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Agricultural intensification is driving declines in pollinator diversity and the degradation of pollination services worldwide. Organic management, which prohibits the use of synthetic inputs, has considerable potential for combatting these declines by enhancing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. However, the efficacy of organic farming for promoting pollinator diversity has recently been questioned. We conducted a meta‐analysis to determine the effect of organic management on pollinator species richness and abundance. We compiled 42 studies across four continents and calculated a Hedges' g effect size for each of 76 species richness and 57 abundance observations. We then estimated average effect sizes overall and across five moderators. Species richness and abundance of pollinating insects tended to be higher in organic farms than conventional ones, with average effect sizes of 0.68 and 0.74, respectively. Landscape context, crop type, pollinator group, sampling location, and sampling method were factors impacting the response of pollinator diversity/abundance to organic farming. We found benefits for pollinator diversity from organic farming in all landscape types, with the strongest response in simple compared with more complex landscapes. Pollinator diversity benefited the most in habitats within organic cereal systems and the least in organic pastures. Among pollinator groups, bumblebee diversity benefitted the most, while moths and hoverflies showed positive but non‐significant responses. Higher pollinator diversity/abundance was detected in organic farms at various sampling locations. Transect sampling showed the greatest diversity gains among sampling methods. Synthesis and applications. Our results affirm that organic farming has positive effects for pollinator species richness and abundance, but benefits are variable and not guaranteed. We recommend that future studies adopt a standard sampling protocol and cover a larger geographic range to understand the global potential of organic farming to promote pollinator biodiversity. Efforts to increase pollinator abundance and diversity through organic farming should focus on organic systems involving cereal phases, especially within simple landscapes, for the most positive outcomes. However, due to high variability in pollinator responses alongside the challenges to achieve economic profitability from organic farming, crafting organic farming systems to specific farm‐scale opportunities and needs may be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting how nature's contributions to people (NCP) vary spatially remains a challenge. For NCP provided by mobile species, it is unclear how predictions need to account for the influence of multiple habitat types that act as sources, sinks and potential distractors of the NCP‐providing species. Existing approaches that do not account for these effects may inaccurately predict outcomes in real landscapes.To move beyond these limitations, we transfer quantitative inference approaches from movement ecology to explore how spatial habitat patterns determine the negative NCP of the invasive common brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula in New Zealand. We used a Bayesian model to investigate how the size of, and distance from, grassland and indigenous and exotic forest patches together contribute to relative possum density (measured by capture probability across a trapping network) in a heterogeneous 11,000‐ha landscape.We found that indigenous and exotic forest area were the most important factors in determining possum density. Although capture probability declined with increasing grassland area, the addition of grassland did not improve the relative model fit above one with indigenous forest as the only habitat.We expected differences in predicted possum density at habitat boundaries, for example, due to preferential foraging at edges. We found that indigenous and exotic forests contributed to capture probability interactively, such that capture probability at the between‐habitat edge was lower than expected, given the habitat area. We also found that models allowing for non‐linear habitat effects of exotic forests or grasslands, but not indigenous forests, were significantly better at predicting possum density than simpler models.Synthesis and applications. Our novel approach for spatial prediction can be applied to any of nature's contributions to people (NCP), and extended to identify trade‐offs and synergies among multiple NCP. For example, the negative NCP of possum density trades off with multiple known positive NCP from indigenous forests, including culturally significant non‐material NCP, and material NCP produced by exotic forests. We recommend that landscape management plans to maximise these positive NCP in future scenarios also consider how the risk of possum density may dampen net NCP provision. To minimise this negative NCP, our results support trap deployment in both indigenous and exotic forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation triage is an evolving strategy designed to allocate limited resources to address pressures that require urgent actions due to their consequences on biodiversity and essential ecosystem services for human well‐being.This perspective proposes a structured, ethical and inclusive conservation triage‐based framework for efficiently addressing socio‐ecological requirements in biodiversity conservation, leveraging limited resources. Based on three main pillars—conservation planning, policy and governance and co‐production of knowledge—our goal is to promote conservation triage as a pragmatic and comprehensive approach.We explore the application of conservation triage principles in Chile, following the recent establishment of the Conservation and Human Well‐being programme, a science‐based initiative promoting the conservation of Chile's unique biodiversity and informing the development of conservation policies.Synthesis and applications. This perspective offers guidance to scientists and practitioners on how to prioritize conservation efforts while taking resource constraints into account when navigating conservation triage. It emphasizes how crucial it is to integrate ethical issues, fostering a decision‐making process enriched by diverse perspectives and collaborative knowledge co‐production. Through the alignment of strategic resource allocation with socio‐ecological aspects, this approach offers insights for developing equitable and well‐balanced conservation outcomes that are transferable to other geographical and environmental settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flower strips are a prominent agri‐environmental scheme with the central objective to promote biodiversity and maintain associated ecosystem services. The promotion of natural enemies by increasing resource availability through flower strips is a promising approach for integrated pest management.In a 3‐year field study, two annual and two perennial flower strip mixtures, as well as a grass mixture, were tested regarding their attractiveness for natural enemies at three different study sites in Germany. Natural enemies were sampled annually in nine sampling rounds at a 10‐day rhythm using sweep netting and pitfall traps. To assess available floral resources, we estimated the species‐specific flower cover and classified species into flower types.Flower strip mixtures differed in their attractiveness to natural enemies. Treatment effects on arthropod activity density were most pronounced in the second and third year. Overall, perennial were more attractive than annual flower strip mixtures for most natural enemies, however, the response to flower strip mixtures varied significantly among taxa. For example, perennial flower strips showed a two‐ to fourfold increase of plant‐dwelling spider and parasitoid wasp activity density as well as higher numbers of juvenile stages of predatory bugs and rove beetles compared to annual flower strips. In contrast, annual flower strip mixtures showed the highest attractiveness for ground beetles. Moreover, different natural enemy taxa were associated with varying flower strip characteristics such as flower type proportion, herbivore availability and plant species richness.Synthesis and applications. We found taxon‐specific responses of natural enemies to different flower strips, which provide guidance for the floral composition of flower strips in order to maximize their effectiveness for natural pest control. We suggest the use of perennial mixtures with high proportion of flower heads (Asteraceae) and disk flowers (esp. Apiaceae, Rubiaceae, Brassicaceae) in particular, but also flag blossoms (Fabaceae) as these flower types were positively associated with several natural enemy groups. However, since we found mixed responses to flower types, specific flower strip composition will ultimately depends on its objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of natural habitats for farming is a major driver of tropical biodiversity loss. To mitigate impacts, two alternatives are promoted: intensifying agriculture to offset protected areas (land sparing) or integrating wildlife‐friendly habitats within farmland (land sharing). In the montane and dry tropics, phylogenetic and functional diversity, which underpin evolutionary values and the provision of ecosystem functioning and services, are best protected by land sparing. A key question is how these components of biodiversity are best conserved in the more stable environments of lowland moist tropical forests.Focusing on cattle farming within the Colombian Amazon, we investigated how the occupancy of 280 bird species varies between forest and pasture spanning gradients of wildlife‐friendly features. We then simulated scenarios of land‐sparing and land‐sharing farming to predict impacts on phylogenetic and functional diversity metrics.Predicted metrics differed marginally between forest and pasture. However, community assembly varied significantly. Wildlife‐friendly pastures were inadequate for most forest‐dependent species, while phylogenetic and functional diversity indices showed minimal variation across gradients of wildlife‐friendly features.Land sparing consistently retained higher levels of Faith's phylogenetic diversity (~30%), functional richness (~20%) and evolutionarily distinct lineages (~40%) than land sharing, and did so across a range of landscape sizes. Securing forest protection through land‐sparing practices remains superior for conserving overall community phylogenetic and functional diversity than land sharing.Synthesis and applications: To minimise the loss of avian phylogenetic diversity and functional traits from farming in the Amazon, it is imperative to protect large blocks of undisturbed and regenerating forests. The intensification required within existing farmlands to make space for spared lands while meeting agricultural demand needs to be sustainable, avoiding long‐term negative impacts on soil quality and other ecosystem services. Policies need to secure the delivery of both actions simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource competition between wild pollinators and managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) has the potential to detrimentally impact insect biodiversity as well as wild plant and crop pollination. As honeybees are central place foragers, their competitive impact on wild bees is expected to be structured by hive proximity, in conjunction with foraging decisions related to landscape‐level resource availability. Yet, how these factors structure dietary niche overlap between wild bees and managed honeybees remains unclear. We conducted a field experiment in seminatural grasslands, where honeybee foraging densities and niche overlap with buff‐tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) were measured at four distances (<100, 500, 1000 and 2000 m) from experimentally placed apiaries, during and after the blooming period of mass‐flowering oilseed rape (Brassica napus). We measured honeybee foraging densities using standardized transect surveys, and quantified species diet composition and dietary niche overlap from pollen samples collected from both bee species. Honeybee foraging densities were highest near apiaries and declined sharply beyond 500 m from the apiaries. However, niche overlap was unrelated to hive proximity but positively related to the availability of oilseed rape. Furthermore, there were significant inter‐ and intraspecific differences in pollen diet composition and breadth throughout the season. Synthesis and applications: Niche overlap between honeybees and bumblebees in agricultural environments was due to resource sharing of mass‐flowering oilseed rape. When both honeybees and bumblebees predominantly forage on wild plants, they maintain distinct pollen diets, suggesting there is a low risk of resource competition between these generalist taxa. Conservation actions that promote floral resource availability and diversity in agricultural landscapes are crucial to maintain niche differentiation between managed honeybees and wild bees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi‐purpose land use is of great importance for sustainable development, particularly in the context of increasing pressures on land to provide ecosystem services (e.g. food, energy) and support biodiversity. The recent global increase in land‐take for utility‐scale