Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes Research Articles

Transformation scenarios towards multifunctional landscapes: A multi-criteria land-use allocation model applied to Jambi Province, Indonesia

In tropical regions, shifting from forests and traditional agroforestry to intensive plantations generates conflicts between human welfare (farmers’ demands and societal needs) and environmental protection. Achieving sustainability in this transformation will inevitably involve trade-offs between multiple ecological and socioeconomic functions. To address these trade-offs, our study used a new methodological approach allowing the identification of transformation scenarios, including theoretical landscape compositions that satisfy multiple ecological functions (i.e., structural complexity, microclimatic conditions, organic carbon in plant biomass, soil organic carbon and nutrient leaching losses), and farmers needs (i.e., labor and input requirements, total income to land, and return to land and labor) while accounting for the uncertain provision of these functions and having an actual potential for adoption by farmers. We combined a robust, multi-objective optimization approach with an iterative search algorithm allowing the identification of ecological and socioeconomic functions that best explain current land-use decisions. The model then optimized the theoretical land-use composition that satisfied multiple ecological and socioeconomic functions. Between these ends, we simulated transformation scenarios reflecting the transition from current land-use composition towards a normative multifunctional optimum. These transformation scenarios involve increasing the number of optimized socioeconomic or ecological functions, leading to higher functional richness (i.e., number of functions). We applied this method to smallholder farms in the Jambi Province, Indonesia, where traditional rubber agroforestry, rubber plantations, and oil palm plantations are the main land-use systems. Given the currently practiced land-use systems, our study revealed short-term returns to land as the principal factor in explaining current land-use decisions. Fostering an alternative composition that satisfies additional socioeconomic functions would require minor changes (“low-hanging fruits”). However, satisfying even a single ecological indicator (e.g., reduction of nutrient leaching losses) would demand substantial changes in the current land-use composition (“moonshot”). This would inevitably lead to a profit decline, underscoring the need for incentives if the societal goal is to establish multifunctional agricultural landscapes. With many oil palm plantations nearing the end of their production cycles in the Jambi province, there is a unique window of opportunity to transform agricultural landscapes.

A Geospatial Modelling Approach to Assess the Capability of High-Country Stations in Delivering Ecosystem Services

The creation of more sustainable land use strategies is paramount to designing multifunctional agricultural landscapes that allow grasslands to continually deliver multiple ecosystem services. A mapping modelling approach would provide us with a tool for system diagnosis to better assess the value of a landscape and define place-based practices for designing more context-adjusted systems that are in synergy with the complexity of grasslands. To assess the potential capability of a high-country pastoral livestock production system in New Zealand in delivering ecosystem services, this work uses a geospatial model as a decision support tool to identify management practices that enhance grassland health. The model uses national, climatic, soil, and landcover data to assess the agricultural productivity, flood mitigation, C sequestration, erosion, and sediment delivery capacity of a case study high-country station in New Zealand. Model outcomes suggest that the station has the potential for increased agricultural productivity although varying spatially, a high flood mitigation capacity, a high capacity for C sequestration, a moderate risk of erosion, a capacity to reduce sediment delivery to streams, and overall, a low to moderate nitrogen and phosphorus accumulation. Output maps display a spatial visualisation of ecosystem services associated with the landscape topography, soil, and vegetation patterns that allow the identification of neglected areas and planning of best place-based management practices strategies to enhance the health of grasslands.

Ecosystem services from partially harvested riparian buffers can offset biomass production costs

There is a broad consensus that riparian buffers provide environmental benefits and increase resilience to climate change. In this study, we examined the potential benefits of multi-zone riparian buffers with outer layers planted in perennial crops (i.e., partially harvested buffers). This was accomplished by developing a simplified regional modeling tool, BioVEST, which was applied in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA. Our analysis revealed that a substantial portion of variable costs to produce biomass for energy can potentially be offset by values provided by ecosystem services from partially harvested riparian buffers. Ecosystem services were monetized and found to represent a substantial fraction (median = ~42%) of variable crop production cost. Simulated water-quality improvements and carbon benefits generally occurred where buffer area was available, but hotspots occurred in different watersheds, suggesting potential trade-offs in decisions about buffer locations. A portion of buffers could be eligible for ecosystem service payments under US government incentive programs. Partially harvested buffers could represent a sustainable and climate-resilient part of multi-functional agricultural landscapes, and one that could become economically viable if farmers are able to reap the value of providing ecosystem services and if logistical challenges are resolved. Our results suggest that payments for ecosystem services can close the gap between what biorefineries are willing to pay and what landowners are willing to accept to grow and harvest perennials along streams.

