1. Grassland intensification effects cascade to alter multifunctionality of wetlands within metaecosystems.
- Author
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Guo, Yuxi, Boughton, Elizabeth H., Bohlman, Stephanie, Bernacchi, Carl, Bohlen, Patrick J., Boughton, Raoul, DeLucia, Evan, Fauth, John E., Gomez-Casanovas, Nuria, Jenkins, David G., Lollis, Gene, Miller, Ryan S., Quintana-Ascencio, Pedro F., Sonnier, Grégory, Sparks, Jed, Swain, Hilary M., and Qiu, Jiangxiao
- Abstract
Sustainable agricultural intensification could improve ecosystem service multifunctionality, yet empirical evidence remains tenuous, especially regarding consequences for spatially coupled ecosystems connected by flows across ecosystem boundaries (i.e., metaecosystems). Here we aim to understand the effects of land-use intensification on multiple ecosystem services of spatially connected grasslands and wetlands, where management practices were applied to grasslands but not directly imposed to wetlands. We synthesize long-term datasets encompassing 53 physical, chemical, and biological indicators, comprising >11,000 field measurements. Our results reveal that intensification promotes high-quality forage and livestock production in both grasslands and wetlands, but at the expense of water quality regulation, methane mitigation, non-native species invasion resistance, and biodiversity. Land-use intensification weakens relationships among ecosystem services. The effects on grasslands cascade to alter multifunctionality of embedded natural wetlands within the metaecosystems to a similar extent. These results highlight the importance of considering spatial flows of resources and organisms when studying land-use intensification effects on metaecosystems as well as when designing grassland and wetland management practices to improve landscape multifunctionality.It is not clear how agricultural intensification affects spatially coupled ecosystems. Here, the authors use long-term datasets on managed grasslands coupled with unmanaged wetlands showing that grassland intensification affects ecosystem service multifunctionality of spatially coupled wetlands [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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