Speaker
Description
1 - Introduction
Face with climate change and biodiversity crisis, it is essential to move towards more sustainable agricultural systems that produce while limiting impacts on the environment. Nature based-solutions enhancing the multifunctionality of agricultural systems are promising but challenging. For example, pest control, can be based on prey-predator relationships by promoting crop auxiliaries. Indeed, little is known about the factors that determine, in agroecosystems, the simultaneous provision of multiple ecosystem functions (i.e. the multifunctionality), underlying the support of goods and services to society (Manning et al., 2018). Diversified rotations, low-input management systems, and hedgerow maintenance, at local and landscape scale, are nature based-solutions that could promote multifunctionality (Tamburini et al., 2020). In addition to the paucity of research investigating the effects of these strategies on multiple functions simultaneously, there are also knowledge gaps about the effects of their implementation at local and landscape scales on the multifunctionality of agroecosystems. Filling these gaps is essential to identify the scales at which these strategies should be implemented and combined. We therefore ask to what extent the implementation of diversified rotations, low-input management systems, and hedgerow maintenance, at local and landscape scales, contribute to the multifunctionality of agroecosystems and underlying functions.
2 - Materials and methods
The study was conducted in the Zone Atelier Armorique, Brittany, western France. A total of 30 winter wheat fields were selected for analysis, each bordered by at least one hedgerow and at least one hedgerow-free area. The fields were chosen based on three criteria: diversity level in the rotation, level of input use in the management system, and hedge-density landscape gradient. Diversity levels in the rotation were obtained from georeferenced field data declared by farmers over the past 8 years. Levels of input use in the management systems were obtained through farmers’ interviews. Hedgerow density was measured within a 1 km buffer radius around each field in the Zone Atelier Armorique. This allowed us to define the hedge-density landscape gradient. The multifunctionality of the fields was assessed by considering five ecosystem functions (soil quality, pest control, pollination, biodiversity conservation, food production) and two socio-economic performances (working time, gross margin). Proxies for each function will be measured. For example, we will measure the abundance of carabid beetles and spiders for the pest control function and the abundance of pollinators for the pollination function. The proxies of ecosystem functions were measured at several distances from the two field borders (the one with the hedgerow, the one without the hedgerow): 0 m, 2 m, 10 m.
3 - Results
The results are currently being compiled; this summary was submitted before they were available. The results will focus on the effects of rotation diversity and distance from hedgerows on abundance of carabid beetles and spiders (pest control), abondance of pollinators (pollination) and tonnes of wheat per hectare (food production). We expect greater agroecosystem multifunctionality in fields with more diversified rotations and low inputs. Agroecosystem multifunctionality should also be greater near hedgerows than field centre. We expect pest control, pollination and yield to be higher in fields with diversified rotations than in fields with less diversified rotations. With respect to distance from the hedgerow, pollination and pest control should decrease with distance from the hedgerow. On the other hand, yield should be lower near the hedgerow than in the centre of the fields but higher 10 m from the hedgerow than in the centre of the field. These results will allow us to develop ways of managing more multifunctional agroecosystems.
4 - References
Manning P., Van Der Plas F., Soliveres S., Allan E., Maestre F.T., Mace G., Whittingham M.J., Fischer M. (2018). Redefining ecosystem multifunctionality. Nat Ecol Evol 2 (3): 427–436. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0461-7
Tamburini G., Bommarco R., Wanger T.C., Kremen C., Van Der Heijden M.G.A., Liebman M., Hallin S. (2020). Agricultural diversification promotes multiple ecosystem services without compromising yield. Sci Adv 6 (45): eaba1715. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba1715
| Keywords | multifunctionality ; diversified rotation ; low-input system ; hedgerow maintenance |
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