ground‐mounted solar farms (hereafter referred to as solar farms) to meet Net Zero targets presents an opportunity for enhanced delivery of ecosystem services, especially in temperate ecosystems where solar farm development often results in land use change away from comparatively intensive agricultural land management. Solar farms have long operational lifespans, experience low levels of disturbance during operation and can be managed for ecosystem services beyond low‐carbon electricity generation, including food production and biodiversity conservation. Here, we briefly synthesise the mechanisms by which solar farm development and operation may impact natural capital and ecosystem services, and provide policy recommendations for policymakers and the solar farm sector. Solar farms can deliver environmental benefits for hosting ecosystems while minimising negative impacts, with outcomes depending on location, construction techniques, and land management practices. However, the historical misalignment between climate, nature, and land use policies has hindered efforts to simultaneously address the climate and biodiversity crises through land use change for solar farms. For instance, existing public financial incentives in the UK that encourage landowners and developers to manage land for biodiversity largely exclude land with solar farms. Policy implications: We call for public policymakers to identify appropriate opportunities to amend existing national laws that address climate and biodiversity separately to improve integration of multiple aspects of the climate‐nature‐land use nexus into policymaking by: (1) formulating ecological and socio‐economic indicators and metrics that are appropriate to underpin the development, implementation, and assessment of public policies; (2) adopting a cross‐sectoral and cross‐government approach to form public policies; (3) ensuring solar farms can access public financial incentives that encourage sustainable land use; (4) implementing land use policies that incentivise funding from non‐government sources (e.g. private sector) into nascent nature markets; (5) embedding solar farms in biodiversity‐inclusive spatial planning policies and decision‐making; and (6) building equity and clarity into responsibilities and benefits for all actors involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐crop (segetal) plants in arable systems are commonly perceived simply as ‘weeds’, that is, harmful at worst and undesirable at best. The increase in management intensity in European arable systems has vastly reduced the populations of all but the most disturbance‐tolerant plant species, negatively impacting the whole agricultural food web. In recent years, efforts have been made to promote agricultural biodiversity through measures such as flower strips and unsprayed field margins. However, studies of their impacts on the arable flora have rarely considered their spatial variation within the crop field. We investigated the spatial distribution of vascular plant species richness and their contribution to the food web via biomass and flower units in conventional and agri‐environment cereal fields in six regions of Germany. We studied two types of in‐crop measures (extensive cereals without pesticides or fertiliser, and with or without intercropping with flowering species) and one adjacent measure (neighbouring flower strip), recording at 1‐m intervals from the field edge to the interior. These results were then extrapolated to illustrate the effects of these measures on resource provision at the field scale. Species richness and plant biomass dropped off sharply after the first metre in the conventional treatments, regardless of the adjacent habitat. The ‘extensive’ treatments maintained a much higher level of diversity and resource provision in the field interior. At the field level, this can mean more than a 60‐fold difference in the provision of flowering resources between conventional management (1900 flower units/ha) and agri‐environment measures (AEMs) (127,000 units/ha for extensive cereals). Synthesis and applications. The strong edge effects we found in conventional cultivation support the premise that reducing field sizes could play a role in promoting in‐crop biodiversity. However, incorporating extensive field margins as an AEM would be more efficient at maximising the diversity of generalists whilst maintaining high yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, great research efforts have been made to understand how specific anthropogenic drivers impact coastal marine ecosystems and their services. Nevertheless, we still lack a synthesis of the existing knowledge on single and multiple anthropogenic drivers impacts to coastal marine systems, which is necessary to guide future work.The objective of this paper is to assess the current knowledge on the impacts of anthropogenic drivers and their interactions on coastal marine ecosystem services, with emphasis on abiotic drivers as dissolved nutrients (eutrophication or de‐eutrophication), temperature (warming), pH (acidification) and oxygen (hypoxia). We performed a systematic review of the literature consisting of 164 papers using the PRISMA method (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses). We only include English‐written papers, we exclude non‐English papers to avoid potential errors in representing or interpreting scientific information due to language limitations among the authors.The results show that coastal marine ecosystem service research has largely focused on single drivers, while multiple driver assessments are less common.Assessments partially integrate multiple driver complexity, but they do not consider (1) relations and feedbacks between drivers; 2() social processes dynamics; and (3) temporal and spatial scales.Synthesis and applications. We have reviewed the current scientific knowledge on how human drivers affect coastal marine ecosystem services. We found that understanding the combined effects of different drivers and considering various time and space scales is still a pending issue. Ignoring multiple drivers, their interactions and time and space scales limits our understanding of reality, and results in high levels of uncertainty. This affects policies and actions, as they rely on uncertain information. Thus, incomplete knowledge leads to poor management of coastal ecosystem services. To improve this, we propose research framework to better consider multiple drivers and time and space factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mountains, grasslands managed for livestock production sustain local economies, culture and identity. However, their future fodder production is highly uncertain under climate change: While an extended growing season may be beneficial, more frequent and intense summer droughts could also reduce fodder quantity and quality. Land use and land cover (LULC) changes are another major driver of grassland biomass production, but combined effects of future land use transitions and climate change are rarely quantified.We modelled combined climate and LULC scenarios for grassland production of the Maurienne Valley (French Alps) by 2085. We built a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) from long‐term grassland production monitoring data complemented with expert knowledge. We assessed the potential of two candidate adaptations, intensification as an incremental solution and silvopastoralism as a transformative solution to compensate combined impacts of two climate scenarios and three land use change scenarios.Total biomass production was far more sensitive to LULC than to climate scenarios. Production losses were largest under the conservation LULC scenario (−28% on average between 2020 and 2085), followed by the tourism development scenario (−7%) and the business‐as‐usual scenario (+3%). Climate change under representative concentration pathways (RCP) 8.5 altered the seasonality of production by increasing potential production from May to July while decreasing summer regrowth.Synthesis and applications: Changes in LULC are more decisive for global biomass production than climate change. However, under the most extreme climate change scenario (RCP8.5), the seasonal shift in production and increased interannual variability threaten the current grass‐based protected designation of origin (PDO) production system. Only the intensification adaptation solution showed significant gains in total biomass production. Still, the silvopastoralism would require less investment compared to the intensification and have a similar efficiency when assessing the gains of biomass by the surface concerned with adaptation solutions. Along with decreased total annual production due to decreasing grassland area compounded by more extreme climate change, the seasonal shift in production and increased interannual variability threaten the current grass‐based PDO production system. Further Bayesian modelling co‐developed with local stakeholders and experts could greatly contribute to adaptation planning of the regional production system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroecological research has an important role in supporting evidence‐based land management to ensure food production is achieved whilst minimising the impacts on biodiversity and its associated ecosystem processes and services.This nexus between often competing priorities of optimal production and sustainability requires greater knowledge of management decisions to enact more sustainable and transformative practice change and to better conserve biodiversity.We highlight three key knowledge gaps in this area: (i) The use of appropriate indicators to measure dependencies and impacts on biodiversity; (ii) Methods to improve the management of resources to support the "health" of biodiversity within agroecosystems; (iii) Greater understanding of the ecosystem processes, and services generated and received across terrestrial and aquatic habitats.Synthesis and applications. Ecological research and robust science will play a vital role in supporting more sustainable food production. We see Journal of Applied Ecology playing a key role in promoting agricultural research that goes beyond a narrow focus on increasing output, and encourage more submissions at the interface of agriculture, ecology and biodiversity conservation, considering social and economic aspects for a sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientists and policymakers are becoming aware of the pressing need to restore tropical grassy biomes (TGB), which are home to unique biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services to hundreds of millions of people. TGB face increasing threats, including forest‐ and tree‐centric restoration approaches that promote their degradation and we still lack a systematic assessment of where and how TGB restoration research has been done to guide policy and practice.We synthesized knowledge on field restoration experiments by conducting a systematic literature review to map TGB restoration field studies, examine the association of restoration techniques and degradation sources and investigate the diversity of indicators used to monitor restoration outcomes.TGB restoration was concentrated at Brazilian and Australian savannas, with large blindspots in Asia, Africa and northern and western South America. Studies were largely context‐dependent, with an inconsistent usage of restoration techniques to different sources of degradation. Less than half of the indicators evaluated were monitored consistently through time, often using a low‐dimensional approach related to ecosystem functioning. Few studies manipulated fire, herbivores and soils, the key drivers for the re‐establishment of TGB dynamics. Unfortunately, many studies lacked negative (degraded ecosystems), positive (reference ecosystems) controls, or both, impairing attempts to robustly determine restoration outcomes.Our overview of field research on TGB restoration highlights that research needs improvement to refine our ability to assess, plan, implement and monitor restoration. Severe issues with experimental designs and data reporting are identified as barriers to find generality and upscale TGB restoration to meet the goals of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.Synthesis and applications. Our synthesis calls for enhanced field experiments, transparent data reporting and quantitative syntheses to guide large‐scale TGB restoration. The overall lack of knowledge on improving resilience and measuring outcomes hampers meaningful comparisons between studies and hinders synthetic views essential for determining appropriate restoration techniques for different degradation sources and suitable monitoring indicators. To overcome the scarcity of reliable and transparent data supporting TGB restoration, we propose a simple checklist for minimum research reporting information and more complete multilingual standardized guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insectivorous birds are key suppliers of crucial ecosystem services, especially important for pest control in agricultural systems, and are globally decreasing at a fast rate. Among them, the declining barn swallow Hirundo rustica is particularly linked to cattle farms, where it is impacted by changes in livestock husbandry practices.The presence of swallows in cattle sheds might contribute to control insect pests, but such an effect had never been explored. With this work, we evaluated