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.
Concerns regarding the ecological footprint of conventionally intensified agriculture are global.
Alternative, more sustainable farming systems must also perform well in both social and economic terms.
The evidence reviewed shows that alternative farming systems can achieve high yields and profits.
However, most studies analyze only one dimension of performance, usually the ecological.
The study of each dimension belongs to different research fields, each with its own idiosyncrasies and vocabulary.
A common experimental and multidimensional framework allows for a participatory assessment of alternative approaches to conventional intensification.
Such assessment can support farmers and policy-makers to achieve greater sustainability.
Declines in insect pollinators across Europe have raised concerns about the supply of pollination services to agriculture. Simultaneously, EU agricultural and biofuel policies have encouraged ...substantial growth in the cultivated area of insect pollinated crops across the continent. Using data from 41 European countries, this study demonstrates that the recommended number of honeybees required to provide crop pollination across Europe has risen 4.9 times as fast as honeybee stocks between 2005 and 2010. Consequently, honeybee stocks were insufficient to supply >90% of demands in 22 countries studied. These findings raise concerns about the capacity of many countries to cope with major losses of wild pollinators and highlight numerous critical gaps in current understanding of pollination service supplies and demands, pointing to a pressing need for further research into this issue.
Over the past 20 years, there has been growing interest in the possible economic impacts of pollination service loss and management. Although the literature area has expanded rapidly, there remains ...ongoing debate about the usefulness of such exercises. Reviewing the methods and findings of the current body of literature, this review highlights three major trends: (i) estimated benefits are heterogeneous, even when using the same method, due to several often-neglected factors. (ii) The current body of literature focuses heavily on the developed world, neglecting the effects on developing countries. (iii) Very few studies are suitable for informing management and policy. The review highlights the need for fully interdisciplinary work that embeds stakeholders and economic impacts into primary ecological research.
Pollination is a major, economically significant ecosystem service that is threatened by biodiversity losses. Economic measures of ecosystem services are thought to support better, more sustainable management strategies and are increasingly used to justify pollinator conservation.
Converting 63 available studies that economically measure pollination services into a common currency (2015 US$), this review identifies three major shortcomings within the current literature: highly heterogeneous results, biases towards the developed world and producers, and limited adaptability for decision-making. The review proposes next steps to enhance the effectiveness and applicability of future economic studies.
The uptake of diversified farming systems is constrained by a scarcity of evidence regarding financial costs, benefits, and risks. Here, we evaluate the productivity and projected farm income of an ...agroforestry system, where apples are integrated with arable crops, by combining primary data with ecosystem service and cost-benefit models. Our ecosystem service assessments included: 1) weed and pest associations with arable yields; 2) apple seed set as a proxy for pollination, and; 3) carbon sequestration. Arable yields were up to 11% lower in agroforestry than arable systems, and were significantly negatively associated with weed cover in both systems. Apple yields in agroforestry were similar to typical yields from comparable orchards. Apple seed set was significantly higher in agroforestry than conventional orchards for one of two varieties. Predicted gross mixed income was higher in agroforestry than arable systems in 15 of 18 productivity scenarios over 20 years, which was supported by a case-study. Apple yield and price were the major determinants of gross mixed income. Payments for carbon sequestration were predicted to contribute 47% to 88% of agroforestry establishment costs. This study demonstrates how a diversified farming system can improve farm income, but grant support would reduce the initial negative cash-flow.
•Integrating fruit trees into arable fields can increase farm income.•However, a substantial period (>7 years) of negative cash-flow is predicted.•Carbon sequestration payments could contribute up to 88% of establishment costs.•Fruit tree yield and price were the major determinants of farm income.•Integrating fruit trees leads to trade-offs between pollination and weed pressure.
