricultural intensification is landscape simplification, where once heterogeneous landscapes contain increasingly fewer crop and non-crop habitats. Landscape simplification exacerbates biodiversity losses which leads to reductions in ecosystem services on which agriculture depends. In recent decades, considerable research has focused on mitigating these negative impacts, primarily via management of habitats to promote biodiversity and enhance services at the local scale. While it is well known that local and landscape factors interact, modifying overall landscape structure is seldom considered due to logistical constraints. I propose that the loss of ecosystem services due to landscape simplification can only be addressed by a concerted effort to fundamentally redesign agricultural landscapes. Designing agricultural landscapes will require that scientists work with stakeholders to determine the mix of desired ecosystem services, evaluate current landscape structure in light of those goals, and implement targeted modifications to achieve them. I evaluate the current status of landscape design, ranging from fundamental ecological principles to resulting guidelines and socioeconomic tools. While research gaps remain, the time is right for ecologists to engage with other disciplines, stakeholders, and policymakers in education and advocacy to foster agricultural landscape design for sustainable and resilient biodiversity services.
Accurate predictions of crop yield are critical for developing effective agricultural and food policies at the regional and global scales. We evaluated a machine-learning method, Random Forests (RF), for its ability to predict crop yield responses to climate and biophysical variables at global and regional scales in wheat, maize, and potato in comparison with multiple linear regressions (MLR) serving as a benchmark. We used crop yield data from various sources and regions for model training and testing: 1) gridded global wheat grain yield, 2) maize grain yield from US counties over thirty years, and 3) potato tuber and maize silage yield from the northeastern seaboard region. RF was found highly capable of predicting crop yields and outperformed MLR benchmarks in all performance statistics that were compared. For example, the root mean square errors (RMSE) ranged between 6 and 14% of the average observed yield with RF models in all test cases whereas these values ranged from 14% to 49% for MLR models. Our results show that RF is an effective and versatile machine-learning method for crop yield predictions at regional and global scales for its high accuracy and precision, ease of use, and utility in data analysis. RF may result in a loss of accuracy when predicting the extreme ends or responses beyond the boundaries of the training data.
Pollinators, especially bees, are essential to terrestrial ecosystems. They ensure the maintenance of certain ecological processes, like superior plants’ reproduction. In the past decades, agricultural intensification has caused extensive environmental changes, with major impacts on biodiversity, especially on the pollinators, which reflects the loss of fruits and seeds sets. Here, we review studies that elucidate the causes of decline of pollinators, consequences of landscape changes to agriculture and possibilities to bees’ conservation. Many studies have related the loss of pollinators to changes in the landscape, such as the conversion of native forests into cultivated areas, which causes loss of important elements for bees (e.g., sources of pollen, nectar and oil, as well as varied nesting sites). Studies involving landscape ecology allow us to assess the effects of different farming practices over the richness and abundance of pollinators. Among the landscape elements performing positive influence on bees, the presence of remaining forests nearby cultivated areas proved to be a very important factor. Nevertheless, studies that evaluate all ground cover with a more integrated approach are still required to assess the effects of landscape context on the diversity and on the abundance of bees related to productivity of crops. Researches like these could provide specific data that strengthen the need for the conservation of different plants and animals, and could offer subsidies to propose necessary information for the execution of public and private policies, aimed at the conservation of the biodiversity.
Halting the degradation and restoring the full capacity of ecosystems to deliver ecosystem services is currently a major political commitment in Europe. Although still a debated topic, Europe’s on-going farmland abandonment is seen as an opportunity to launch a new conservation and economic vision, through the restoration of natural processes via rewilding as a land management option. Despite the ecological interest of restoring a wilder Europe, there is a need to develop evidence-based arguments and explore the broad-range impacts of rewilding. In this chapter we study the spatial patterns of ecosystem services in the EU25 and their relationship with wilderness areas. Next we perform a quantitative analysis, at the scale of the Iberian Peninsula, of the supply of ecosystem services in the top 5 % wilderness areas, on agricultural land, and on land projected to be abandoned. We find that high quality wilderness is often associated to high supply of ecosystem services, mainly regulating and cultural. Assuming that high quality wilderness is a good proxy for the future of areas undergoing rewilding, our results suggest that rewilding efforts throughout Europe will enhance the capacity of ecosystems to supply regulating and cultural ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and recreation.