the potential control effect exerted by barn swallow on economically relevant pest insects, filth flies.To assess whether swallows inside the cattle sheds influence the activity rate of pest flies (especially Musca domestica and Stomoxys calcitrans), we assessed the relative abundance of swallows and flies over 16 weeks in nine different cattle farms in Non valley (Trentino, North‐east Italy), either occupied or not by nesting swallows. From April 2022 to August 2022, we collected weekly data on the activity rate of flies by placing eight white spot cards inside each of nine cattle sheds and counting the deposition of faecal and regurgitation spots by flies. Simultaneously, we collected weekly data regarding swallow occurrence, brood size, number and age of chicks.We applied generalised linear mixed effect models on the activity rate of flies, with spot card and farm as nested random effects, to account for potential random variability between cards and farms. We then assessed through model selection the effect of number of cows, number of swallows, and temperature or week alternatively. Temperature and week were modelled also in interaction with the number of swallows.Fly activity rate followed a seasonal trend with a peak in July, which was markedly lower where swallows were present. Moreover, the positive relationship between flies and temperature was lessened when swallows were abundant.Synthesis and applications. Barn swallows are effective biological control agents for lowering pest fly activity in livestock farms. Farmers were actively involved in swallow conservation within their sheds, also with a shared memorandum‐of‐intent. Harnessing the ecosystem services supplied by farmland birds could bring positive outcomes for people and biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key ecosystem services offered by avian biodiversity within agricultural landscapes is natural predation. Nonetheless, the current use of biological control agents such as farmland birds in oil palm plantations is relatively limited.This study aimed to assess the potential roles of avian biodiversity, particularly insectivores that provide natural predation against oil palm herbivorous insects. We also investigated the influence of local‐ and landscape‐scale variables on foliage damage (crown or frond).Our data showed that crown damage decreased with increasing farmland bird richness (overall and insectivore), shrub cover, dried biomass and elevation, but increased with epiphyte cover, oil palm height and distance to continuous forest. Frond damage was negatively related to bird richness (overall, insectivore and non‐insectivore) and non‐insectivore abundance, elevation and shrub cover, while increased with insectivorous abundance, epiphyte cover, oil palm height and distance to continuous forest. We also found that plantations (≥50 ha) were more susceptible to foliage damage from pest insects than smallholdings (<50 ha).There was no evidence that indicate the influence of forest patches on foliage damage.Synthesis and applications. Our study highlights the economic value of conserving biodiversity, most notably, farmland birds and continuous forests with respect to biological control of defoliating pests and maintaining yield productivity in oil palm cultivation. Growers, particularly major plantation companies should make oil palm farming more biodiversity‐friendly in order to increase the number of biological control agents such as birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperate seminatural grasslands harbour unique biodiversity, support livestock farming through forage production, and deliver many essential ecosystem services (ESs) to human society; they are highly multifunctional. However, temperate grassland ecosystems are also among the most threatened ecosystems on earth due to land use and climate changes. Understanding how biodiversity, climate and land use intensification impact grassland multifunctionality through complex direct and indirect pathways is critical to better anticipate the future of these fragile ecosystems.Here, we evaluate how local plant species richness (SR) modulates the effect of land use intensification and climate on grassland multifunctionality (using six key ESs: biomass productivity and stability, forage quality, carbon storage, pollination and local plant rarity) in the French Massif Central, the largest grassland in Western Europe. We sampled 100 grasslands with contrasted fertilization rates and SR, over large elevational and latitudinal gradients related to variation in mean annual temperature (MAT), and drought severity (DS), two key climate change drivers predicted to increase in the future.Using a confirmatory path analysis, we found that SR was the main driver of multifunctionality. We also found significant SR × MAT and SR × fertilization interactions suggesting that warm climate and high fertilization rates alter the biodiversity–ecosystem multifunctionality relationships. Furthermore, increasing temperature and fertilization indirectly influenced multifunctionality by decreasing SR and consequent multifunctionality in warm lowland and highly fertilized grasslands compared to colder montane grasslands or less fertilized ones. DS only impacted some ES individually (e.g. forage quality).Synthesis and applications: We identified species richness (SR) as a pivotal factor mediating the effects of land use intensification and climate on multifunctionality through both direct and indirect pathways. Failing to account for changes in SR could thus bias any prediction of, or aggravate, the effects of land use intensification and climate change on ecosystem services delivery in temperate grassland ecosystems. Considering that SR, mean annual temperature and fertilization are major proxies of three main global change drivers (biodiversity loss, climate change and land use intensification) our study may help to better anticipate the effect of multiple interacting global change drivers on grassland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sown or natural flower strips are a commonly used management practice in agroecosystems and have been demonstrated to increase the abundance of predators of orchard pests. There is less evidence of the extent to which such strips can reduce pest damage in orchards.Here we examined the effect of managed, perennial flower margins on fruit damage by an economically significant crop pest, Dysaphis plantaginea, rosy apple aphid, in conventional apple orchards over 2 years, compared to orchards without flower margins.We found orchard flower margins reduced the percentage of apple trees with fruit damage by D. plantaginea, from 80% to 48%. In 2021, a period of severe infestation (65% of trees had fruit damage), there was reduced spread of D. plantaginea on infested apple trees and the number of trees with fruit damage was significantly reduced up to 50 m into orchards. During 2022, a period of lower infestation (25% of trees damaged), fruit damage was significantly reduced up to 10 m from the flower margin.A significant reduction in predation of aphids from bait cards in flower margin compared with control orchards suggests specialists, rather than generalist predators, may be driving the positive effects of the margin on pest pressure. There was no significant effect of flower margins on abundance of important aphid predators, including Syrphidae (hoverflies) and Coccinellidae (ladybirds).Synthesis and applications: To our knowledge, this study is the first to detect a reduction in fruit damage by pests at harvest in orchards with a flower margin. We highlight the potential for established perennial flower margins to deliver measurable, sustainable, D. plantaginea control benefits and provide insights into the optimal spatial arrangement of flower strips in orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One approach for measuring the potential biodiversity in new urban construction projects is through ecological models that predict how wildlife will respond. For the United Kingdom, such models have only been developed for birds, but to maximise the extent to which models represent overall biodiversity, species from different indicator groups must be considered.Here, we assess this possibility for butterflies by combining citizen science survey data with high‐resolution digital maps. We derive detailed characteristics of urban landscapes around survey sites using previously established methods and quantify their relationship to counts of adults of 18 butterfly species in urban and peri‐urban settings.Higher butterfly counts were found when traversing urban sites with larger areas of semi‐natural grassland, other managed greenspaces and adjacent arable land. Most of the butterfly community were found to have negative relationships with highly built‐up or fragmented landscapes.We found high species‐specificity for different details of urban form, particularly in habitat elements such as gardens, vegetation around railways and grass verges.Policy implications. Improving biodiversity is now part of legislation governing new construction projects from England and Wales. However, predicting quantitative changes from hypothetical land‐use modifications remains challenging. Our models provide the foundation through which butterfly abundance could be integrated into an urban biodiversity assessment tool, providing species‐ and community‐level statistics to non‐specialists from the urban planning and design sector. This would allow them to hone configurations for built surfaces, private gardens, greenspaces and wildlife areas and assess their capacity to provide residents with the intended access to nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biocontrol services are widely recognized to provide key incentives for bat conservation. However, we have virtually no information on whether and how disruptions in bat‐mediated biocontrol services are driven by mismatches between the temporal activity patterns of insectivorous bats and insect pests.We investigated the temporal relationship between the nightly activity patterns of the common pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus kuhlii) and the olive fruit moth (Prays oleae). Temporal mismatches between species pairs were estimated as the time difference (expressed as a percentage of the night) at which P. kuhlii and P. oleae reached 50% of their abundance.The study was carried out during spring, summer, and fall between 2017 and 2019 in 60 olive farms representing increasing levels of structural simplification (as a surrogate of agricultural intensification). Olive farms were classified as exhibiting high (i.e. HIGH olive farms; n = 27), intermediate (MID; n = 18), and low (LOW; n = 15) structural complexity.Temporal mismatches between the activity levels of P. kuhlii and P. oleae varied between seasons and types of olive farms, being comparatively lower in summer than in spring and fall. Furthermore, summer was the only season in which temporal mismatches between species pairs differed between types of olive farms, with higher temporal mismatches found in LOW than in HIGH and MID olive farms.Overall, our work demonstrates the existence of temporal mismatches between the nightly activity patterns of P. kuhlii and P. oleae. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the structural simplification of olive farms increases temporal mismatches between species pairs, particularly in summer when bat‐mediated biocontrol services are most needed.Synthesis and applications. Future research should consider mismatches between the temporal activity patterns of insectivorous bats and insect pests. Otherwise, the actual impact of agricultural intensification on bat‐mediated biocontrol services as well as the economic impact of their loss on the agriculture industry might be underestimated. To enhance biocontrol services, we propose increasing the availability of suitable roosting and foraging sites as well as conserving areas of remnant native woodland and scattered hollow‐bearing trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simplification of agricultural landscapes has been associated with an increase in pest pressure. While monocultures increase the resources available for pests and may facilitate their dispersion, the lack of non‐crop habitats may reduce the resources available for pest natural enemies. Herein, we tested which of these hypotheses, namely 'resource concentration' and 'natural enemies', can better explain the abundance of invasive mealybug pests in two subtropical fruit crops.For this aim, 17 persimmon orchards and 16 citrus orchards were sampled during three different seasons across two consecutive years. Using a model selection approach, we assessed the effects of the surrounding landscape (proportion of focal crops and semi‐natural habitats at different distances) and inter‐row ground cover vegetation on the abundance of mealybugs and their natural enemies.The proportion of focal crop in the landscape increased the abundance of mealybugs attacking both crops. This effect was found at closer distances (up to ~600 m) in citrus and at both closer and further distances (up to 1250 m) in persimmon.Non‐crop habitats, both surrounding semi‐natural habitats and ground cover vegetation, decreased the abundance of mealybugs by increasing the activity of their parasitoids in persimmon. Conversely, non‐crop habitats did not decrease the abundance of the main mealybug species attacking citrus, likely