Integrating ecosystem services with geodesign to create multifunctional agricultural landscapes: A case study of a New Zealand hill country farm

An ecosystem-based management approach (EBM) is suggested as one solution to help to tackle environmental challenges facing worldwide farming systems whilst ensuring socio-economic demands are met. Despite its usefulness, the application of this approach at the farm-scale presents several implementation problems, including the difficulty of (a) incorporating the concept of ecosystem services (ES) into agricultural land use decision-making and (b) involving the farmer in the planning process. This study aims to propose a solution to overcome these challenges by utilising a geodesign framework and EBM approach to plan and design a sustainable multifunctional agricultural landscape at the farm scale. We demonstrate how the proposed approach can be applied to plan and design multifunctional agricultural landscapes that offer improved sustainability, using a New Zealand hill country farm as a case study. A geodesign framework is employed to generate future land use and management scenarios for the study area, visualize changes, and assess the impacts of future land use on landscape multifunctionality and the provision of associated ES and economic outcomes. In this framework, collaboration with the farmer was carried out to obtain farm information and co-design the farmed landscapes. The results from our study demonstrate that farmed landscapes where multiple land use/ land cover types co-exist can provide a wide range of ES and therefore, meet both economic and environmental demands. The assessment of impacts for different land use change scenarios demonstrates that land use change towards increasing landscape diversity and complexity is a key to achieving more sustainable multifunctional farmed landscapes. The integration of EBM and geodesign, is a transdisciplinary approach that can help farmers target land use and management decisions by considering the major ES that are, and could be, provided by the landscapes in which these farm systems are situated, therefore maximising the potential for beneficial outcomes.

A spatialized assessment of ecosystem service relationships in a multifunctional agroforestry landscape of Senegal

Agroforestry systems are an integral part of Sub-Saharan agricultural landscapes. Studies conducted at tree or plot scales on the supply of ecosystem services (ES) suggest that agroforestry practices are a promising way to build multifunctional agricultural landscapes. However, the current characterization and understanding of how multiple ES are associated across such heterogeneous agricultural landscapes are still limited. This study provides the first characterization of the multiple ESs supplied by a Sahelian Faidherbia albida agroforestry parkland and their relationships. Relying on field data for 11 ES indicators, recent advances in remote sensing-derived information, and blending different ES mapping approaches, we first assessed the spatial heterogeneity of the supply of each ES. We found that the majority of ES indicators remained below ES potential values over the study area by 25 % to 50 %, revealing that there is a considerable scope for increasing the ES supply in the F. albida parkland. Then, using a scoring approach, we analyzed the supply of multiple ESs. We observed a large number of hotspots and a clear effect of the proximity of F. albida trees fostering the supply of multiple ESs in their vicinity. Finally, we mapped and analyzed the dominant relationships – trade-offs, synergies or losses – between ESs from a cooccurrence spatial approach. We showed that significant trade-offs and losses (58 % of the area) between ESs can exist in the F. albida parkland. Interestingly, we also showed that synergies occurred mainly up to 10 m from the F. albida trees, suggesting that synergies need to be increased beyond this threshold. By adopting an original ES valuation framework, we provided basic insights into ESs and their relationships. The different maps and information generated can support public debates and target new policies fostering the multifunctionality of F. albida parklands as well as in various other parklands of West Africa.

WITHDRAWN: Sown wildflower areas for biodiversity conservation and multifunctional agricultural landscapes

WITHDRAWN: Sown wildflower areas for biodiversity conservation and multifunctional agricultural landscapes

Sown wildflower areas for biodiversity conservation and multifunctional agricultural landscapes

Sown wildflower areas for biodiversity conservation and multifunctional agricultural landscapes

WITHDRAWN: Sown wildflower areas for biodiversity conservation and multifunctional agricultural landscapes

This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal .

