Agricultural biodiversity and health ecosystem pdf

Surveys of biodiversity in agriculture have found that birds, invertebrates and other small animals are more abundant and more diverse when agroecosystems incorporate a variety of crops. Diverse agroecosystems can see up to 50 percent reduction in pests and twice as much pollinator activity compared to monocultures where beneficial insects are excluded. This improves soil and attracts pollinators while providing some hay for livestock.

Farms with prairie strips can foster insect and bird populations that are three times more diverse than farms without them, and see dramatic reductions in fertilizer runoff and soil loss, lightening their footprint. Fostering communities of beneficial wild animals is a key part of integrated pest management, or IPM. Integrated pest management treats pesticides as the option of last resort for protecting crops, and instead focuses on using beneficial relationships between insects and plants as a first line of defense.

Although building a functional and robust agroecosystem takes effort, these approaches generally see lower levels of damaging pests than conventional systems, where pesticides indiscriminately kill off beneficial insects along the way.

This includes seed and gene banks, but also requires the participation of farmers, gardeners, and eaters around the globe. Indigenous communities worldwide are important protectors of agricultural biodiversity. Sadly, these genetic resources are often taken from the communities that preserved them, and then privatized.

A vital part of maintaining biodiversity is recognizing these communities for their work and appropriately compensating them. Projects should allow smallholder farmers to lead the way in preserving and cataloging biodiversity while also giving them a platform to benefit: the Potato Park, for example, pays Andean farmers to catalog and develop biodiversity, and doubled local incomes while expanding crop diversity.

Other seed preservation projects work by collecting seeds and placing them in long-term storage. Organizations like the Crop Trust preserve thousands of crop varieties, while studying their genetic makeup and keeping records about their cultural heritage. One of the largest seed banks in the world, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, holds over a million samples from around the planet in cold storage.

Livestock preservation is equally important. It is possible to preserve sperm and egg cells from animals in a way that mirrors seed banks for crops, and the FAO has already established regional gene banks for animals in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Organizations like the Livestock Conservancy do this by helping network people who raise heritage breeds, providing knowledge on how to raise them and helping them maintain a large breeding pool in multiple areas.

Keeping crop and livestock varieties on farms and in gardens is equally important. First name Last name Email address. By subscribing to communications from FoodPrint, you are agreeing to receive emails from us. We promise not to email you too often or sell your information. Why Biodiversity Matters Biodiversity is what makes every environment on earth unique. Terms to Know. Algae Blooms and Eutrophication Chemical use can also impact ecosystems far from the farm.

Click here to view a larger version of this graphic The widespread loss of biodiversity in agriculture is an example of what biologists call genetic erosion. Low Biodiversity Threatens our Food Supply Monocultures may offer consistency to farmers and the food industry, but they pose a risk to food security. Industrial Agriculture Compromises Cultural Identity Food is one of the defining aspects of culture, and every cuisine on earth relies on unique crops and livestock.

What You Can Do Help preserve wild biodiversity by choosing lower-impact organic foods whenever possible. Donate to organizations like seed banks and other community-based initiatives that preserve biodiversity, especially those benefiting indigenous communities.

Get the latest food news, from FoodPrint. Sweetlove, Lee. Roos, Christopher I. Department of the Interior, www. Phippen, J. Stanley, Greg. Kissinger, Gabrielle, et al. Busch, Jonah, and Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon. A Meta-Analysis. Harvey, Fiona. Gonthier, David J. Whitehorn et al. Ali, Sara et al. Tsiafouli, Maria A. Brussaard, Lijbert, et al. Oertel, Cornelius, et al. Department of Commerce, 12 June , www. Hale, Stephen S. Accessed 10 Dec.

Alexander, Timothy J. Mooney, Harold, et al. Charles, Dan. Smith, Bruce D. Van de Wouw, M. Genetic erosion in crops: concept, research results and challenges. Plant Genetic Resources, 8 01 , 1— Pingali, P. The Green Revolution and Crop Biodiversity. Biological Extinction, — Stokstad, Erik.

Mondal, Suchismita, et al. Robbins, Jim. De Schutter, Olivier. Related Audiobooks Free with a 30 day trial from Scribd.

Wonder Boys Michael Chabon. Deep Dish Mary Kay Andrews. The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro. The Dilbert Principle Scott Adams. Shopgirl Steve Martin. Agricultural biodiversity 1. Agriculture The science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.

It is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation number of species within an area, biome, or planet. Genetic resources for food and agriculture: 2. Components of biodiversity that support ecosystem services 3. Abiotic factors 4. Socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Components of biodiversity that support ecosystem services upon which agriculture is based.

