1. Making explicit agricultural ecosystem service trade-offs: a case study of an English lowland arable farm
- Author
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Matthew J. Carroll, Antony J. Morris, Rob H. Field, and Rachel K. Hill
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Economics and Econometrics ,Food security ,business.industry ,Agroforestry ,Crop yield ,Biodiversity ,04 agricultural and veterinary sciences ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Ecosystem services ,Geography ,Agriculture ,Greenhouse gas ,040103 agronomy & agriculture ,0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries ,Arable land ,business ,Agronomy and Crop Science ,Cropping - Abstract
European farmland hosts a species assemblage of animals and plants which have undergone declines through the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, at least partly as a result of increased productivity. Further increases in human populations, changes in availability and cost of raw materials, policy constraints, price volatility and climatic changes will further drive greater efficiency and high yields in agriculture, with the risk of further adverse environmental impacts. We assess the effects of different management priorities (production-driven cropping vs. wildlife-friendly farming) at an arable farm in eastern England on food production, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity. We modelled one actual and three alternative cropping scenarios using actual yields from the farm over 13 years, to calculate total yields and those foregone for agri-environmental measures. We measured crop yields, relative abundance of 19 farmland bird species, and CO2 and N2O emissions related to crop prod...
- Published
- 2015
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