Montados form a heterogeneous land-scape of wooded matrix dominated by cork and/or holm oak with open areas characterized by fuzzy boundaries. Montado supports a high biological diversity associated to low intensity management and a landscape diversity provided by a continuous gradient of land cover. Among other features this permits the classification of montados as a High Nature Value (HNV) system. We assessed the role of birds as HNV indicators for montado, and tested several bird groups—farmland, edge, forest general-ists and forest specialists species; and some universal indicators such as species conservation status, Shan-non's diversity index and species richness. Our study areas covered the North–South distribution of cork oak in Portugal, and we surveyed the breeding bird communities across 117 sampling sites. In addition to variables related to management and sanitary status, we considered variables that characterize the land-scape heterogeneity inside the montado—trees and shrub density and richness of woody vegetation. Our results suggest that specific bird guilds can be used as HNV indicators of particular typologies of montado, and highlight the need to develop an indicator that could be transversally applied to all types of montado.
The high nature value (HNV) concept, proposed by the European Environment Agency, recognizes that specific farming systems support high biodiversity levels, mainly as a result of extensive management practices. The Portuguese montado is one of the most significant HNV systems in southern Europe. However, considering the great complexity characterizing these systems both in land management and in landscape structure, a specific context-oriented methodology to assess which montado areas are likely to be classified as HNV farmland is needed. In this sense, the aim of this study is to explore a methodological approach which makes it possible to assess land management pressures through land cover information on these complex silvo-pastoral systems. The proposed methodology was tested through a local case study in a montado area in southern Portugal, assessing the relation between management practices and a vegetation cover index. Results show that in similar montado areas different land management strategies varying in stocking density, but also in type of grazing animals and shrub control practices, configure different vegetation cycles. These results indicate there is a way to develop a straightforward methodology to assess the HNV value of Mediterranean silvo-pastoral systems based on land cover indicators. These would make it possible to assess the HNV of montado areas with direct and objective information and independent of farmer's surveys or other farm-based data.
Agriculture, particularly pastoral based dairying, has intensified significantly in the past two decades. There are mounting concerns that this intensification could be linked to declining environmental quality. This paper analyses changes in water quality in three catchments in south-west Victoria, Australia, where the dominant land use has been dairying for the past 21 years and where the intensity of milk production has increased, driven by changes in farming systems and imports of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in various forms. We aimed to investigate if water quality has changed over that period and if such changes were related to the intensity of land use at the catchment scale. Three adjoining catchments were investigated which are different in terms of hydrology, biochemistry and land use proportions. Statistical analysis of continuous datasets showed that concentrations of N and P changed over the 21 year period. There were notable links between the intensification of milk production and increasing concentrations of N and P in streams from 1990 to 2000. The influence varied between catchments possibly due to hydrological differences that in turn influence biogeochemistry. From 2000 to 2011, there is some evidence this link may be starting to become decoupled due to various changes in farming systems, although it is difficult to specify which changes have had the greatest effect. The outcome of the close links between production intensification and water quality is that without fundamental changes to the farming systems, or without physical changes implemented in the catchment such as more effective riparian buffers or treatment wetlands, increases in agricultural intensity may lead to further degradation of water quality. Through this study the importance of investigating multiple water quality parameters and land use datasets to understand catchment functioning has been highlighted. Crown Copyright
Biodiversity conservation in forestry and agricultural landscapes is important because (1) reserves alone will not protect biodiversity; (2) commodity production relies on vital services provided by biodiversity; and (3) biodiversity enhances resilience, or a system's capacity to recover from external pressures such as droughts or management mistakes. We suggest ten guiding principles to help maintain biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resilience in production landscapes. Landscapes should include structurally characteristic patches of native vegetation, corridors and stepping stones between them, a structurally complex matrix, and buffers around sensitive areas. Management should maintain a diversity of species within and across functional groups. Highly focused management actions may be required to maintain keystone species and threatened species, and to control invasive species. These guiding principles provide a scientifically defensible starting point for the integration of conservation and production, which is urgently required from both an ecological and a long-term economic perspective.