These include a diverse range of organisms that contribute, at various scales to, nutrient cycling, pest and disease regulation, pollination, pollution and sediment regulation, maintenance of the hydrological cycle, erosion control, and climate regulation.

Today's crop and livestock biodiversity are the result of many thousands years of human intervention. This is particularly important regarding climate change.

The evolution of biodiversity, and therefore both its and our survival, mainly depends on this genetic diversity.

All domesticated crops and animals result from human management of biodiversity, which is constantly responding to new challenges to maintain and increase productivity under constantly varying conditions. How To Reduce This Damage? However, they do not control all factors involved including those related to agricultural policies, incentives , markets or consumption patterns, and therefore need support from government policy.

What Needs to be Done? When a species or the diversity within a species is lost, we also lose genes that could be important for improving crops, promoting their resistance to pests and diseases, or adapting to the effects of climate change.

Using diversity allows farmers to limit the spread of pests and diseases without investing in high chemical inputs. Growing a combination of varieties together also makes farming systems more resilient to new pests and diseases Mulumba et al, Agricultural biodiversity can provide smallholder farmers with more crop options and help buffer the effects of extreme events such as droughts or floods.

In Ethiopia, farmers who face high rainfall variability plant more teff, barley and grass pea rather than wheat and lentils Haile Abreha, They also respond to high rainfall variability by sowing different varieties of the same crop species Di Falco et al, In turn, agroecosystems depend strongly on a suite of ecosystem services provided by natural, unmanaged ecosystems.

Supporting services include genetic biodiversity for use in breeding crops and livestock, soil formation and structure, soil fertility, nutrient cycling and the provision of water.

Regulating services may be provided to agriculture by pollinators and natural enemies that move into agroecosystems from natural vegetation. Natural ecosystems may also purify water and regulate its flow into agricultural systems, providing sufficient quantities at the appropriate time for plant growth.

Impacts of farm management and landscape management on the flow of ecosystem services and disservices to and from agroecosystems. Traditionally, agroecosystems have been considered primarily as sources of provisioning services, but more recently their contributions to other types of ecosystem services have been recognized MEA Influenced by human management, ecosystem processes within agricultural systems can provide services that support the provisioning services, including pollination, pest control, genetic diversity for future agricultural use, soil retention, regulation of soil fertility and nutrient cycling.

Whether any particular agricultural system provides such services in support of provisioning depends on management, and management is influenced by the balance between short-term and long-term benefits. Since agricultural practices can harm biodiversity through multiple pathways, agriculture is often considered anathema to conservation. However, appropriate management can ameliorate many of the negative impacts of agriculture, while largely maintaining provisioning services.

Agroecosystems can provide a range of other regulating and cultural services to human communities, in addition to provisioning services and services in support of provisioning.

Regulating services from agriculture may include flood control, water quality control, carbon storage and climate regulation through greenhouse gas emissions, disease regulation, and waste treatment e. Cultural services may include scenic beauty, education, recreation and tourism, as well as traditional use. Agricultural places or products are often used in traditional rituals and customs that bond human communities.

Conservation of biodiversity may also be considered a cultural ecosystem service influenced by agriculture, since most cultures recognize appreciation of nature as an explicit human value. In return, biodiversity can contribute a variety of supporting services to agroecosystems and surrounding ecosystems Daily Around the world, agricultural ecosystems show tremendous variation in structure and function, because they were designed by diverse cultures under diverse socioeconomic conditions in diverse climatic regions.

Functioning agroecosystems include, among others, annual crop monocultures, temperate perennial orchards, grazing systems, arid-land pastoral systems, tropical shifting cultivation systems, smallholder mixed cropping systems, paddy rice systems, tropical plantations e. This variety of agricultural systems results in a highly variable assortment and quantity of ecosystem services.

Just as the provisioning services and products that derive from these agroecosystems vary, the support services, regulating services and cultural services also differ, resulting in extreme variation in the value these services provide, inside and outside the agroecosystem. In maximizing the value of provisioning services, agricultural activities are likely to modify or diminish the ecological services provided by unmanaged terrestrial ecosystems, but appropriate management of key processes may improve the ability of agroecosystems to provide a broad range of ecosystem services.

Globally, most landscapes have been modified by agricultural activities and most natural, unmanaged ecosystems sit in a matrix of agricultural land uses. The conversion of undisturbed natural ecosystems to agriculture can have strong impacts on the system's ability to produce important ecosystem services, but many agricultural systems can also be important sources of services.

Indeed, agricultural land use can be considered an intermediate stage in a human-impact continuum between wilderness and urban ecosystems Swinton et al. Just as conversion from natural ecosystems to agriculture can reduce the flow of certain ecosystem services, the intensification of agriculture Matson et al.