because this mealybug species was not attacked by native or naturalized parasitoids.Synthesis and applications. Our models show that the increase in habitat heterogeneity at local and landscape scales can reduce the abundance of invasive mealybugs in subtropical crops via 'resource concentration' and 'natural enemies' mechanisms. Therefore, habitat diversification strategies should be considered in the conservation biological control of invasive mealybugs. Importantly, our findings also show that the presence of efficient natural enemies is critical to maximize their control through habitat diversification strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant removal is used widely to restore systems encroached by woody plants and to improve ecosystem health and human well‐being. However, the effects of removal are rarely consistent, with a mixture of positive and negative outcomes for ecosystems, making it difficult to develop consistent prescriptions for achieving sustainable management of woody dominated systems.We complied a global database of 5086 records on the impacts of woody plant removal from 204 studies to explore where (biome; grassland, savanna, shrubland, woodland), when (encroachment stage; low, medium, high encroachment) and how (removal method; physical, chemical, browsing, burning, multiple removal techniques) woody plant removal would affect eight ecosystem services (forage value, soil stability, hydrological regulation, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, animal diversity, plant diversity and primary productivity).Removing woody plants in grasslands enhanced forage value, but woody removal in shrublands reduced hydrological regulation. Conversely, chemical removal enhanced hydrological regulation and forage value, but at the expense of plant diversity. In grasslands, interactions between encroachment stage and removal method also regulated service responses, with burning enhancing nutrient cycling under low encroachment, but reducing it in heavily encroached stands. The effectiveness of removal in promoting ecosystem services varied with removal method, with burning suppressing the long‐term effectiveness on carbon sequestration, but browsing exacerbating the negative effect on soil stability.Synthesis and applications. Our study demonstrates that, overall, different conditions of woody plant removal (biome, encroachment stage, removal method) result in different outcomes and trade‐offs in ecosystem services, with no condition maximising all services. The results highlights the importance of designing a specific management plan for promoting target ecosystem services. It provides a basis for making sound decisions about how to optimise the benefits of woody removal programmes on critical ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective logging is the most widespread driver of land‐use change in biodiverse and carbon‐rich tropical forests. However, the effects of selective logging on biodiversity are less than those associated with other drivers of forest degradation. A suite of recent research has shown that reduced‐impact logging (RIL) results in few or no changes to biological assemblages. But because this logging technique is relatively new, most studies have only considered short‐term impacts.We address this research gap by quantifying changes in biodiversity assemblage as a result of RIL over the longer term. We comprehensively sampled bird and bat assemblages pre‐logged, 1 year after, and 10 years after RIL in Guyana, using a before‐after control‐impact (BACI) sampling design. We compared bird and bat assemblages in each timeframe, and additionally appraised the impact of time since logging, and the number of trees harvested across the suite of species which we further divided between different feeding guilds, disturbance sensitivity and vertical stratification of forest use.We found that 1 year after logging only minor changes could be detected, but 10 years later richness had slightly declined in some groups, while others had shown complete recovery. Nectivorous and insectivorous birds, and carnivorous bats declined in richness, while carnivorous birds, showed a clear recovery to a state akin to pre‐logging. This indicates that for some niches a subtle, but long‐term relaxation effect may be occurring, whereby extinction debts are realized long after the initial disturbance, while other groups have either recovered or not changed after logging.Assemblage changes were also predicted by vertical stratification of forest use, with avian species using the understorey and mid–upper levels of the forest being most affected.Synthesis and applications: Our study demonstrates how best practice forestry and logging can maintain healthy vertebrate populations over the long term. Forestry concessions that adopt techniques of low‐harvest RIL and are managed for their long‐term timber provision through extension of regeneration times beyond 10 years after harvest, are likely to benefit from the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, while also making a valuable contribution to the global conservation estate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dense beds of aquatic plants are often perceived as nuisance and therefore mechanically removed, often at substantial cost. Such removal, however, may affect a range of ecosystem functions and consequently also the ecosystem services that benefit society.We studied five cases: River Otra (Norway), River Spree (Germany), Lake Kemnade (Germany), Lake Grand‐Lieu (France) and Hartbeespoort Dam (South Africa). In all, nuisance aquatic plant growth is managed, but dominant species, geographic setting and major societal uses are different. We quantified 12 final ecosystem services as flows per area and year in biophysical and monetary terms. Quantified services were food and fodder production, commercial fisheries, hunting and gathering wild products, hydropower production, drinking and irrigation water production, flood prevention, carbon sequestration, active and passive recreation and biodiversity conservation (nonuse).These services were related to aquatic plant cover via a range of ecosystem functions, and the effects were estimated of three plant removal regimes on the relative importance of the quantified ecosystem services and on the total sum of the monetary estimates (total economic value, TEV). The three removal regimes were 'maximum removal', 'current practice' and 'do nothing'.In all five cases, TEV was dominated by different forms of recreation. TEV was highest for Lake Kemnade, where visitor densities were highest. TEV was most sensitive to the different management regimes in Lake Kemnade, because a threshold in aesthetic appreciation was passed in the 'do‐nothing' regime, and in Hartbeespoort Dam, because of the effect on boating and angling. In the other cases, the different removal regimes had little effect on the estimated TEV.Synthesis and applications. Since recreation dominated the estimated societal benefits in the studied ecosystems, also where provision of hydropower, drinking water or irrigation water were relevant, effects on recreation should be a core consideration in the management of nuisance aquatic plants. Furthermore, aquatic plant management strategies will benefit from taking into account the differences in perceived nuisance among different categories of recreative users before engaging in costly removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenological overlap between crop flowering and pollinators is a crucial trait for the pollination of more than 75% of the world's crops. However, crop management rarely considers the seasonal aspect of plant–pollinator mutualism. Here, we investigate the phenological overlap between crops and pollinators and how it affects pollination and fruit production.We measured the abundance and richness of native and non‐native pollinators visiting raspberry flowers at two different times during the flowering season (i.e. early and late flowering periods) and examined their effects on crop yield in 16 fields.The community of pollinators foraging on raspberry flowers was more diverse and dominated by native pollinators during the early flowering period when most native plant species were flowering. Later in the season, when native flower resources declined in the surrounding environment, raspberry flowers were visited mainly by two non‐native bees: managed honeybees and the invasive bumblebee Bombus terrestris.Pollinator contribution to raspberry yield was twice as high in the early flowering period compared to the late period (61% vs. 31% increase in drupelet set respectively). Flower damage caused by extremely high visitation frequencies by non‐native bees in the late period was six times higher than in the early flowering period (30% vs. 5% of damaged flowers respectively).Synthesis and applications. Providing sufficient pollen and nectar resources to support wild pollinators over extended periods in agricultural landscapes can contribute to crop pollination and ensure high fruit weight and quality. This can be achieved by restoring natural and semi‐natural areas near crop fields with native, long‐flowering plant species. Growers and crop breeding programmes should consider selecting flowering times that coincide with periods of high diversity or abundance of native pollinators to reduce dependence on managed pollinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests worldwide support insect biodiversity and the ecosystem services provided by insects such as pollination. As forest health declines, management that emulates historical disturbance regimes has the potential to restore and maintain forest ecosystem functioning; however, we lack understanding of how these practices affect key mutualists like bees and the ecosystem services they provide.To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated the functional response of bee communities to temperate deciduous forest management practices that emulate historical disturbances (burning, thinning and the combination of the two). We also investigated whether seasonality has any effect on this relationship.Bee functional diversity was highest in spring compared to summer, and management did not affect this relationship. Instead, different management strategies aligned with specific bee functional traits and these relationships varied throughout the year. Managed and unmanaged areas differed in the distribution of nesting and floral resources and, as a result, altered bee functional trait composition. Thinned plots with increased floral resources promoted smaller bees with limited dispersal capacity, in addition to primitively eusocial and cavity‐excavating bees. Unmanaged habitat supported vulnerable bee groups such as cleptoparasites and specialists. Burning by itself or in combination within thinning may have eliminated crucial nesting resources such as deadwood that bees depend on in forests.Synthesis and applications: Our findings demonstrate that managing temperate forests by emulating historical disturbances can support a functionally diverse bee community and highlight the need to consider temporal variation in the environmental drivers of forest bee communities. To support year‐round bee diversity, forest management strategies should prioritize floral resources and leave behind deadwood to increase bee nesting resources, as well as maintain unmanaged habitat within the forest landscape. Overall, our study reinforces the importance of using a range of forest management strategies to enhance bee functional diversity and associated ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1.Cost‐effective strategies to increase biodiversity are a fundamental requirement to reconcile conservation and food production in agricultural landscapes. Key for the implementation of such strategies is an accurate quantification of both their benefits and potential associated trade‐offs.2.We therefore assessed, in a commercially managed grassland, biodiversity responses to two low‐cost management interventions and their mediating effects on ecosystem services.3.In a 6‐year experiment, we showed that a one‐time seed bank activation treatment had strong initial impacts on biodiversity, increasing plant richness in year 1 by 61%. Long‐term effects, which were also driven by the second management intervention, the propagation of the keystone species yellow rattle, were weaker but nonetheless substantial. These positive biodiversity responses improved ecosystem multifunctionality through additive positive effects of richness, evenness and phylogenetic distinctiveness on nectar production and structural habitat complexity.4.In contrast, hay biomass production was negatively affected by both management interventions, resulting in a multilevel trade‐off between biomass production competing with biodiversity conservation and the provisioning of other ecosystem services.5.Synthesis and applications. In this study, we demonstrate that the maximisation of either biodiversity or biomass production requires largely different land management practices. The evaluation of this trade‐off, however, is strongly dependent on its social, economic and ecological context and requires clearly defined land management priorities for both food production and biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding cities increasingly encroach fertile farmlands, questioning the viability of maintaining agriculture within and around them. Yet, our