Ecosystem Services at the Farm Level—Overview, Synergies, Trade‐Offs, and Stakeholder Analysis

Abstract

Over the past decade, research has intensified on how to evaluate and manage these ES to minimize environmental impacts of business and everyday life. [8] Concepts such as civic ecology, [9] sustainable development, [10][11][12] and the bioeconomy [13,14] are being rapidly operationalized and often integrate ecological practices into their implementation strategies, by way of how we interact with nature. In this regard, philosopher and scientist Aldo Leopold wrote in the mid-20th century: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." [15] Similarly, the paradigm of civic ecology [9] is founded in subjective philosophy, which aims to expand our awareness of the natural world and the systems in place.One of the fundamental practices in civic ecology is systems thinking, with the idea that individuals should form a relation to nature, like they do to a human community. Further, systems thinking is frequently used in science to understand how individuals interact with the system. For instance, an ecosystem shares this attribute, where a dynamically evolving system is influenced by interacting, individual elements including air, water, soil, microbes, plants, and animals. Unfortunately, this notion is often ignored, because the provisioning The current geological epoch is characterized by anthropogenic activity that greatly impacts on natural ecosystems and their integrity. The complex networks of ecosystem services (ESs) are often ignored because the provision of natural resources, such as food and industrial crops, is mistakenly viewed as an independent process separate from ecosystems and ignoring the impacts on ecosystems. Recently, research has intensified on how to evaluate and manage ES to minimize environmental impacts, but it remains unclear how to balance anthropogenic activity and ecosystem integrity. This paper reviews the main ESs at farm level including provisioning, regulating, habitat, and cultural services. For these ESs, synergies are outlined and evaluated along with the respective practices (e.g., cover-and intercropping) and ES suppliers (e.g., pollinators and biocontrol agents). Further, several farm-level ES trade-offs are discussed along with a proposal for their evaluation. Finally, a framework for stakeholder approaches specific to farm-level ES is put forward, along with an outlook on how existing precision agriculture technologies can be adapted for improved assessment of ES bundles. This is believed to provide a useful framework for both decision makers and stakeholders to facilitate the development of more sustainable and resilient farming systems.

Towards enhanced adoption of soil‐improving management practices in Europe

“…Hence, trade‐offs between tackling different soil challenges and other outcomes (production, farmer income) may be underrepresented in our study. However, these trade‐offs (as well as synergies) are important when assessing climate change mitigation potentials and the economic viability of soil management practices (on the topic of trade‐off and synergies see Bos et al (2017), Schröder et al (2020), Zwetsloot et al (2021), McGuire et al (2022), or Morizet‐Davis et al (2023)). Thus, the impacts of soil management practice adoption on the soil and the farms need to be carefully reevaluated in their site‐specific context.…”

Carbon farming: a circular framework to augment CO2 sinks and to combat climate change

“…Cover crops are gaining popularity in the global effort to combat climate change, and they now occupy approximately 22 million acres of land, marking a 43% increase from previous years. 134,135 It is estimated that 20 million acres of cover crops have the potential to sequester more than 66 million tons of CO 2 equivalent annually, equivalent to the emissions of approximately 13 million vehicles. For example, cropland soils in the EU are estimated to lose about 7.4 million tons of carbon per year.…”

“…This rise in demand offers a direct benefit to farmers as they can receive cash-based incentives for sequestering carbon on their lands. 135 A farmer can earn around INR 780 for sequestering one carbon credit at prevailing market prices. However, larger corporations may offer even better rates, potentially up to INR 2000, when purchasing significant amounts of carbon credits directly from farmers.…”

The Effect of Reduced Tillage, Straw, and Green Manure on Components of the Winter Oilseed Rape Agroecosystem

“…Catch crops are also grown to restore soil fertility by improving soil structure, promote the formation and stability of soil aggregates, limit water loss and migration as well as the entry of nutrients into deeper soil layers, provide shade and cool the soil surface, protect the soil from wind and water erosion, promote soil microorganisms and increase soil biological activity (Wanic, et al, 2019, Morizet-Davis, et al, 2023.…”