Increasing cover of natural areas at smaller scales can improve the provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agroecological mosaic landscapes

Abstract

In agroecological mosaic landscapes, the potential of the landscape to provide a broad range of ecosystem services (ES) is vital to human well-being. Landscape structure and composition plays an important role in ecosystem functioning and the production of ES. In this study, we aim to evaluate the potential of natural land use types within an agroecological mosaic landscape to provide biodiversity and ES, and evaluate landscape scales more suitable to identify ES production. We conducted our study in the Credit River Watershed, in southern Ontario (Canada). We assessed the proportion of land use types in the surrounding land cover for each site and, using field-based measurements, analyzed its association with the following parameters: plant species richness (biodiversity), aboveground carbon stock (global climate regulation), atmospheric temperature (local climate regulation), and several parameters for water quality regulation. Our results show that a higher percentage of natural areas within an agroecological mosaic landscape was associated with increased provision of many of the studied parameters. For three of them, the smallest spatial scales of assessment (site and local) had the highest proportion of the variance explained. Atmospheric temperature was the variable that could be assessed in all spatial scales, indicating that natural habitats, especially forests, can regulate temperature in both site, local and regional scales. Our findings highlight the importance of conserving natural ecosystems within the landscape mosaic, enabling the provision of biodiversity and ES. These results have implications for landscape management, as actions conducted at specific landscape scales, such as conservation/restoration efforts or urban expansion, can potentially impact biodiversity and the provision of ES that benefit human well-being.