knowledge on how urbanization influences pollinator communities and the provision of pollination services to crops is limited, especially for the urbanization hotspots of the Global South.Mango Mangifera indica is one of the most important fruit crops in tropical countries. To analyse the dependency of mango on its main insect pollinators, and the direct and indirect effects of urbanization and insecticides on pollinator abundance and mango yield, we conducted a pollinator exclusion experiment and sampled flower visitors on 16 mango farms spread across rural–urban landscapes in Bengaluru, a South Indian megacity.We found that allowing flowers access to ants and flying visitors (bees, hoverflies, nonsyrphid flies), dramatically increased mango yield by 350%, highlighting the importance of wild insects for mango pollination. We detected a trend between wild bee abundance and the final fruit set, with an increase of 20% when the number of bees increased from 25 to 125.Urbanization did not directly affect pollinator abundance or mango yield. However, the amount of insecticide applications had strong negative effects on wild bee abundance at low and intermediate levels of urbanization, while it had no effect in highly urbanized areas, presumably because of higher availability of flowering resources. Moreover, the amount of insecticides decreased the weight of harvested mango fruits by almost 30%. This may indicate trade‐offs between conventional pest control and enhanced crop yields through pollination by wild insects in rural areas.Synthesis and applications: Our results indicate that mango production can be maintained at a profitable level in urbanized landscapes with insect pollinators more than tripling final yield. However, increasing use of insecticides, besides raising farmers' expenses, can have negative effects on wild insect pollinators and mango yield, especially in rural areas. To safeguard crucial pollination services, it is therefore critical to conserve and promote wild insect pollinators by minimizing the negative effects of insecticide applications in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable provision of critical ecosystem services in drylands is reliant on their stability under anthropogenic disturbances. Livestock grazing and shrub encroachment are the primary drivers of disturbance that impact their biodiversity and production dynamics. However, the effects of grazing on the stability at multiple scales, particularly following the transition from grass‐dominated to shrub‐encroached drylands, is still largely unexplored.Here, we conducted comparable sheep‐grazing experiments in two types of drylands (grass‐dominated vs. shrub‐encroached grasslands) on the Mongolia Plateau to explore the effects of grazing and shrub encroachment on biodiversity and stability at multiple scales. We examined how grazing affected the temporal stability of aboveground biomass in herbaceous communities in both grass‐dominated and shrub‐encroached grasslands, through two potential mechanisms: insurance effects and changes in the population‐level stability of individual species.We found that an increase in sheep grazing intensity had significant and negative effects on insurance effects by decreasing both species asynchrony and spatial asynchrony but it had no effects on population stability, consequently leading to reductions in herbaceous community stability of the grasslands. However, grazing‐increased insurance effects cancelled out grazing‐decreased population stability, contributing to no changes in the community stability of shrub‐encroached grasslands. Likely, because grazing‐induced reductions in the relative abundance of the dominant species were more noticeable in shrub‐encroached grasslands than that of in grasslands. Moreover, the grazing‐decreased abundance of dominant species was directly correlated to increases in insurance effects in shrub‐encroached grasslands but not in grasslands, despite the positive relationships between population stability and the relative abundance of the dominant species in both grass‐dominated and shrub‐encroached drylands.Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that grazing can decrease the stability of herbaceous production in drylands but this negative effect is attenuated with the transition from grasslands to shrub‐encroached grasslands, suggesting that grazing effects on herbaceous community stability can be altered by shrub encroachment in drylands. Furthermore, the stability of dominant grasses plays a crucial role in stabilizing herbaceous communities and should be considered in promoting sustainable ecosystem functioning and services in drylands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coral reef habitat quality is declining in many locations because of heatwaves (coral bleaching) and other disturbances. Reef‐building corals provide refuge from predation, so declining complexity restricts the transfer of energy to upper trophic levels.We use a size‐based ecosystem model to test systematically the effects of refuge at specific sizes and the impacts of distributions of refuges that vary in size. Outcomes are assessed in terms of ecosystem service provision.Simulations indicate that refuge sheltering fish between 5 and 10 cm in length enhances fish biomass and fisheries productivity, for example, increasing herbivore biomass by up to 80%.We identify and present a range of refuge profiles that can theoretically improve ecosystem service provision by as much as sixfold. Profiles where refuge availability decreases with increasing fish size consistently outrank other designs.Synthesis and application: These results highlight how critical small‐scale refuge is for coral reefs, and how we might design artificial reefs to maximise service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of initiatives at global, regional and national scales propose to plant millions, billions or even trillions of trees as a simple solution to resolve complex environmental problems. However, tree planting is much more complicated than it seems. We summarize the multifaceted decision‐making process needed and offer guidelines to increase the success of the proposed ambitious efforts to increase tree cover world‐wide. Given the varied definitions of and motivations for tree planting, it is critical that stakeholders work together to clearly define the biophysical and socioeconomic goals of each project. Then a series of questions must be addressed about where and how (e.g. planting trees vs. allowing for natural forest regrowth) to most effectively achieve these goals and minimize unintended negative consequences, as well as how, when and by whom success of efforts will be evaluated. Key guidelines to successfully increase tree cover include: (a) first addressing the underlying drivers of deforestation; (b) integrating decision‐making across scales from local to global; (c) tailoring tree planting strategies to clearly stated project goals and planning, adaptively managing and evaluating success over a sufficiently long timeframe; (d) focusing on the forest ecosystem as a whole, and not just the trees; (e) coordinating different land uses and (f) involving stakeholders at all stages of the planning process. Synthesis and applications. Tree planting, along with other strategies to increase tree cover in appropriate locations and contexts, can make a valuable contribution to ensuring the ecological and social well‐being of our planet in coming decades, but only if these efforts are considered as one component of multifaceted solutions to complex environmental problems and are carefully planned, implemented and monitored over a sufficiently long time‐scale with stakeholder engagement and broader consideration of socio‐ecological complexities.

Humans have long sought to restore species but little attention has been directed at how to best select a subset of foundation species for maintaining rich assemblages that support ecosystems, like coral reefs and rainforests, which are increasingly threatened by environmental change.We propose a two‐part hedging approach that selects optimized sets of species for restoration. The first part acknowledges that biodiversity supports ecosystem functions and services, and so it ensures precaution against loss by allocating an even spread of phenotypic traits. The second part maximizes species and ecosystem persistence by weighting species based on characteristics that are known to improve ecological persistence—for example abundance, species range and tolerance to environmental change.Using existing phenotypic‐trait and ecological data for reef building corals, we identified sets of ecologically persistent species by examining marginal returns in occupancy of phenotypic trait space. We compared optimal sets of species with those from the world's southern‐most coral reef, which naturally harbours low coral diversity, to show these occupy much of the trait space. Comparison with an existing coral restoration program indicated that current corals used for restoration only cover part of the desired trait space and programs may be improved by including species with different traits.Synthesis and applications. While there are many possible criteria for selecting species for restoration, the approach proposed here addresses the need to insure against unpredictable losses of ecosystem services by focusing on a wide range of phenotypic traits and ecological characteristics. Furthermore, the flexibility of the approach enables the functional goals of restoration to vary depending on environmental context, stakeholder values, and the spatial and temporal scales at which meaningful impacts can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry forests are the most threatened biome across the global tropics. Despite their massive conversion into agricultural landscapes, local farmers often retain disperse trees and palms within grazing pastures. Understanding how on‐farm tree cover in the dry neotropics impacts the environmental and productive functions of pastures is key for biodiversity conservation and the development of climate‐resilient production systems.We studied tree composition of 23 dry cattle pastures in Yucatan, Mexico. We assessed the effects of palms, N2−fixing trees and non‐N2‐fixing trees on microsite environmental conditions, bare soil cover and the performance of grasses and woody plants in their understory during the dry and wet seasons of 2018 and 2019.We found that 45% of the total pool of tree species of the native dry forest is conserved in the pastures of Yucatan. Palms were the most abundant overstory functional group with a relative abundance of 45%, followed by N2‐fixing trees and non‐N2‐fixing trees with 33% and 22%.Palms and trees ameliorated the impact of seasonal drought on grasses but slowed down their recovery during the wet season. Palms had overall higher positive effects on grass greenness and height than N2‐fixing trees and non‐N2‐fixing trees and these effects were higher during the driest season. Palms decreased bare soil less than trees. Shrubs and tree seedlings tended to increase in the understory of all functional groups as the canopies of palms and trees became denser.Synthesis and applications. Climate warming and the alteration of precipitation regimes are expected to compromise pasture and cattle productivity worldwide. Our results show that fostering the maintenance of a diversity of native palms and trees has positive effects on the functioning of cattle pastures, especially during dry periods. A larger appreciation and understanding of the facilitative effects of remnant palms and trees on pastures during seasonal droughts may help developing more climate‐resilient livestock systems that maintain productivity during dry conditions while contributing also to tree biodiversity conservation. Climate warming and the alteration of precipitation regimes are expected to compromise pasture and cattle productivity worldwide. Our results show that fostering the maintenance of a diversity of native palms and trees has positive effects on the functioning of cattle pastures, especially during dry periods. A larger appreciation and understanding of the facilitative effects of remnant palms and trees on pastures during seasonal droughts may help developing more climate‐resilient livestock systems that maintain productivity during dry conditions while contributing also to tree biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable intensification may depend on associating precision farming with the harnessing of ecological principles in crop fields, and integrating farms and non‐farmed land in productive landscapes. Small wetlands could play an important role in both pursuits for having high per‐unit‐area rates of element cycling and species richness while deeply penetrating crop fields. However, their potential for ecosystem service provisioning is unlikely to be met if land management intensification promotes ecosystem destabilization in biomass production.We tested the consequences of land use intensification on various dimensions of freshwater ecosystem stability by means of a large‐scale field experiment converting extensive pastures to intensive pastures and sugarcane plantations in Southeastern Brazil. Nested within experimental plots were 4000 L mesocosms simulating ponds and puddles commonly found in productive landscapes. Mesocosms were monitored for basic physico‐chemical parameters, nutrients, pesticides, phytoplankton standing