The Role of Local Governing Bodies in the Management of Heritage Agricultural Landscapes: Italian Perspective

The increasing interest in the protection of the agricultural landscape as a category of heritage can be observed both in the growing number of globally recognized agricultural landscapes and in the development of new legal and institutional tools for their protection. The multifunctionality of agriculture, involving the multiplicity of interests and actors, engenders the questions of how and who manages the heritage agricultural landscapes at the local level? The research aims to provide an empirical model for the identification and evaluation of the local governance models used in the management of multifunctional agricultural landscapes. It focuses on two heritage agricultural landscapes in Italy and bases on field observations, semi-structured in-depth interviews with the local stakeholders and comparative analysis of the case studies. The research draws the map of interaction between the local stakeholders. It outlines the crucial role played by the local governing bodies in the management of heritage agricultural landscapes, involving several administrative and sociocultural units.

农作物景观生态研究:概念框架与研究方向

针对当前农业系统中农作物景观变化迅速、人地关系趋于复杂、粮食安全保障需求迫切，提出景观生态学和农业科学交叉产生的农作物景观生态研究这一新兴研究方向。通过构建农作物景观生态研究的概念框架，辨明农业生产中复杂的景观等级结构，为农业可持续发展提供理论依据。综述从农业景观到农作物景观的研究变化，指出农作物景观具有高动态性、尺度性和格局复杂特征。针对由种植者、消费者、耕地及其周边自然环境组成的农业景观，需要遵循相应的生态和农业经济发展规律，研究农作物种植格局变化、农作物的社会-生态效应和农作物种植可持续性的景观生态途径。重点开展以下四个研究方面的内容，农作物景观时空动态及其形成机理、农作物种植的多功能评价与权衡、景观农艺管理措施及情景模拟、可持续的农作物景观生态评价。从而构建"格局-过程-服务-管理-可持续性"的农作物景观生态研究范式，为农业可持续发展提供综合的空间分析与管理途径，为实现农业农村现代化与城乡人类福祉提升提供科学支撑。;In view of rapid crop change in agricultural system, we develop a conceptual framework of cropping landscape ecology to solve the complex interaction between human and agricultural land system, and maintain the urgently demand for food security. Frist, we analyze the hierarchical cropping landscape of agricultural system and spatial mechanism of human-land interaction, which may provide theoretical basis for agricultural sustainable development. The hierarchical level of cropping landscape can be divided into five levels. It is agricultural region, agricultural landscape, agri-ecosystem, farmland patches, and crops, which corresponding to landscape pattern, ecological process, ecosystem services, agricultural management policy and scale. We also summarize the difference between agricultural landscape and cropping landscape, and figure out that cropping landscape has the characteristics of high dynamic and complex pattern in different scales. Then, we design the framework of cropping landscape ecology research, which needs to consider the different agents of famer, consumers, cultivated land and its surroundings. It is suggested to follow the corresponding principles of landscape ecology and agricultural development. The framework can be composed by three parts, the cropping landscape pattern, the social-ecological effect of cropping pattern changes and the landscape ecological approach of agricultural sustainability. Cropping landscape pattern research describes the spatiotemporal pattern and driving mechanism of crop types change, identifies the key socio-economic factors, and understands the relationship between crop pattern and process. The social-ecological effect of crops includes its ecological process, resource environmental effect and crop diversity effect. Based on the scientific paradigm of landscape ecology, the sustainable cropping landscape regulation can be assigned in cropping landscape pattern-ecological process-ecosystem services-crop management-crop system sustainability. Moreover, four aspects are figure out future research, namely spatiotemporal dynamics of cropping landscape and its driving forces, multi-functional agricultural landscape, landscape agronomic management, and agricultural sustainability evaluation approaches. The crop pattern is the premise of relevant research. The multi-functional assessment and trade-off of cropping system are the basis to guide the policy of crop diversity and landscape agronomy management. Landscape agronomy and scenario simulation are the basis for policy makers and farmers to change copping pattern and function. The sustainable assessment is based on the cropping pattern, process and ecosystem service to formulate the approach and design to evaluate the agricultural sustainability. In general, this study tries to design a sustainable landscape approach to serve the regulation of crop pattern. Cropping landscape ecology can be constructed to provide a comprehensive analysis and management approaches for agricultural sustainable development, and provide scientific foundation to achieve the agricultural and rural modernization and the improvement of human well-being.