An attempt to obtain a consistent spatial model of natural potential vegetation (NPV) for the mainland Portuguese territory is reported. Spatial modeling procedures performed in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment, aimed to operationalize phytosociological expert-knowledge about the putative distribution of potential zonal forest communities dominant in the Portuguese continental territories. The paradigm for NPV assumed was that of Rivas-Martinez (1976) and Rivas-Martinez et al. (1999), which presupposes, for a given territory, a univocal correspondence between a uniform combination of bioclimatic stage and lithology, given a biogeographical context, and a unique successional sequence leading to a single climax community (i.e.a vegetation series (VS)). Information issued from both literature and a team of phytosociologists possessing detailed knowledge about Portuguese vegetation, namely about forests and its serial vegetation, was acknowledged as a starting point for the construction of such a habitat-vegetation correspondence model. First, a bioclimatic map concerning the "Worldwide Bioclimatic Classification System" (WBCS) of Rivas-Martinez (1981-2004), obtained by multivariate geostatistical interpolation issuing from the work of Mesquita (2005), was set. Several partial matrices, one for each biogeographical Province, combined such habitat statements to VS. Initial incoherence due to vagueness of statements led to an important amount of both superimposition of VS and habitat gaps in the matrices. Further rearrangement of the table according to known field distribution of VS by experts allowed setting an approximate univocal correspondence VS-habitat. Finally, an intersection of bioclimatic, lithology and biogeographic maps yielded over a thousand habitat combinations to be associated each to a single VS through implementation of the matrices as a set of rules. Again, inconsistencies were solved likewise, but this time by direct observation of the map by experts. Keeping of phytosociological consistency and fidelity to information on actual vegetation field distribution was always mandatory during the process.
Patterns of wildfire occurrence at the landscape level were characterised during the period 1990–94 in Portugal. Based on land-cover information within 5591 burned patches (larger than 5 ha) and in the surrounding landscape, selection ratio functions were used to measure fire preference or avoidance for different land-cover types in 12 regions of the country. Shrublands were the most fire-prone land cover, whereas annual crops, permanent crops and agro-forestry systems were the most avoided by fire. In terms of forest types, conifer plantations were more susceptible to fire than eucalyptus, and broadleaved forests were the least fire-prone. There were regional variations in land-cover susceptibility to fire, which may be explained by differences in climate, management, ignition patterns, firefighting strategies, and regional availability. A cluster analysis of regional variations in selection ratios for all land covers allowed the identification of three main geographical areas with similar fire selection patterns. These results can be used for planning landscape-scale fuel management in order to create landscapes with a lower fire hazard.
Evolutionary and paleoecological studies suggest that fires are natural in the Mediterranean basin. However, the important increase in the number of fires and area burned during the 20th century has created the perception that fires are disasters. In the present paper, we review to what extent fires are generating ecological disasters in the Mediterranean basin, in view of current fire regimes and the long-term human pressure on the landscapes. Specifically, we review studies on post-fire plant regeneration and soil losses. The review suggests that although many Mediterranean ecosystems are highly resilient to fire (shrublands and oak forest), some are fire-sensitive (e.g. pine woodlands). Observed erosion rates are, in some cases, relatively high, especially in high fire severity conditions. The sensitive ecosystems (in the sense of showing strong post-fire vegetation changes and soil losses) are mostly of human origin (e.g. extensive pine plantations in old fields). Thus, although many Mediterranean basin plants have traits to cope with fire, a large number of the ecosystems currently found in this region are strongly altered, and may suffer disasters. Post-fire disasters are not the rule, but they may be important under conditions of previous human disturbances.
As Action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 called on EU member states to map and assess ecosystems and evaluate their services (MAES) in national territories, a pilot-project was created to set up a straightforward method for survey and evaluation of ecosystem types in the south of Portugal. The project’s primary aim was to produce ecosystem maps wherefrom spatial estimations of ecosystem services could be drawn, as well as biodiversity-related indicators of ecosystem condition. The resulting ecosystem typology and map were also used by others to estimate supporting, provisioning and regulating services.
CONTEXT
Efforts to bring together landscape analysis and farming systems have failed to explain the drivers behind their spatial distribution. Since agricultural landscapes are an outcome of farmers' decisions, understanding the role of socioeconomic and biophysical drivers of such decisions is essential for policy-making targeting landscape-level provision of public goods and ecosystem services from agriculture.