crop, and the spontaneously colonizing biodiversity.Despite severe environmental change, the stability of sugarcane communities was no different from that of extensive and intensive pastures. This occurred because the local extinction of a sensitive top dragonfly predator following the application of vinasse and insecticide was compensated by colonization of a suite of more tolerant invertebrate mesopredators such as beetles and bugs. Community stability tended to increase with biomass asynchrony and species richness, evidencing a portfolio effect of biodiversity. Unfortunately, the species richness necessary to stabilize biomass production is unlikely to be available in many sugarcane fields and several other row crops.Synthesis and applications. Ponds and puddles could be effective centers of irradiation of ecosystem service provisioning in agricultural fields in terms of pest control; nutrient accumulation, cycling and export back to fields; and habitat and stepping stones for freshwater biodiversity. However, the impoverished biodiversity that results from a combination of harsh local conditions and spatial isolation renders pond communities inherently unstable. Given the unlikely, immediate reduction in agrochemical use in much of the intensively managed crop area, a combination of large, protected source wetlands at the margin of fields and small constructed or naturally forming ponds and puddles in plantations could contribute to sustainable intensification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangroves often support rich fish and crustacean communities, although faunal abundance and diversity show strong spatiotemporal variability. Consistent patterns in mangrove animal communities might be dictated by forest characteristics, by seascape context or by some combination of these factors. Predicting drivers of spatial heterogeneity in mangrove faunal communities can better support the zoning of forests for management purposes, for example by identifying sites important for fisheries nursery provision.We sampled 14 sites within a large (4000 ha) mangrove forest in Kenya, quarterly over a period of 2 years. There were clear and consistent differences in the quality of sites for fish and crustacean abundance and diversity.Forest characteristics (as summarised by the complexity index, CI) and seascape metrics (the presence, area and configuration of contiguous seagrass) were strong predictors of site differences. However, they showed opposite influences on dominant members of the fish and crustacean faunas, with CI correlated negatively with fishes and positively with crustaceans, and seagrass area correlated positively with fishes and negatively with crustaceans.Synthesis and applications. Sites within the same mangrove forest exhibit consistent differences in fish and crustacean abundance. However, the fish and crustacean communities (and particularly dominant species within them) act differently in response to forest and seascape characteristics. Old growth, mature forest, set in a seascape of seagrass patches with bare sediment, was associated with highest crustacean abundance. In contrast, denser smaller trees and seascapes with larger, continuous areas of seagrass correlated better with fish abundance. Zoning for management, as mandated in new Kenyan policy, will need to consider these differences in seascape use between fish and crustaceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape‐scale prioritization models are powerful decision‐making tools in ecological restoration. Yet, they often fail to integrate multi‐stakeholder perspectives and socio‐ecological criteria.We designed a new methodology to identify high‐priority areas for landscape‐scale restoration. This participatory cost‐effectiveness analysis model is based on execution and maintenance costs and the potential increase in the supply of multiple ecosystem services.We tested the model in a 181,000 ha heavily anthropized semi‐arid landscape in southeastern Spain. Restoring the whole area would cost 221 million EUR and enhance the supply of ecosystem services by 39%. The cost‐effectiveness of restoring pine forest and abandoned and irrigated crops were higher than restoring other Landscape Units. Restoring the least degraded sites was more cost‐effective than the most degraded areas or randomly selecting sites, even when potential recovery was incomplete.Synthesis and applications. The cost‐effectiveness of restoration actions depends on the type of ecosystem and degradation state. Visualizing the outcomes of alternative restoration scenarios needs participatory prioritization maps based on financial costs and the potential supply of ecosystem services. We propose a participatory prioritization protocol that is flexible and adaptable and can help government agencies, environmental managers, investors, consultancies and NGOs' plan restoration actions at the landscape scale and optimize the effectiveness of restoration programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the tropics, smallholder farming characterizes some of the world's most biodiverse landscapes. Agroecology as a pathway to sustainable agriculture has been proposed and implemented in sub‐Saharan Africa, but the effects of agricultural practices in smallholder agriculture on biodiversity and ecosystem services are understudied. Similarly, the contribution of different landscape elements, such as shrubland or grassland cover, on biodiversity and ecosystem services to fields remains unknown.We selected 24 villages situated in landscapes with varying shrubland and grassland cover in Malawi. In each village, we assessed biodiversity of eight taxa and ecosystem services in relation to crop type, shrubland and grassland cover and the number of agroecological pest and soil management practices on smallholder's fields of different crop types (bean monoculture, maize‐bean intercrop and maize monoculture).Increasing shrubland cover altered carabid and soil bacteria communities. Carabid abundance increased in maize but decreased in intercrop and bean fields with increasing shrubland cover. Carabid abundance and richness and wasp abundance increased with soil management practices. Carabid, spider and parasitoid abundances were higher in bean monocultures, but this was modulated by surrounding shrubland cover. Natural enemy abundances in beans were especially high in landscapes with little shrubland, possibly leading to lower bean damage in monocultures compared to intercropped fields, whereas maize monocultures had higher damage. In maize, grassland cover and pest management practices were positively related to damage. Carabid abundance was higher fields with high bean damage, and increased carabid richness in fields with high maize damage. Parasitoid abundance was negatively associated with bean damage.Synthesis and application. Our results suggest that maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services on smallholder farms is not achievable with a 'one size fits all' approach but should instead be adapted to the landscape context and the priorities of smallholders. Shrubland is important to maintain carabid and soil bacterial diversity, but legume cultivation beneficial to natural enemies could complement pest management in landscapes with a low shrubland cover. An increased number of agroecological soil management practices can lead to improved pest control while the effectiveness of agroecological pest management practices needs to be re‐evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past century, semi‐natural grasslands, once widespread throughout Europe, have largely been converted into intensively managed agricultural areas, abandoned or afforested. These large‐scale land‐use changes have already resulted in considerable biodiversity loss but can also lead to decline in ecosystem service provision and ecosystem multifunctionality.We assessed the impact of afforestation and abandonment of semi‐natural grasslands on the supply of ecosystem services in Western Estonia. We compared a wide array of services provided by open grasslands, abandoned grasslands and afforested grasslands. Additionally, we analysed the impact of land‐use change and species richness on ecosystem multifunctionality.Significant declines in the supply of pollination services, natural pest regulation, forage production, soil quality, wild food and cultural appreciation of landscape were detected as a result of overgrowing or afforestation.There was significant positive relationship between species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality, that is, more biodiverse grasslands were able to support more services at higher capacity.Results show that both grassland degradation due to abandonment, as well as grassland afforestation, have significant negative impacts on biodiversity, on the supply of multiple important ecosystem services and on the ecosystem multifunctionality.Synthesis and applications. Temperate semi‐natural grasslands have high biodiversity and capacity to deliver multiple important ecosystem services simultaneously. Conservation and restoration of grassland habitats must be considered as an important part of sustainable landscape planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As demand for wood products increases in step with global population growth, balancing the potentially competing values of biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and timber production is a major challenge. Land sparing involves conserving forest while growing timber in intensively managed areas. On the other hand, land sharing utilizes ecological forestry approaches, but with a larger management footprint due to lower yields. While the sparing‐sharing framework has been widely tested and debated in agricultural settings to balance competing values, such land‐allocation strategies have been rarely studied in forestry.We examined whether a sparing, sharing or Triad strategy best achieves multiple forest objectives simultaneously. In Triad, management units (stands) in forest landscapes are allocated to one of three treatments: reserve (where conservation is the sole objective), intensive (timber production is the sole objective) and ecological (both objectives are combined). To our knowledge, ours is the first Triad study from the temperate zone to quantify direct measures of biodiversity (e.g. species' abundance).Using a commonly utilized forest planning tool parameterized with empirical data, we modelled the capacity of a temperate rainforest to provide multiple ecosystem services (biodiversity, carbon storage, timber production and old‐growth forest structure) over 125 years based on 43 different allocation scenarios. We then quantified trade‐offs between scenarios, taking into account the landscape structure, and determined which strategies most consistently balanced ecosystem services.Sparing strategies were best when the services provided by both old‐growth and early seral (young) forests were prioritized, but at a cost to species associated with mid‐seral stages, which benefitted most from Triad and sharing strategies. Therefore, sparing provides the greatest net benefit, particularly given that old‐growth‐associated species and ecosystem services are currently of the greatest conservation concern.Synthesis and applications. We found that maximizing multiple elements of biodiversity and ecosystem services simultaneously with a single management strategy was elusive. The strategy that maximized each service and species varied greatly by both the service and the level of timber production. Fortunately, a diversity of management options can produce the same wood supply, providing ample decision space for establishing priorities and evaluating trade‐offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable food production requires agriculture to conserve biodiversity and facilitate ecosystem services to maintain productivity levels while reducing inputs detrimental to ecosystem functioning. Increasing within‐field vegetation diversity by legume intercropping seems promising to facilitate cropping system multi‐functionality. Effects of intercropping with legumes on biodiversity‐mediated ecosystem services such as pollination or natural pest control are, however, not sufficiently understood.Using 26 observation plots in a paired field design, we studied the effects of undersowing oats with a mixture of three annual clovers across different aspects of cropping system multi‐functionality. We investigated 16 below‐ and above‐ground ecosystem service indicators related to soil mineral nitrogen, arable weed control, pollination, disease and pest pressures, natural pest control and crop yield.We found lower arable weed cover, higher flower cover and pollinator densities as well as decreased root‐feeding nematode densities in intercropped observation plots compared with the non‐intercropped controls. However, intercropping decreased spider activity densities and oat yield nitrogen content. Root diseases, pest damages, natural pest control and crop yield were not affected by intercropping.The biomass of undersown clovers was positively related with the differences in flower cover and pollinator densities, and negatively related with the differences in arable weed cover between the intercropped and the control treatment.Synthesis and applications: We demonstrate that undersowing annual clovers suppresses arable weeds and simultaneously support pollinators without reducing crop yields or