Hotspots of Agricultural Ecosystem Services and Farmland Biodiversity Overlap with Areas at Risk of Land Abandonment in Japan

Abstract

Agriculture provides a wide range of ecosystem services and has the potential to contribute to biodiversity conservation. In Japan, many of the resources associated with agroecosystems are threatened by farmland abandonment. Identifying where and to what extent agricultural ecosystem services and farmland biodiversity are affected by farmland abandonment is essential for developing effective strategies to counter the potential loss of these services and the biological communities that support them. Our study aimed to examine how a set of indicators for ecosystem services and biodiversity linked to agroecosystems (proportions of land dedicated to rice production and other agricultural production, proportion of agricultural land on slopes potentially providing landscape aesthetics, proportion of villages promoting rural tourism, and densities of forest edges and irrigation ponds in agricultural land) are distributed at the municipal level across the Japanese Archipelago, and to analyze their spatial patterns in relation to the distribution of farmland abandonment. It was hypothesized that hotspots of agricultural ecosystem services and farmland biodiversity occur in areas at risk of farmland abandonment owing to shared drivers. The cluster analysis identified four distinct ecosystem service bundle types, two of them representing areas specializing in agricultural production, while the other two provided high levels of cultural services and habitats for diverse biological communities. The latter two bundles were located in hilly and mountainous areas and accounted for 58% of rice production, 27% of other agricultural production, 77% of landscape aesthetics, 77% of rural tourism, 64% of forest edges, and 87% of irrigation ponds in Japan. In support of the hypothesis, farmland abandonment was pronounced in these areas, with 64% of recently abandoned fields located where 44% of agricultural land was found. This spatial overlap suggests that substantial losses of ecosystem services and biodiversity may occur if current patterns of farmland abandonment continue. In order to prevent large-scale losses of agricultural ecosystem services and farmland biodiversity, measures to counteract the ongoing abandonment trends should prioritize hilly and mountainous areas, and future studies should further evaluate the multiple functions of agricultural areas to improve policies that aim to ensure sustainable development of rural areas in Japan.

Small Cultural Forests: Landscape Role and Ecosystem Services in a Japanese Cultural Landscape

“…This complexity does not correspond to habitat fragmentation or isolation; on the contrary, it creates a variety of habitats, which is the major reason of high species diversity in Japanese satoyama [41][42][43]. In fact, according to Sasaki et al [44], the loss of the small and characteristic landscape features (e.g., field margins, irrigation channels, ponds, small forest patches) in Japan agricultural landscape is found to have deteriorating effects on biodiversity. In the study area of Osaki K ōdo plain, igune and small woods played an important role in enabling farmers to survive under severe environmental conditions and, at the same time, they represent the most important characteristic of the local landscape, as approximately 40% of total local households continue to have an igune today [33].…”

“…Trees such as camellia and Japanese nutmeg (Torreya nucifera) provide seeds for oil extraction, Amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense) and plants such as Geranium thunbergii provide products for traditional medication, while higher trees can provide timber to be used as building material [48]. In addition, forest edges are considered one of the key features influencing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes of Japan, and the decrease in the typical satoyama mosaic can lead to the loss of ESs and farmland biodiversity, if farmland abandonment continues to follow the recent trends at the national level [44]. In the study area, igune and small woods are still widespread and related traditional activities, including collection of firewood and other byproducts, are still commonly practiced, and their cultural role remained significant, as small shrines are placed within them representing areas of faith for the local families [47].…”

The Temporal and Spatial Evolution Characteristics and Driving Factors of Ecosystem Service Bundles in Anhui Province, China

“…Given their advantages for examining the relationships between multiple ecosystem services, numerous scholars have utilized ecosystem service bundles to conduct research on ecological function zoning [9][10][11], trade-offs and synergies [12][13][14], spatio-temporal evolution [15], and driving factors [16], among other topics. The identification methods for service bundles mainly include k-means clustering analysis [17], self-organizing network analysis [18], hierarchical clustering [19], principal component analysis (PCA) [20], multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) [21], and random forest methods [22]. The k-means clustering algorithm, noted for its distinct clustering structure and straightforward process, has become a widely used clustering method for analyzing geographical spatial patterns.…”

Geographic Information System-Based Analysis of Reclaimable Idle Cropland for Agrivoltaics in Kansai, Japan: Enhancing Energy and Food Security

“…In Japan, where the food self-sufficiency rate in terms of production value is only 58%, the expansion of unused farmland and the stagnation of agricultural production and selfsufficiency are serious concerns for food security [7]. Abandoning farmland also poses the risk of loss of biodiversity by reducing the environmental mosaic and attracting damage by wild animals [8][9][10]. In the context of enhancing land utilization efficiency and advancing decarbonization, the conversion of land to ground-based solar power installations is one of the effective ways to fulfill these objectives.…”