Preserving local biodiversity through crop diversification

Eric Strobl

doi:10.1111/ajae.12265

Abstract

AbstractUsing the case study of birds and food crops, we investigate whether diversifying crop production can enhance preservation of local biodiversity. To this end we combine annual bird survey data, high resolution land use data, and phylogenetic trees to create a landscape level panel data set covering the conterminous United States for over a decade. Our econometric analysis shows that greater local food crop hetereogeneity increases local avian diversity, although this is spatially limited. Supplementary county level data provides evidence that more food crop diversity is unlikely to be at the cost of lower revenues.

Highlights

It is widely recognized that agricultural expansion and intensification due to rising demands for food from growing populations has been the primary driver of the loss of biodiversity globally (Díaz et al, 2020; Lee & Goodale, 2018; Tollefson, 2019; Wilson et al, 2017)
In the fourth column we include the county level phylogenetic food crop diversity measure. This does not alter the significance of the other controls, except that yield as measured by gross primary production (GPP) is no longer significant when interacted with food crop share
In this paper we investigated whether agricultural diversity can help preserve local biodiversity by using the case study of food crops and birds for the United States

Summary

Introduction

It is widely recognized that agricultural expansion and intensification due to rising demands for food from growing populations has been the primary driver of the loss of biodiversity globally (Díaz et al, 2020; Lee & Goodale, 2018; Tollefson, 2019; Wilson et al, 2017). FCROP captures the share of total area around the BBS routes that is being used for food crops, where as a starting point this is defined relative to all other land use types.

Results

Conclusion