Diversified farming systems, for example those that incorporate agroforestry elements, have been proposed as a solution that could maintain and improve multiple ecosystem services. However, habitat ...diversification in and around arable fields has complex and inconsistent effects on invertebrate crop pests and their natural enemies. This hinders the development of policy recommendations to promote the adoption of such management strategies for the provision of natural pest control services. Here, for the first time, we conducted a trait-based approach to investigate the effect of farming system on plant, invertebrate herbivore, and invertebrate natural enemy communities. We then evaluated this approach by comparing the results to those generated using a traditional taxonomic approach. At each of three working farms, we sampled within an agroforestry field (a diverse farming system comprising alleys of arable crops separated by tree rows), and within a paired non-diversified area of the farm (arable control field). Each of 96 sample points was sampled between 8 and 10 times, yielding 393,318 invertebrate specimens from 344 taxonomic groups. Diet specialization or granivory, lack of a pupal stage, and wing traits in invertebrates, along with late flowering, short flowering duration, creeping habit, and perenniality in plants, were traits more strongly associated with agroforestry crop alleys than the arable control fields. We hypothesize that this is a result of reduced habitat disturbance and increased habitat complexity in the agroforestry system. Taxonomic richness and diversity were higher in the agroforestry crop alleys compared to the arable control fields, but these effects were stronger at lower trophic levels. However, functional trait diversity of natural enemies was significantly higher in the agroforestry crop alleys than the arable control fields, suggesting an improved level of biocontrol, which was not detected by traditional diversity metrics. Of eight key pest taxa, three were significantly suppressed in the agroforestry system, while two were more abundant, compared to the arable control fields. Trait-based approaches can provide a better mechanistic understanding of farming system effects on pests and their natural enemies, therefore we recommend their application and testing in future studies of diversified farming systems.
Pollinator decline has attracted global attention and substantial efforts are underway to respond through national pollinator strategies and action plans. These policy responses require clarity on ...what is driving pollinator decline and what risks it generates for society in different parts of the world. Using a formal expert elicitation process, we evaluated the relative regional and global importance of eight drivers of pollinator decline and ten consequent risks to human well-being. Our results indicate that global policy responses should focus on reducing pressure from changes in land cover and configuration, land management and pesticides, as these were considered very important drivers in most regions. We quantify how the importance of drivers and risks from pollinator decline, differ among regions. For example, losing access to managed pollinators was considered a serious risk only for people in North America, whereas yield instability in pollinator-dependent crops was classed as a serious or high risk in four regions but only a moderate risk in Europe and North America. Overall, perceived risks were substantially higher in the Global South. Despite extensive research on pollinator decline, our analysis reveals considerable scientific uncertainty about what this means for human society.
Ecological intensification (EI) provides an important and increasingly adopted pathway for achieving more sustainable agricultural systems. However, the implementation and success of on‐farm EI ...practices may vary depending on landscape context and local management practices.
We evaluated how EI interventions, including two different agricultural input regimes (high or low use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers) and floral border crops, affected local natural enemy biodiversity, pest abundance and crop yield, and how this was influenced by the surrounding landscape context across 12 rice fields on smallholder farms in Puducherry, India.
Reducing agricultural inputs positively impacted the overall natural enemy assemblage; however, responses to landscape factors varied. For example, coccinellid beetles were negatively correlated with higher densities of field edges (landscape configuration). In contrast, spiders, the most abundant group surveyed, were not significantly influenced by any landscape metric. Furthermore, pest abundance was greatest in fields with reduced inputs but only at sites where floral border crops were not present.
Mean rice grain yield was lower across low‐input sites compared with high‐input sites and floral border crops had opposing effects across high‐ and low‐input sites. At low‐input sites, mean yields were 33% higher where floral border crops were present. At high‐input sites, the presence of floral border crops was correlated with a lower mean yield (16%).
These findings show that ecological intensification practices can benefit smallholder crop systems but highlight the need to account for variations in landscape context and local management practices for developing effective sustainable management practices.
Pollinator monitoring more than pays for itself Breeze, Tom D.; Bailey, Alison P.; Balcombe, Kelvin G. ...
The Journal of applied ecology,
January 2021, 2021-01-00, 20210101, 2021, Letnik:
58, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Resilient pollination services depend on sufficient abundance of pollinating insects over time. Currently, however, most knowledge about the status and trends of pollinators is based on changes in ...pollinator species richness and distribution only.
Systematic, long‐term monitoring of pollinators is urgently needed to provide baseline information on their status, to identify the drivers of declines and to inform suitable response measures.
Power analysis was used to determine the number of sites required to detect a 30% change in pollinator populations over 10 years. We then evaluated the full economic costs of implementing four national monitoring schemes in the UK: (a) professional pollinator monitoring, (b) professional pollination service monitoring, (c) volunteer collected pan traps and (d) volunteer focal floral observations. These costs were compared to (a) the costs of implementing separate, expert‐designed research and monitoring networks and (b) the economic benefits of pollination services threatened by pollinator loss.