OBJECTIVE
Aiming to better understand the role of these drivers, we focused on a region dominated by agricultural use, with extensive variability in biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. A typology of farming systems was derived from spatially explicit farm-level data provided by the Portuguese agency responsible for Common Agricultural Policy payments, for 2017. Farms were thoroughly characterized through relevant biophysical and socioeconomic variables considered as potential drivers of farming systems.
METHODS
A random forest approach was used to develop a farming system choice-model, dependent on those biophysical and socioeconomic variables. Variable importance measures and partial dependence plots were used to explore the role of these variables in explaining the spatial distribution of farming systems and to predict spatial patterns at the landscape scale.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Results showed that both biophysical and socioeconomic drivers play a significant role in the spatial distribution of most agricultural systems. Its importance, however, varies significantly across farming systems, being crucial for some and almost irrelevant for others. Farm size and climate have proved to be the most relevant drivers for most farming systems. Overall, our approach proved to be quite accurate in predicting patterns of farming systems at the landscape scale.
SIGNIFICANCE
The proposed framework has shown great potential as a tool to support information-based policy design to improve agricultural landscape planning, by linking farm-level management decisions with the provision of socially valued public goods from agriculture, perceived at the landscape-level.
In mountain landscapes, agricultural abandonment is taking place in the most vulnerable areas, while intensification increases in the most productive lands. These contrasting processes, which have different impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES), are related to changes in the farming system component of these landscapes.
Farming systems are identified based on farmer’s decisions on, for example, type of crop and level of fertilizers, which represent the descriptors of farming systems and can be grouped into several dimensions (e.g. land use and intensity). Since obtaining this data at farm-level is often difficult, an alternative is to study the spatial combinations of farming systems at parish-level, i.e., Farming System Mixes (FSM), relying on agricultural census data.
Other biophysical (e.g. climate, soil) and socioeconomic (e.g. labour, farmer’s age) variables, independent of farmers' decisions, represent the exogenous drivers of these decisions. The separation between descriptors and drivers is important to improve knowledge about what drives farmers' decisions regarding farming system choice, as these choices are often the focus of policies aiming the support of BES.
In this study, we explored the underlying drivers of FSM and assessed the role of socioeconomic drivers, main target for policy makers, in a context of strong biophysical gradients. Biophysical drivers emerge as those that primarily discriminate between the FSM located in different topographic positions (valleys, mountains and plateau). In the situations where there is a greater range of productive choices available for farmers, such as in valleys, socioeconomic drivers assume a preponderant role on farming system choice.
In Europe land use change has produced loss and fragmentation of the original forest habitat. On the other hand, the area covered by tree plantations and altered stands dominated by exotic tree species is increasing. Forest specialist birds are considered to be among the best candidates to assess the consequences of this transformation on wildlife. Here we investigate the link between the abundances of three forest specialist bird species (the Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea, the Marsh Tit Poecile palustris and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dryobates minor) and the woodland habitats of a highly modified landscape located in north-western Italy. In the area, the cover of anthropogenic woodland habitats, such as poplar plantations and Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacia) stands, exceeds that of native oak and riparian forests. During breeding season, birds were counted for three times along 105 transects of 300 m each, scattered in all the wooded contexts of the study area. Using n-mixture models, we investigated the effect of the amount and configuration of woodland habitats on the abundances of each species. First we selected for each variable the strongest scale of effect, ranging from 0.1 to 4 km. Then we built a full model including all variables at selected scales, accounting for correlation among variables and possible interactions. Forest specialists’ abundances were affected by the composition of the entire woodland mosaic, not of native forests only. A high cover of nonnative woodlands in the landscape showed a null or positive effect on the species, if combined with a high cover of native forests. However, at a local scale and when dominating in the landscape, nonnative woodlands had mostly a detrimental effect. Alongside with the protection of remnant native forests, it should be contemplated the retention of nonnative woodland habitats when these contribute to enhance the heterogeneity of the landscape.
High Nature Value (HNV) farmland is declining in the EU, with negative consequences for biodiversity conservation. Agri-environment schemes implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy have addressed this problem, with recent proposals advocating direct support to HNV farming systems. However, research is lacking on the economics of HNV farming, which makes it difficult to set the level and type of support that ensure its sustainability. In this paper, we focused on a Special Protection Area for steppe bird conservation, analysing how economic incentives, biophysical and structural features govern the choice of farming system. We found that persistence of the traditional farming system important for steppe birds was associated with economic incentives, resistance to change, and good quality soils, whereas a shift to specialised livestock production systems was favoured by higher rainfall and less fragmented farms. A supply curve built using the choice model predicted that the proportion of traditional farming increased from 20% to 80% of the landscape, when economic incentives increased from about 100€/ha to 160€/ha. Overall, our study highlights the dependence of HNV farming systems on economic incentives, and provides a framework to assess the effects of alternative policy and market scenarios to sustain farmland landscapes promoting biodiversity conservation.