A brighter future: Complementary goals of diversity and multifunctionality to build resilient agricultural landscapes

Humanity places a heavy burden on agricultural landscapes, demanding plentiful food, multiple ecosystem functions, and biodiversity conservation. We quantified areas growing ‘brighter’ and ‘darker’ (i.e., better or worse than expected based on extrinsic constraints) for multifunctionality of ecosystem services (ES) over time across a dynamic agricultural landscape. To explore how areas changing in ES multifunctionality, we likewise explored temporal changes in additional features of resilience in social-ecological systems, including: (1) species functional richness and dispersion, (2) agrodiversity, (3) the diversity of farm characteristics and human demographics in the area, and (4) landscape structure and diversity. We found areas increasing in multifunctionality were likewise becoming more biologically and agriculturally diverse, without large losses in overall food production. This suggests the potential for complementarity among goals of food production, multiple ES, and biological and agricultural diversity for agricultural landscapes. While we cannot distinguish whether diversity is the driver, or the consequence, of ES multifunctionality, we can conclude that building diverse, multifunctional agricultural landscapes are an important goal for general system resilience and the future of food security.

Measuring Multifunctional Agricultural Landscapes

Multifunctional agriculture (MFA) has attracted increased attention from academics and policymakers in recent years. Academic researchers have utilised various approaches to assess and measure the multifunctionality of agriculture and rural landscapes. This paper outlines the nature of MFA and key supporting policies, before reviewing the applied research approaches, drawing primarily from the European Union and China where specific policies on MFA have been implemented to support rural development and promote sustainable rural communities. Four distinct types of valuation of modern MFA are recognised: economic, biophysical, socio-cultural, and holistic. Following a search of both the recent and older MFA literature, evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods applications are provided using examples from a range of recent studies. The review illustrates the diversity of approaches to measure MFA. While noting that many studies operate at a landscape scale, the challenge remains that the lack of commonality in the research approaches applied means it is difficult to provide effective comparisons between studies or to compare findings. A future research agenda will need to emphasise the need for more consideration of the roles of MFA research to support decision-makers, especially policy makers, but also farmers who largely make decisions for individual farms but, if considered collectively, can transform production systems at a landscape scale.

Weeds Enhance Multifunctionality in Arable Lands in South-West of France

The current challenge in agriculture is to move from intensively managed to multifunctional agricultural landscapes that can simultaneously provide multiple ecological functions (multifunctionality), thus ensuring the delivery of ecosystem services important for human well-being. There is evidence that biodiversity is the main driver of multiple ecosystem functions. However, how biodiversity, and which components of biodiversity are the sources of multifunctionality, remain elusive. In the present study, we explore the role of weed richness and weed abundance as possible sources of ecosystem multifunctionality of an intensive agricultural landscape. Weeds are a key component of the arable field ecosystem trophic network by supporting various ecological functions while being a possible threat for production. We combine empirical data on ten ecosystem functions related to pollination, pest control and soil fertility, and measured across 184 fields cultivated with winter cereal, oilseed rape or hays in the Long Term Socio-Ecological Research site Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sevre. We found that weed diversity was a strong contributor to multifunctionality in all crop types, especially when using the threshold-based approach. The effects of weed diversity were less pronounced for individual ecological functions except for weed seed predation and urease activity. As weeds may have dual effects on yields, we also explored the relationship between ecosystem multifunctionality and yield considering weed abundance. We however found a neutral relationship between yield and ecosystem multifunctionality. These results suggest that field management that maintains high levels of weed diversity can enhance multifunctionality and most ecological functions. Understanding how to maintain weed diversity in agricultural landscapes can therefore help to design sustainable management favoring the delivery of multiple services while maintaining food production. The next challenge will therefore be to assess the relative contribution of management practices, landscape features and weed diversity on ecosystem multifunctionality and yield.