The value of ecosystem services has been estimated in various ways. In general, the framework has three main parts: i measuring the provision of ecosystem services; ii determining the monetary value of ecosystem services; iii designing policy tools for managing ecosystem services Polasky Ecologists and other natural scientists have been engaged in enhancing our understanding of how ecosystem services are produced for over a decade e.

Costanza et al. Basic knowledge about ecosystem structure and function is increasing at a rapid pace, but we know less about how these factors determine the provision of a complete range of ecosystem services from an individual ecosystem NRC In practice, most studies focus on estimating the provision of one or two well understood ecosystem services.

Better understanding of the processes that influence ecosystem services could allow us to predict the outputs of a range of ecosystem services, given particular ecosystem characteristics and perturbations to those ecosystems. Despite recent advances, this is an area of research that still needs considerable attention. The second step of valuation of ecosystem services typically includes both market and non-market valuation.

Valuing the provisioning services that derive from agriculture is relatively straightforward, since agricultural commodities are traded in local, regional or global markets. Some ecosystem services provide an essential input to agricultural production, and their value can be measured by estimating the change in the quantity or quality of agricultural production when the services are removed or degraded.

This approach has been used to estimate the value of pollination services and biological control services e. Values for such services can also be estimated by measuring replacement costs, such as pesticides replacing natural pest control and hand-pollination or beehive rental replacing pollination. Non-market valuation can be based on revealed preference behaviour expressed through consumer choices or stated preference e. In contingent valuation surveys, for example, consumers are asked what they would be willing to pay for the ecosystem service.

Another approach is to ask producers—in this case farmers—what they would be willing to accept to supply the ecosystem service Swinton et al. The overarching goal of measuring and valuing ecosystem services is to use that information to shape policies and incentives for better management of ecosystems and natural resources. One of the inherent difficulties of managing ecosystem services is that the individuals who control the supply of such services, such as farmers and other land managers, are not always the beneficiaries of these services.

Many ecosystem services are public goods. While farmers do benefit from a variety of ecosystem services, their activities may strongly influence the delivery of services to other individuals who do not control the production of these services. Examples include the impact of farming practices on downstream water supply and purity and regional pest management.

The challenge is to use emerging information about ecological production functions and valuation to develop policies and incentives that are easily implemented and adaptable to changing ecological and market conditions. One approach to incentives is to provide payments for environmental services, through government programmes or private sector initiatives Swinton Historically, the US has provided support for soil conservation investments and other readily observable practices to maintain or enhance certain ecosystem services.

In the US, the Conservation Security Program of the farm bill established payments for environmental services, and many European countries have also provided governmental support for environmentally sound farming practices that support ecosystem services. Agri-environment schemes are intended to moderate the negative environmental effects of intensive agriculture by providing financial incentives to farmers to adopt environmentally sound agricultural practices.

The impacts of these projects are variable, however, and their success is debated e. Baulcombe et al. A recent evaluation of over paired fields in five European countries indicated that agri-environment programmes had marginal to moderate positive impacts on biodiversity, but largely failed to benefit rare or endangered species Kleijn et al.

A recent report for policy-makers highlights the link between poverty and the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, with the intent of facilitating the development of effective policy in this area ten Brink Another approach is the establishment of markets for pollution credits, including the growing global carbon market operating under various cap and trade initiatives, such as the European Union Emission Trading System.

The production of agricultural goods is highly dependent on the services provided by neighbouring natural ecosystems, but only recently have there been attempts to estimate the value of many of those services to agricultural enterprises.

Some services are more easily quantified than others, to the extent that they are essential to crop production or they substitute directly for purchased inputs.

Biological control of pest insects in agroecosystems is an important ecosystem service that is often supported by natural ecosystems. Non-crop habitats provide the habitat and diverse food resources required for arthropod predators and parasitoids, insectivorous birds and bats, and microbial pathogens that act as natural enemies to agricultural pests and provide biological control services in agroecosystems Tscharntke et al.

These biological control services can reduce populations of pest insects and weeds in agriculture, thereby reducing the need for pesticides. Because the ecosystem services provided by natural enemies can substitute directly for insecticides and crop losses to pests can often be measured, the economic value of these services is more easily estimated than many other services.

Since this is an estimate of the value of suppressing a single pest in one crop, the total value of biological control services is clearly much larger. This estimate is based on the value of crop losses to insect damage as well as the value of expenditures on insecticides. Studies suggest that insect predators and parasitoids account for approximately 33 per cent of natural pest control Hawkins et al. Pollination is another important ecosystem service to agriculture that is provided by natural habitats in agricultural landscapes.

