Enhancing agroecosystem performance and resilience through increased diversification of landscapes and cropping systems

Review: Redesigning Canadian prairie cropping systems for profitability, sustainability, and resilience

“…These practices have the common goal of adding variability in agroecosystem structure and function in areas such as resource use and resistance to pests. Such planned onfarm diversity attracts additional natural biodiversity, further enhancing the integrity of the agroecosystem (Altieri and Nicholls 2008;Liebman and Schulte 2015).…”

“…The benefits of farmscaping to agricultural systems are largely due to enhanced associated biodiversity, specifically of beneficial organisms including wild pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests (e.g., Garratt et al 2011;Morandin and Kremen 2013), as a result of planned biodiversity (Altieri and Nicholls 2008;Liebman and Schulte 2015). Additional benefits of these permanent landscape features can include other ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, soil C sequestration, capture of sediment and nutrients in run-off, water filtration, and enhancement of the local and regional water cycles (van de Kamp and Hayashi 1998;Pretty 2008;Smukler et al 2010;Gleason et al 2011;Liebman and Schulte 2015); provisioning services such as fruit or forage production from these landscape features themselves (Zink 2010); and increased productivity from surrounding cropland (Morandin and Winston 2006;Liebman and Schulte 2015).…”

“…Additional benefits of these permanent landscape features can include other ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, soil C sequestration, capture of sediment and nutrients in run-off, water filtration, and enhancement of the local and regional water cycles (van de Kamp and Hayashi 1998;Pretty 2008;Smukler et al 2010;Gleason et al 2011;Liebman and Schulte 2015); provisioning services such as fruit or forage production from these landscape features themselves (Zink 2010); and increased productivity from surrounding cropland (Morandin and Winston 2006;Liebman and Schulte 2015). Disproportionately large ecological benefits may be realized by converting small areas of cropland to herbaceous perennial vegetation, creating unique habitats throughout the farm, or using a few key species of woody plants in the farm landscape (Smukler et al 2010;Liebman and Schulte 2015).…”

Investing in the transition to sustainable agriculture

“…changes, and the eutrophication of oceans from phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers (Liebman & Schulte, 2015;Steffen et al, 2015;Tilman et al, 2001;West et al, 2014).…”

People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration: A web-based learning tool for evaluating ecosystem service tradeoffs from watersheds

“…In shifting to manage for a multifunctional agriculture, the agricultural community is developing and using innovative knowledge, information, and expertise to restore valuable ecological functions to the agricultural landscapes while also supporting vibrant farmer and rural livelihoods (Jordan et al 2013;Liebman and Schulte 2015). Still, gaps persist in advancing a more comprehensive, applied understanding of how agriculture can become more multifunctional in character and produce the broader outcomes that society desires.…”