Farms can harbor substantial biodiversity, which in turn sustains the supply of ecosystem services. The effectiveness of farm management to enhance biodiversity, however, may be modified by land cover in the surrounding landscape beyond a farmer’s direct control. We examined how landscape pattern and farm management affect the abundance and diversity of native bees visiting highbush blueberry in Vermont, USA. We quantified landscape pattern at multiple scales and created an agricultural intensity index that represents farm management practices such as pesticide use, mowed and grain crop area. We observed native bee visitation to assess the supply of pollination service provided to blueberry growers. Across 15 farms, 84 wild bee species were observed visiting highbush blueberry, almost a third of bee species recorded in Vermont. Visitation rate, abundance and species richness increased with the amount of natural area surrounding farms. Less intensively managed farms had higher levels of bee visitation, abundance and a more diverse bee community. Bee communities and the pollination services they provide are influenced by interactions between local management and landscape pattern. In particular, intensive farm management appears to compound the negative effects of landscape simplification. To support native pollinators on their farms, growers should consider farming approaches in the context of the broader landscape.
Green-way policies in agricultural landscapes focus on ecological continuity between semi-natural elements (hedgerows, permanent grasslands, woods) and landscape heterogeneity. These policies suggest annual crops and temporary grasslands exhibit a negative or neutral impact on biodiversity. However, recent studies indicated the spatial continuities between different crops (spring vs. winter) showed positive impacts on biodiversity. These landscape patterns were directly related to farmers' decisions regarding the crops cultivated and where the crops were distributed spatially on the farm. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impacts of different livestock farming system management types on crop patterns and associated biodiversity (carabid beetles) in agricultural landscapes. We combined empirical analyses of farmers' decision making and ecological data to develop a modeling framework simulating crop allocation and abundance of two different carabid beetle species groups (maize and woody species). Modeling included field, farm, and landscape levels. We simulated different scenarios, where two livestock farming systems, swine and dairy, were combined in different proportions (i.e. number of swine vs. dairy farms) in two agricultural landscapes with varied hedgerow densities. Simulations showed maize carabid species abundance was higher in swine production landscapes due to more frequent spatial continuities between spring and winter crops. In contrast, woody carabid species were more abundant in mixed landscapes (dairy and swine) under high crop diversity. For a given combination of livestock farming systems, simulated landscapes were highly variable in crop acreages and spatial continuities between crops. Our results emphasized the need to manage landscape at a collective level, where crop allocation decisions create more interfaces without modifying livestock farming system combinations.
Complex nonparametric models-like neural networks, random forests, and support vector machines-are more common than ever in predictive analytics, especially when dealing with large observational databases that don't adhere to the strict assumptions imposed by traditional statistical techniques (e.g., multiple linear regression which assumes linearity, homoscedasticity, and normality). Unfortunately, it can be challenging to understand the results of such models and explain them to management. Partial dependence plots offer a simple solution. Partial dependence plots are lowdimensional graphical renderings of the prediction function so that the relationship between the outcome and predictors of interest can be more easily understood. These plots are especially useful in explaining the output from black box models. In this paper, we introduce pdp, a general R package for constructing partial dependence plots.
Sustainable Development Goals offer an opportunity to improve human well-being while conserving natural resources. Ecosystem services highlight human well-being benefits ecosystems, including agricultural ecosystems, provides. Whereas agricultural systems produce the majority of our food, they drive significant environmental degradation. This tension between development and environmental conservation objectives is not an immutable outcome as agricultural systems are simultaneously dependents, and providers of ecosystem services. Recognizing this duality allows integration of environmental and development objectives and leverages agricultural ecosystem services for achieving sustainability targets. We propose a framework to operationalize ecosystem services and resilience-based interventions in agricultural landscapes and call for renewed efforts to apply resilience-based approaches to landscape management challenges and for refocusing ecosystem service research on human well-being outcomes.