Approximately 65 per cent of plant species require pollination by animals, and an analysis of data from countries indicated that 75 per cent of crop species of global significance for food production rely on animal pollination, primarily by insects Klein et al. Of the most important animal-pollinated crops, over 40 per cent depend on wild pollinators, often in addition to domesticated honeybees. Aizen et al. The percentage increase in total cultivated area that would be required to compensate for the decrease in production was much higher, particularly in the developing world where agriculture is more pollinator-dependent.

Like biological control, pollination services are more readily quantified than many other services. Early estimates of the value of pollination services were based on the total value of animal-pollinated crops, but recent estimates have been more nuanced. Since most crops are only partly dependent on animal pollination, a dependence ratio or a measure of the proportion reduction in production in the absence of pollinators can provide a better approximation of production losses in the absence of pollinators Gallai et al.

Clearly, these estimates are also fairly crude and intended to provide a broad-brush assessment of potential economic benefits. Moreover, most estimates do not take into account potential changes in the value of each commodity as demand increases owing to reduced crop production.

A recent assessment of agricultural vulnerability to loss of pollination services based on the ratio of the economic value of insect pollination to the economic value of the crop indicated an overall vulnerability of 9. Stimulant crops coffee, cacao, and tea , nuts, fruits and edible oil crops were predicted to be particularly vulnerable to the loss of pollination services table 1. The economic impact of insect pollination on world food production in in the FAO member countries has been calculated at billion euro, but vulnerability to loss of pollinators varies among geographical regions due, in part, to crop specialization Gallai et al.

For example, West African countries produce 56 per cent of the world's stimulant crops with a vulnerability to pollinator loss of 90 per cent. The loss of pollination services in these crops could have devastating effects on the economies of such countries in the short term and lead to significant restructuring of global prices in the longer term Gallai et al.

Rate of vulnerability to pollinator loss and effect of pollinator loss on global food production for pollinator-dependent crop categories based on data.

Adapted from Gallai et al. A crucial question is whether the loss of pollination services could jeopardize world food supply. Gallai et al. Such declines in production could result in significant market disruptions as well as nutrient deficiencies, even if total caloric intake is still sufficient. The provision of sufficient quantities of clean water is an essential ecological service provided to agroecosystems, and agriculture accounts for about 70 per cent of global water use FAO Perennial vegetation in natural ecosystems such as forests can regulate the capture, infiltration, retention and flow of water across the landscape.

The plant community plays a central role in regulating water flow by retaining soil, modifying soil structure and producing litter. Forest soils tend to have a higher infiltration rate than other soils, and forests tend to reduce peak flows and floods while maintaining base flows Maes et al. Through hydraulic lift and vertical uplifting, deep rooting species can improve the availability of both water and nutrients to other species in the ecosystem.

In addition, soil erosion rates are usually low, resulting in good water quality. Fast-growing plantation forests may be an exception to this generalization, however; they can help regulate groundwater recharge, but they may reduce stream flow and salinize or acidify some soils Jackson et al.

Water availability in agroecosystems depends not only on infiltration and flow, but also on soil moisture retention, another type of ecosystem service. Water storage in soil is regulated by plant cover, soil organic matter and the soil biotic community bacteria, fungi, earthworms, etc.

Trapping of sediments and erosion are controlled by the architecture of plants at or below the soil surface, the amount of surface litter and litter decomposition rate. Invertebrates that move between the soil and litter layer influence water movement within soil, as well as the relative amounts of infiltration and runoff Swift et al.

These soil processes provide essential ecosystem services to agriculture. With climate change, increased variability of rainfall is predicted to lead to greater risk of drought and flood, while higher temperatures will increase water demand IPCC Estimates of water availability for agriculture often neglect the contribution of green water, but predictions about water availability in are highly dependent on the inclusion of green water.

On-farm management practices that target green water can significantly alter these predictions of water shortages Rost et al. Rainwater harvest and on-farm storage in ponds, dykes or subsurface dams can allow farmers to redirect water to crops during periods of water stress, recovering up to 50 per cent of water normally lost to the system.

Most farmers who withdraw surface waters directly do not pay for these services, except where local water sources are controlled by irrigation districts. Agricultural water demand estimates are often based on production data, where the marginal value of water is estimated by the increase in profits from a unit increase in water inputs. Although market approaches for direct water pricing are available, they tend to focus on blue water in a particular water basin. Many water prices for agricultural use are based on groundwater removal, using the energy costs of pumping as the key input variable.

The relatively new approach of payments for environmental services has often focused on supporting watershed protection and water quality enhancements that target the provision of blue water Wunder et al.

Soil structure and fertility provide essential ecosystem services to agroecosystems Zhang et al. Well-aerated soils with abundant organic matter are fundamental to nutrient acquisition by crops, as well as water retention.

Soil pore structure, soil aggregation and decomposition of organic matter are influenced by the activities of bacteria, fungi and macrofauna, such as earthworms, termites and other invertebrates.