taking land out of arable production. Undersown plant mixtures should, however, be tailored to support a wider spectrum of pollinators and benefit natural pest control to support a higher level of overall cropping system multi‐functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of habitat complexity on biodiversity is a central theme in ecology, with many studies reporting positive relationships. Reconciliation approaches in urbanised areas, such as eco‐engineering, have increasingly focused on 're‐building' the complexity of degraded and/or homogenised habitats to support biodiversity. Yet, the effects of increasing complexity and biodiversity on ecological functions are rarely measured.We assessed how increasing the physical and/or biogenic complexity of habitats affects the net primary productivity (NPP) and gross primary productivity (GPP), community respiration and nutrient cycling (specifically dissolved inorganic phosphorus and nitrogen) of intertidal sessile marine communities at three sites. We manipulated physical complexity using two types of settlement tiles: 'complex', with crevices and ridges, and 'flat'. We increased biogenic complexity on half the replicates of each tile type by seeding with oysters.Increased physical and biogenic complexity resulted in greater sessile species richness at all sites. Although many variables assessed varied with sites and time of measurements, overall, GPP and NPP were greater on flat tiles than on complex ones. These patterns were not explained by differences in the total surface area of tiles.Daily flux rates of dissolved inorganic phosphorus had a significant positive relationship with biogenic complexity. There were no effects of biogenic or physical complexity on the net fluxes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen.Effects of habitat complexity on the productivity and nutrient cycling of marine sessile communities were largely unrelated to diversity measures, such as richness or abundance of key taxa and functional groups.Synthesis and applications. Eco‐engineering practices that manipulate habitat complexity might benefit from explicit functional targets that also consider associated ecosystem services, as we found that under some conditions there is a trade‐off between biodiversity and functional targets. Our results suggest that increasing habitat complexity has a positive effect on sessile species richness, but not necessarily on productivity (GPP and NPP). The species pool available as well as light availability is likely to mediate effects of complexity on assemblages, so local environment needs to be a key consideration when designing interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While abiotic drivers of yields represent important limiting factors to crop productivity, the role of biotic drivers that could be directly managed by farmers (e.g. agri‐environment schemes supporting key ecosystem services) remains poorly understood. Precision yield mapping provides an opportunity to understand the factors that limit agricultural yield through the interpretation of high‐resolution cropping data. This has the potential to inform future precision agricultural management, such as the targeted application of agrochemicals, promoting increased sustainability in modern agricultural systems.We used precision yield measurements from a network of 1174 fields in England (2006–2020) to identify drivers of within‐field yield variation in winter wheat and oilseed rape. Potential drivers included climate, topography and landscape composition and configuration. We then explored relationships between in‐field yield patterns and local landscape context, including the presence of features associated with ecosystem benefits.Proximity to the field edge was associated with reduced yields in 85% of wheat and 87% of oilseed fields. This translating to an approximate reduction of 10% in wheat and 18% in oilseed yields lost due to field edge effects.We found evidence that reduced yields at the field edges were associated with biotic features of the surrounding landscape, including the occurrence of semi‐natural habitats. Specifically, agri‐environment scheme (AES) presence increased the rate at which yields at field edges approach those of the field centres. This suggests that AES occurrence within a landscape (rather than field adjacent) may increase edge effects. However, these trends are unclear and suggest interactions between drivers and the spatial and temporal scale of investigation.Synthesis and applications. While we found evidence of landscape context mitigating against field edge effects, these were counterintuitive. For example, AES at a landscape scale appeared to increase the severity of edge effects. This study highlights a lack of environmental data at sufficiently high spatiotemporal resolution to match that of precision agriculture data. This mismatch is hindering the effective integration of precision agriculture data in an environmental policy and/or management context and potentially leading to unnecessarily poorly informed decisions related to AES deployment. This may limit environmental and economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flowering crops are heavily managed during bloom to both promote pollination and prevent disease. Disease management practices can alter the floral microbiome, including pathogens and nontarget microbes. However, whether agrochemical presence or altered microbiome composition affect pollinator foraging and pollination services is unclear.We assessed effects of orchard management tactics and landscape context on the flower microbiome in almond, Prunus dulcis. Fourteen orchards (five conventional, four organic and five conventional with habitat augmentation) were sampled at early and peak bloom to characterize bacterial and fungal communities associated with floral tissues. The surveys were complemented by an artificial flower experiment to assess effects of fungicides and microbes on honey bee foraging. Finally, a field trial was conducted to test effects of fungicides and microbes on pollination.As bloom progressed, bacterial and fungal abundance and diversity increased across all floral tissue types and management strategies. The magnitude by which microbial abundance and diversity were affected varied, with proximity to apiaries and orchard management having notable effects on bacteria and fungi respectively.Experiments revealed that fungicides reduced nectar removal by honey bees; however, neither fungicide nor microbe treatments affected pollination, as measured through pollen tube initiation and growth.Synthesis and applications. Our results reveal that microbiota associated with flowers of a pollinator‐dependent crop are temporally dynamic and sensitive to management practices. However, pollination services in almond may be resilient to both agrochemical disturbance and microbial augmentation of flowers, the latter of which may become more prominent as microbial solutions to disease management are embraced in agroecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity underpins all food production and strengthens agricultural resilience to crop failure. However, agricultural expansion is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, particularly in the tropics where crop production is increasing and intensifying rapidly to meet a growing global food demand. It is therefore crucial to ask, how do different crops and crop production systems impact biodiversity?We first use the FAO database of harvested crop area to explore temporal changes in crop area and intensification across the entire tropical realm. We show that the harvested area of tropical crops has more than doubled since 1961, with ever‐increasing intensification. The harvested area in 2019 was 7.21 million km2, equivalent to 5.5% of global ice‐free land area, or 11.5% of land area in the tropics.Second, we conducted a meta‐analysis of 194 studies and 1364 pairwise comparisons to assess the impact of tropical agriculture on biodiversity, comparing biodiversity values in food crop sites versus natural reference habitats.Our meta‐analysis shows that crop type, rotation time and level of shading are important determinants of biodiversity assemblages. Perennial tropical crops that are grown in shaded plantations or agroforests (e.g. banana and coffee) support higher biodiversity, while crops cultivated in unshaded and often homogeneous croplands (e.g. maize, sugarcane and oil palm), and particularly annual crops, have impoverished biodiversity communities.Policy implications. Our findings highlight the increasing agricultural expansion and intensification over the last 60 years and inform our understanding of how different crops and crop production systems impact biodiversity. Furthermore, they provide insight into the long‐term sustainability of tropical food production and may serve as a warning sign for agricultural systems that rely on the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing agricultural landscapes integrate production, biodiversity conservation and the flow of ecosystem services (ES) is of paramount importance to simultaneously meet production goals and environmental challenges. However, the response of farmland biodiversity and multiple ES to land‐use change at multiple spatial scales remains poorly understood.We explored the effects of land‐use at local (grassland vs. oilseed rape fields) and landscape scale (cover of permanent grasslands) on the provision of biodiversity (plants, arthropods, birds), five ES (pollination, pest control, soil fertility, carbon storage and water regulation) and overall ES‐multifunctionality.ES‐multifunctionality was higher in grasslands than in crop fields, by 25.2% above‐ground and by 106.1% below‐ground. Multiple threshold analyses highlighted a particularly poor level of performance for below‐ground functions in crop fields. This habitat type was however capable of providing numerous above‐ground functions simultaneously, although at low levels of performance when compared to the maximum values recorded in the study. Grasslands supported higher biodiversity and provision of pollination, soil fertility, carbon storage and water regulation.Landscape composition influenced the provision of multiple ES: a 10% increase in grassland cover in the landscape enhanced above‐ground ES‐multifunctionality by 11.0% in both habitats. In particular, grasslands cover in the landscape supported the provision of arthropod diversity, pollination and pest control provided by carabids.Synthesis and applications. The results of this field study show the key importance of preserving semi‐natural grasslands in agricultural landscapes for the conservation of farmland biodiversity, for the protection of soils and the delivery of multiple ES critical for crop production. Maximization of multifunctionality necessitates the integration at the landscape scale (0.5–2 km) of semi‐natural patches within the intensively farmed agricultural matrix. This would require not only the protection of existing grasslands, but also their restoration in simplified landscapes. The promotion of mixed farming (i.e., both crop and livestock production) might increase semi‐natural grassland cover at the landscape scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Cerrado, the most biodiverse savanna globally with great importance for water and carbon conservation, faces the impacts of rapid and extensive land conversion, mainly for agricultural uses. The native Cerrado vegetation originally covered an area of 204 Mha however, 43% has been converted to human use. Pastures are the major land use category in Cerrado, covering 57 Mha, 28% of its area. Most of these pastures are underused and present some degree of degradation, representing an opportunity for restoration programs and agriculture expansion without further conversion of natural areas. The restoration of the Cerrado's degraded pastures is a source of recovery of ecosystem services, however, it might involve synergies and trade‐offs between ecosystem services and stakeholders.To evaluate potential trade‐offs, we modelled seven scenarios for prioritization for restoration, focusing on pasture areas on a biome scale. We considered biodiversity, water‐related ecosystem services, potential carbon stock and agriculture aptitude to understand the trade‐offs between each feature and the conflicts with agriculture. We also applied the same prioritization logic for one Cerrado ecoregion to understand the importance of planning on a finer scale.We identified important trade‐offs between the scenarios, especially with agriculture. The agriculture conflict scenario showed that 16 Mha of areas suitable to agriculture have also a high importance for restoration, representing a gain around 70% in ecosystem services and biodiversity. By refining the spatial scale of the prioritization process, we could also identify local conflicts and demands, which indicates the relevance of a local approach, allowing a more representative cover of the Cerrado's heterogeneity to minimize trade‐offs between different demands associated with restoration.Policy implications. The restoration of degraded lands is an international priority to mitigate climate change as well as protect the biodiversity. Our work provides a better understanding of the trade‐offs and conflicts involved in the restoration of the Cerrado, a megadiverse savanna with great importance in agriculture. This understanding is key to implementing public