Scientists and policy-makers globally are calling for alternative approaches to conventional intensification of agriculture that enhance ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. The evidence reviewed here suggests that alternative approaches can achieve high crop yields and profits, but the performance of other socioeconomic indicators (as well as long-term trends) is surprisingly poorly documented. Consequently, the implementation of conventional intensification and the discussion of alternative approaches are not based on quantitative evidence of their simultaneous ecological and socioeconomic impacts across the globe. To close this knowledge gap, we propose a participatory assessment framework. Given the impacts of conventional intensification on biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, such evidence is urgently needed to direct science-policy initiatives, such as the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Worldwide, the role of farmlands for biodiversity conservation and the delivery of multiple ecosystemservices has been widely acknowledged. In the European Union (EU), societal demands to include envi-ronmental conservation concerns within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have resulted in therecognition of the importance of maintaining High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf).HNVf constitute complex social-ecological systems, which owe their nature conservation value to themaintenance of specific, mostly low-intensity farming systems, supporting high levels of species andhabitats dependent on agricultural practices. Even though HNVf assessment in space and time is essentialto evaluate the effectiveness of Rural Development Programmes, the diversity of rural landscapes acrossEU, the scarcity of data on farming systems, and the lack of common methodological guidelines hashampered the implementation of HNVf mapping and monitoring across Europe. Thus, there is a pressingneed to develop and test methodological approaches that may support HNVf assessment across the EU.The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) which is mandatory for all EU Member Statesconstitutes a system for the management and control of CAP payments to farmers. Essentially, IACS com-prises high-resolution, spatially explicit information on the type and intensity of agricultural land-use.Even though such data exhibits high thematic, spatial and temporal resolution, IACS has seldom beenused, due to significant access restrictions. Here, the potential to use IACS data to support the assessmentof HNVf was evaluated within the German Federal State of Lower Saxony by implementing a recentlydeveloped methodological framework. Sets of indicators known to be essential for identifying potentialHNVf and underlying farming systems (expressing landscape structure and composition, farming sys-tems, and crop diversity), were derived from IACS. Spatial patterns of indicators were analyzed at twodifferent scales to delineate the potential distribution of HNVf across Lower Saxony.Results highlighted that most regions in Lower Saxony were characterized by intensive farming prac-tices including high livestock density, high share of intensive crops and low density of linear elements.Only 3% of the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) of Lower Saxony potentially constituted HNVf, withthe majority of HNVf coinciding with mosaics of arable and/or permanent crops and semi-natural fea-tures under less intensive farming practices. Semi-natural grasslands, partially under agri-environmentscheme management contracts, covered roughly 1% of the UAA and were mostly intermingled with otherfarmland habitats in extensively managed agricultural landscapes.
In the context of the EU-wide HNVf assessment, IACS constitutes an important source of data, charac-terized by a high spatial, thematic and temporal resolution of data collected annually. Whilst havingthe potential for use in HNVf assessment, some challenges remain, especially due to significant accessrestrictions. Nevertheless, IACS constitutes a powerful tool to evaluate the extent and condition of HNVfacross the EU countryside. Making use of IACS data in such a way could provide a stepping-stone towardsachieving a more effective balance between the management and control of CAP support payments andthe growing societal demands related to the maintenance and enhancement of farmland biodiversity andecosystem services.
The Loess Plateau, which is located in the arid and semi-arid areas of China, experiences significant soil erosion due to intense human activities and soil erodibility. It is necessary to explore and identify the land-use types or land-use patterns that can control soil erosion and achieve certain agricultural production capabilities. This study established runoff plots with two slope gradients (5° and 15°) in north of Yan'an, one area of the Loess Plateau, with 3 single land-use types (cultivated land, CL; switchgrass, SG; and abandoned land, AL) and 2 composite land-use types (CL-SG and CL-AL). From 2006 to 2012, we continuously monitored the rainfall characteristics, runoff depth, soil loss, vegetation coverage, and soil physical properties. The results indicated a general trend in the number of runoff and soil loss events for the 5 land-use types: CL = CL-SG > CL-AL > SG> AL. The general trend for runoff depth, soil loss, their magnitudes of variation, and the slopes of rainfall-runoff regression equation was CL > CL-SG > CL-AL > SG > AL, whereas the rainfall threshold for runoff generation exhibited the opposite trend. Results of nonparametric test regarding runoff depth/EI30 and soil loss/EI30, where EI30 is the product of rainfall kinetic energy and the maximum rainfall intensity over 30 min, and the runoff depth-soil loss relationship regression indicated that the effect of CL-AL was similar to that of SG; SG was similar to AL; and CL-AL, SG, and AL were superior to CL with regard to soil and water conservation. Runoff depth and soil loss significantly increased as the slope gradient increased. Runoff depth and soil loss were significantly correlated with the soil particle size composition and bulk density, respectively. The strongest significant correlations were found between runoff depth and vegetation coverage as well as between soil loss and vegetation coverage, which showed that vegetation coverage was the primary factor controlling soil erosion. Therefore, the composite land-use type CL-AL and the artificial grassland (SG) are appropriate options because both soil conservation and a certain degree of agricultural production are necessary in the study area.