Bridging the gap between conservation delivery and economics with precision agriculture

ABSTRACTAgricultural landscapes are important for natural resource conservation, but present numerous obstacles associated with intensive agricultural production. Chief among these challenges is the competing economics outcomes of conservation and crop production. Understanding these outcomes requires quantifying economics of crop production and conservation enrollment. Precision agriculture technology provides a mechanism to address these needs by using advanced technology to quantify spatially explicit profitability in agricultural fields. Precision agriculture's application to conservation planning represents a growing field of research. I present a brief overview of precision agriculture technology and its application in natural resource conservation. I discuss the role precision agriculture can play in United States conservation policy, highlight hindrances to adopting this technology, and provide recommendations for future application. I outline a new approach of targeted conservation delivery that focuses on return on investment to agricultural producers and discuss the role of precision agriculture in this approach. Increased adoption and application of this technology in natural resource conservation will require substantial investment from state wildlife agencies, nongovernmental organizations, farm managers, rural banks, and agricultural companies. Precision agriculture represents the next paradigm shift in natural resource conservation where spatially explicit conservation decisions are made that optimize conservation and profitability to produce environmentally resilient, multifunctional agricultural landscapes. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.

TALE - Towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes in Europe: Assessing and governing synergies between biodiversity and ecosystem services

TALE - Towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes in Europe: Assessing and governing synergies between biodiversity and ecosystem services

Landscape preference of different stakeholders in highly intensive farming agricultural landscape.

Intensive agriculture is the way for production and management in modern agriculture, which increases the yield per unit area of farmland, brings a series of environmental and ecological problems, and limits the sustainability of agriculture. Landscape preference focuses on different stakeholders' preferences for landscape, reflects the influences of human's subjective feelings and behaviors on landscape. Based on the agricultural landscape of Fengqiu County in Henan Province, we investigated the characteristics of the landscape elements which stakeholders preferred and analyzed the reasons using the questionnaire survey and other related methods. We proposed several suggestions for future development of the agricultural landscape in study area. The results showed that stakeholders preferred the landscape element which is simple and easy to manage, and emphasized the production and economic functions of agricultural landscape. Experts and local environmentalists preferred the landscape elements with multiple functions and benefits, as well as complex landscape configurations with high heterogeneity, with the aim to develop the multifunctional agricultural landscape. Factors such as education level, professional background and types of intervie-wees had obvious influences on the landscape preference of stakeholders. The decision-making beha-vior of government, the degree of economic compensation, and the technological support of eco-agriculture would be the important factors determining the possible development of landscape structure and function in the future.

Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions

Well-designed and supported innovation niches may facilitate transitions towards sustainable agricultural futures, which may follow different approaches and paradigms such as agroecology, local place-based food systems, vertical farming, bioeconomy, urban agriculture, and smart farming or digital farming. In this paper we consider how the existing agricultural innovation systems (AIS) approach might be opened up to better support the creation of innovation niches. We engage with Innovation Ecosystems thinking to consider the ways in which it might enhance efforts to create multi-actor, cross-sectoral innovation niches that are capable of supporting transitions to sustainable agricultural systems across multiple scales. While sharing many similarities with AIS thinking, Innovation Ecosystems thinking has the potential to broaden AIS by: emphasizing the role of power in shaping directionality in innovation platforms or innovation communities that are connected to niches and their interaction with regimes; highlighting the plurality of actors and actants and the integral role of ecological actants in innovation; and offering an umbrella concept through which to cross scalar and paradigmatic or sector boundaries in order to engage with a variety of innovation systems affecting multifunctional agricultural landscapes and systems. To this end, an Agricultural Innovation Ecosystems approach may help design and support development of transboundary, inter-sectoral innovation niches that can realize more collective and integrated innovation in support of sustainability transitions, and help enact mission oriented agricultural innovation policy.