policies that enable large‐scale restoration projects while optimizing biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services provision and minimizing conflicts with agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporating the assessment of ecosystem services into land management decisions is increasingly recognized as an opportunity to support sustainable development. This, however, can be particularly challenging within the productive sector, a highly technical system often driven by multi‐level private entities.Here we present five key challenges, and suggest their corresponding solutions, when promoting the operationalization of ecosystem services within agribusiness. The challenges we developed are as follows: (a) building a common understanding of ecosystem services; (b) navigating strong power dynamics; (c) a highly technical system with diverse types of expertise; (d) limited understanding of the opportunity costs of alternative practices and (e), dealing with uncertainty.We draw on our experience generated through the Wine, Climate Change and Biodiversity programme, a science‐based initiative promoting the conservation of biodiversity and strategic use of ecosystem services in Chilean vineyards.Synthesis and applications. This perspective piece provides advice to scientists and practitioners on how to navigate technical and practical challenges when promoting the incorporation of ecosystem services into agricultural management. While the assessment of ecosystem services can be a highly technical process, its successful integration into land management decisions relies on active engagement, balancing expectations and an ability to construct a shared understanding among different stakeholders. The approaches suggested here rely on principles of co‐production and are illustrated with examples that are transferable to other crop and geographical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity plays a key role in supporting ecosystem services. Understanding this relationship sheds light on the linkages between ecological structure and functioning, thereby increasing the capacity for effective strategies of ecosystem conservation and restoration.Focusing on southwestern China, a global biodiversity hotspot, we evaluated the spatial correlations between biodiversity and four regulating services and one cultural service. We calculated critical points of change in the relationship between biodiversity and each of these ecosystem services and categorized the region into 'threshold', 'sensitive', 'saturation', 'recession' and 'low‐value' areas.The results show that the spatial correlation between biodiversity and regulating services was mainly positive in the Nujiang River and Lancang River basins and the Dayao Mountains, while biodiversity was negatively correlated with provisioning and cultural services in the Qionglai and Hengduan Mountains. The slope value of the curve fitted for the biodiversity–ecosystem service relationships was approximately 1 when species richness was approximately 50; the corresponding areas were termed threshold areas and were pivotal zones of change in the biodiversity–ecosystem service relationships. These areas were mainly distributed in the Qionglai Mountains, Hengduan Mountains and Nujiang River Basin, and should be prioritized for monitoring and biodiversity protection.Synthesis and applications: Our findings can help improve understanding of the spatially complex interactions between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services, as well as identifying areas that should be prioritized for protection and restoration; they also contribute towards a scientific framework for integrated management and policy in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droughts are projected to increase in magnitude, frequency and duration in the near future. In rangelands, the provision of valuable ecosystem services such as forage supply for livestock productivity is intimately linked to rainfall patterns, which makes it particularly vulnerable to droughts. Nonetheless, rangelands can differ in their sensitivity to droughts as shown by strong differences in the impacts of inter‐annual precipitation changes on vegetation productivity in different sites. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity to droughts of nine rangelands located across a broad aridity gradient in Argentina, South America.We experimentally imposed comparable droughts under field conditions by reducing a fixed proportion of each incoming precipitation event within‐year during three consecutive years and tracked changes in total aboveground and forage productivity.We found that arid and semi‐arid rangelands were more severely impaired in their forage provision by drought than mesic rangelands, that is that sensitivity to drought declined as aridity decreased. Forage productivity decreased on average by c. 50%, in arid and semi‐arid rangelands, whereas mesic sites did not exhibit significant changes between drought and control treatments. The negative impact in forage productivity of arid and semi‐arid rangelands was mainly driven by the productivity reduction of few key plant species at each site. In seven of the nine rangelands, we found detrimental effects of drought on forage productivity during the first experimental‐drought year, and in five of them the impact was further accentuated until the end of the experiment, which indicates how serious can these events be.Synthesis and applications. Our main findings indicate that the drought‐induced impacts on forage provision are higher as aridity increases. This pattern highlights the urgent need to implement strategies to mitigate the detrimental consequences of drought, particularly in arid and semiarid rangelands, where forage provision is strongly associated with human well‐being. Management approaches focused on key forage species, such as reducing the grazing pressure during drought periods according to these species' productivity dynamics can attenuate impacts on vulnerable ecosystems, preserving the rangelands' integrity while maintaining high long‐term productivity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural intensification is a main threat to biodiversity, and vineyards are particularly concerning because of their increasing extent and intensive management. Management strategies that mitigate vineyard impacts on biodiversity are urgently needed.In a major wine area in northern Italy, we tested in a 3‐year experiment the effect of alternate management of vineyard ground cover (mowing or tillage depending on the usual management system adopted by each farmer). After a first year (2017) with no implementation (baseline), in the two subsequent spring–summer periods (2018 and 2019), alternate management was adopted in a varying number of sites, providing an ideal BACI design. Birds and butterflies were selected as target groups, and surveyed by means of 200‐m linear transects scattered over both conventional and organic vineyards, with and without alternate management.We evaluated whether the implementation of alternate management resulted in an increase in species richness per transect. We also evaluated the effect of alternate management, year and land cover on different functional avian guilds (functional insectivores, seed eaters, potential grape eaters), considering both richness and abundance.For both birds and butterflies, we found a positive effect of alternate management on the number of species per transect. The implementation of alternate management also promoted richness and abundance of functional insectivores and abundance of seed eaters; a positive but less supported association was also found between alternate management and richness and abundance of potential grape eaters. The most relevant land cover for the supply of ecosystem services by birds was likely shrubland cover, which increased richness and abundance of insectivores and seed eaters, while not supporting potential grape eaters. Farmers reported no adverse effects of alternate management, and a positive impact on farm perception by consumers.Synthesis and applications. The very easy‐to‐implement alternate inter‐row management has the potential to rapidly increase the suitability of vineyards for biodiversity, while enhancing ecosystem services and attractiveness of farms for nature‐based recreation, contributing to their multi‐functionality. Alternate management could contribute to shape, for example, new interventions within the coming Common Agricultural Policy, and its benefits may be maximized by sympathetic landscape strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape‐level disturbances, such as forest loss, can profoundly alter the functional composition and diversity of biotic assemblages. In fact, the landscape‐moderated functional trait selection (LMFTS) hypothesis states that landscape‐level disturbances may act as environmental filters that select a set of species with disturbance‐adapted attributes while causing the loss of species with disturbance‐sensitive attributes, ultimately compromising ecosystem functioning. However, the impact of landscape patterns on the functional composition and diversity of tropical regenerating trees (saplings) is unknown.Using a multiscale approach to identify the best spatial scale (i.e. the scale of effect), we tested the effect of forest cover, matrix openness and forest patch density (fragmentation) on functional composition and functional diversity of tree saplings in old‐growth forest patches (n = 59) in three Mexican rainforest regions with different degree of deforestation. For 368 species and ~23,000 individuals, we compiled information from global and national databases on six functional traits related to seed dispersal and plant establishment and calculated their community abundance‐weighted mean (CWM) and three complementary functional diversity indices.Forest loss and matrix openness reduced functional richness and evenness, but only in the two most deforested regions. Overall, fragmentation had contrasting effects on functional diversity and composition, but correlated negatively with some functional traits in the most deforested region. Importantly, in the regions with high‐to‐intermediate degree of deforestation, functional composition experienced major changes: maximum height, seed mass, fruit size and wood density decreased, and SLA increased, in forest patches surrounded by open matrices in highly deforested and fragmented landscapes. This caused a shift of community traits towards more disturbed‐adapted attributes.Synthesis and applications. In agreement with the LMFTS hypothesis, our results confirm that landscape modifications in regions undergoing high and long‐lasting deforestation greatly impoverish the functional composition and diversity of sapling communities. The shift from communities composed mainly by conservative attributes towards communities with a higher prevalence of disturbance‐adapted attributes disrupts the future community structure and jeopardizes critical ecosystem functions. Management practices focused on preventing deforestation, increasing forest cover and promoting treed matrices are necessary to preserve the functionality of these species rich but increasingly threatened rainforests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of green infrastructure on human well‐being in urban areas are already well‐established, with strong evidence of the positive effects of the amount and proximity to green areas. However, the understanding of how the spatial distribution and type of green areas affect health is still an open question.Here, through a land sharing and sparing framework, we explore how different spatial configurations of green and built‐up areas and how different types of green areas can affect cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations in São Paulo city, Brazil.Sharing/sparing indicators were selected as the main explanatory factors in the control of all groups of diseases. Land sharing appeared as a favourable spatial condition to prevent cardiovascular hospitalization, while land sparing and arboreal vegetation were relevant to reduce hospitalization by lower respiratory diseases.For upper respiratory diseases, forests seem to provide a disservice, once they were associated with increased rates of hospitalization by respiratory allergies causes.Considering that hospitalization rates and severity of cardiovascular diseases are substantially higher than those of upper respiratory ones, dense vegetation tends to provide more services than disservices. The land sharing configuration, which is characterized by green areas spread throughout the urban network (in streets, gardens, small squares or parks), should lead to higher exposure and use of the benefits of green areas, which may then explain the greater prevention of cardiovascular diseases.These novel results indicate that a more balanced distribution of green areas across built‐up areas creates healthier urban spaces, and thus can be used as an urban planning strategy to leverage the health benefits provided by green infrastructure.Policy implications. Aiming to reduce hospitalizations by cardiovascular and pulmonary causes, urban planning should promote the spreading of green areas across the cities, in order to increase daily contact with natural attributes, giving preference to distribution over total quantity of green in urban landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]