Scientific planning for soil and water conservation requires knowledge of the relations between those factors that cause loss of soil and water and those that help to reduce such losses. The soil loss prediction procedure presented in this handbook provides specific guidelines which are needed for selecting the control practices best suited to the particular needs of each site. The procedure is founded on an empirical soil loss equation that is believed to be applicable wherever numerical values of it factors are available. KEYWORDS: TROPAG textbar Miscellaneous subjects textbar Climatology textbar Land Conservation and Management textbar USA (Mainland).
Successful regeneration of holm oaks is the key to the conservation of the outstanding biodiversity levels in Spanish dehesa parklands. However, low densities of regeneration were measured in this study. The threshold for livestock stocking levels supporting regeneration was below all figures presently found in the dehesas. In the analysis of stand structure, a positive relationship between tree age and the age of agro-silvo-pastoral use of the dehesas was detected. This suggests that the forest cycle has been disrupted, and stands may dissolve gradually. Regeneration failure is an implicit component of this agroforestry system. An analysis of long-term abandoned dehesas situated at roadsides showed that holm oak stands are able to recover if grazing and cultivation are set aside. In a mail survey, managers of private large landholdings highly appreciated having holm oaks on their land, both for income- and non-income-related motivations, e.g. for the preservation of real estate value or family tradition. Land managers identified over-maturity of stands and regeneration failure among the top five problems of dehesas. Conservation policy should be directed towards incentive schemes, environmental education, and technical assistance.
European Union (EU) member states set aside between 5 and 15% of arable land during the last two decades, but abolition of the set-aside scheme in 2008 caused a sudden loss in habitat availability and biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Management of set-aside has many facets and in this perspective paper we focus on the biodiversity effects of successional age, sowing strategies and landscape context. Young, 1–2-year-old set-asides have been initially considered to be too ephemeral to have any conservation value. However, when a rich seed and bud bank is available, a species-rich natural (secondary) succession can be observed. Arable (annual) weed communities in the first two years of succession can even include endangered plant species with associated rare insect consumers. Furthermore, many bird species benefit from early-successional habitats, whereas small mammal communities are richer in older habitats. If the local plant species pool is poor, sowings of diverse mixtures from regional seed collections can be recommended. Set-aside managers using species-rich sowings often experience that dominant weeds suppress the less competitive annual species. This trend to species-poor communities can be avoided by intraspecific aggregation of competitively weak species. Broadening the spatial scale from the plot to the landscape, efficiency of set-aside is highest in simple landscapes, where set-aside exhibits greatest effect in enhancement of biodiversity and associated services such as pollination and biological control. In complex landscapes, however, additional set-aside does not add much to the high level of biodiversity and ecological processes already present. Twenty percent of semi-natural, non-crop habitat appears to be a rough threshold for enhancing biodiversity and sustaining services such as pollination and biological control, but improved set-aside management should have the potential to reduce the percentage of semi-natural non-crop habitat needed. EU policy should tailor set-aside schemes for the maintenance of biodiversity and also consider that management efficiency is higher in simple than complex landscapes.
Electronic computers facilitate greatly carrying out factor analysis. Computers will help in solving the communality problem and the question of the number of factors as well as the question of arbitrary factoring and the problem of rotation. "Cloacal short-cuts will not be necessary and the powerful methods of Guttman will be feasible." A library of programs essential for factor analysis is described, and the use of medium sized computers as the IBM 650 deprecated for factor analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)