A framework for designing multi-functional agricultural landscapes: Application to Guadeloupe Island

To improve agriculture faced with regional sustainability issues, agricultural landscapes providing a diversity and high level of ecosystem services are necessary. We have developed and tested the MOSAICA-f framework to build innovative multi-functional agricultural landscapes that can consider explicitly: 1) the performance of cropping systems at the field scale, 2) farmers' decision processes on the adoption of cropping systems, and 3) possible scenarios for innovations and policy changes at the regional scale. This framework is based on a scenario approach that encompasses normative, exploratory and optimized scenarios to assess the relevance of combinations of new agricultural policies, changes to the external context (market and regulations) and innovations in cropping systems. The impacts of these changes on sustainability issues are simulated using the regional bioeconomic model MOSAICA for farmers' decision processes regarding the adoption of cropping systems at the field scale throughout a region. Applied in Guadeloupe (French West Indies), the MOSAICA-f framework enabled the design of a scenario increasing agricultural added value, food and energy self-sufficiency, employment and the quality of water bodies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This sustainable scenario combines new cropping systems tuned to farm types with a reorientation of subsidies, an increased workforce and banning food crop production on polluted soils. It can be used to understand the potential contribution of agriculture to sustainability issues and to help local decision makers define policies that will account for the spatial diversities of farms and fields in a landscape. Beyond the design of such a win-win scenario, MOSAICA-f has revealed trade-offs in the provision of services by agriculture.

Turning points of ecological resilience: Geostatistical modelling of landscape change and bird habitat provision

Due to field enlargements and removal of landscape elements, intensification of agricultural management is frequently related to the alteration of the landscape structure and composition of elements, resulting in a decreased ecological capability. This study presents a spatially explicit probabilistic approach to model and analyse the effect of landscape elements removal on landscape connectivity and heterogeneity in a case study in North-Eastern Germany. Simulation of stepwise removal of tree elements as potential landscape changes is applied to assess resulting impacts on the related ecological habitat function for the red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio), a representative farmland bird species. The analysis of variograms' parameters identified a turning point in landscape structure constellation, occurring at a removal of nearly 50% of the tree elements, in correspondence of a 21% reduction in heterogeneity and a 20% reduction in elements connectivity. In terms of habitat provision, the turning point appeared at a shifted level, corresponding to a 50% reduction of connectivity, resulting from a ca. 75% reduction in spatial variability. It is argued that at the turning points the agricultural landscape would reach the limits of its resilience in terms of the habitat function associated to the removed elements. Results, displayed as probability maps, highlight that a high probability of tree elements occurrence is not always coupled with a high probability of habitat provision. The approach offers planners the possibility to identify structural and functional resilience thresholds for the management of multifunctional agricultural landscapes.

Associating conservation/production patterns in US farm policy with agricultural land-use in three Iowa, USA townships, 1933–2002

Agricultural policy objectives in developed nations include counteracting overproduction, increasing economic and social well-being, and environmental protection. Such policies, however, often work at cross-purposes. While vast financial resources have been invested in farm programs, little research connects historic trends in agricultural policy with land-use patterns in agricultural landscapes. We connect the legislative history of US farm bills with land-use decisions as observed on the historical agricultural landscape in three townships in Iowa, USA, 1933–2002. With a high proportion of agricultural land, increasing biofuels development, and high participation in federal conservation programs, Iowa presents an ideal case study to explore the relationship between policy and historical land use. Using data from the US Census of Agriculture and historical aerial photography, we conduct our analysis within a framework that identifies alternating eras of US farm policy in terms of legislative focus on conservation vs. production. We describe the impact of US farm policy on the following indicators: maize and soybean area, production, and productivity; hectares in idled land, pasture, and hay ground; and adoption of soil conservation practices. Patterns of agricultural and conservation land use support the idea of alternating conservation–production eras of US farm policy. Three important patterns emerge: (1) despite reductions in maize hectares that correspond with conservation-oriented policy eras, supply management policies have failed to control maize production due to increased productivity; (2) as pasture and hay hectares decline, government set-aside programs are increasingly important for perennial vegetation within agricultural landscapes; and (3) although soil conservation practices have generally increased as agricultural land use has intensified, persistent links between poor environmental quality and farm programs suggest that implementation alone will not achieve environmental quality goals. Environmental improvement likely requires a shift from policies focused on the quantity of commodities produced to policies focused on pattern and process of production in multifunctional agricultural landscapes, and we discuss how policies that promote extensification abroad might inform domestic agricultural policy reform.