Estimated scheme costs ranged from £6,159/year for a 75‐site volunteer focal flower observation scheme to £2.7 M/year for an 800‐site professional pollination service monitoring network. The estimated research costs saved using the site network as research infrastructure range from £1.46–4.17 M/year. The economic value of UK crop yield lost following a 30% decline in pollinators was estimated at ~£188 M/year.
Synthesis and applications. We evaluated the full costs of running pollinator monitoring schemes against the economic benefits to research and society they provide. The annual costs of monitoring are <0.02% of the economic value of pollination services that would be lost after a 30% decline in pollination services. Furthermore, by providing high‐quality scientific data, monitoring schemes would save at least £1.5 on data collection per £1 spent. Our findings demonstrate that long‐term systematic monitoring can be a cost‐effective tool for both answering key research questions and setting action points for policymakers. Careful consideration must be given to scheme design, the logistics of national‐scale implementation and resulting data quality when selecting the most appropriate combination of surveyors, methods and site networks to deliver a successful scheme.
摘要
弹性授粉服务取决于久而久之授粉昆虫量的足够充裕。然而目前大量关于授粉者状态和动态的知识仅以授粉者物种种类与其分布为基础。
系统来说, 对授粉者的长期监控急需针对其状态而提供的基准信息, 以此识别衰退的驱动原因并报告合适的应对措施。
功率分析用以确定所需地点的数量, 以此探测10年中授粉者数量的30%变化。随后, 我们评估了在英国实行四种全国性监控方案所需的完全经济成本: (1) 专业授粉者监控。 (2) 专业授粉服务监控。 (3) 志愿者收集陷阱盘。 (4) 志愿者花朵观察。这些成本的比较来源: (1) 实施分离的、专家设计的研究和监控网络的成本。 (2) 受授粉者减少而威胁的授粉服务经济利益。
预测方案成本范围从 6,159英镑/年（75地志愿者花朵观察方案） 至270万英镑/年（800地专业授粉服务监控网络）。预测研究成本通过使用地点网络作为研究基建的范围为146万英镑至417万英镑/年。由授粉者数量30%的下降而导致的英国作物产量损失预测为 1.88亿英镑/年左右。
综合与应用。我们与方案所提供的、针对研究与社会的经济利益相比, 评估了运作授粉者监控方案的完整成本。监控的年度成本与授粉服务经30%衰退后的经济价值相比, 小于等于0.02%。此外, 通过提供高质量科学数据, 监控方案在数据收集上能在每1英镑成本上节省至少1. 5英镑。我们的调查结果证明长期的系统监控能作为高成本有效的工具, 为答复关键研究问题和为决策者制定行动点服务。在选择最为合适的测量员、方法和地点网络时, 应对方案设计、全国性后勤实施和产生的数据质量给予慎重考虑, 以此交付最成功的方案。
We evaluated the full costs of running pollinator monitoring schemes against the economic benefits to research and society they provide. The annual costs of monitoring are <0.02% of the economic value of pollination services that would be lost after a 30% decline in pollination services. Furthermore, by providing high‐quality scientific data, monitoring schemes would save at least £1.5 on data collection per £1 spent. Our findings demonstrate that long‐term systematic monitoring can be a cost‐effective tool for both answering key research questions and setting action points for policymakers. Careful consideration must be given to scheme design, the logistics of national‐scale implementation and resulting data quality when selecting the most appropriate combination of surveyors, methods and site networks to deliver a successful scheme.
Food system resilience has multiple dimensions. We draw on food system and resilience concepts and review resilience framings of different communities. We present four questions to frame food system ...resilience (Resilience of what? Resilience to what? Resilience from whose perspective? Resilience for how long?) and three approaches to enhancing resilience (robustness, recovery, and reorientation-the three "Rs"). We focus on enhancing resilience of food system outcomes and argue this will require food system actors adapting their activities, noting that activities do not change spontaneously but in response to a change in drivers: an opportunity or a threat. However, operationalizing resilience enhancement involves normative choices and will result in decisions having to be negotiated about trade-offs among food system outcomes for different stakeholders. New approaches to including different food system actors' perceptions and goals are needed to build food systems that are better positioned to address challenges of the future.
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