Prairie Strips and Lower Land Use Intensity Increase Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Agricultural landscapes can be managed to protect biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services. One approach to achieve this is to restore native perennial vegetation within croplands. Where rowcrops have displaced prairie, as in the US Midwest, restoration of native perennial vegetation can align with crops in so called “prairie strips.” We tested the effect of prairie strips in addition to other management practices on a variety of taxa and on a suite of ecosystem services. To do so, we worked within a 33-year-old experiment that included treatments that varied methods of agricultural management across a gradient of land use intensity. In the two lowest intensity crop management treatments, we introduced prairie strips that occupied 5% of crop area. We addressed three questions: (1) What are the effects of newly established prairie strips on the spillover of biodiversity and ecosystem services into cropland? (2) How does time since prairie strip establishment affect biodiversity and ecosystem services? (3) What are the tradeoffs and synergies among biodiversity conservation, non-provisioning ecosystem services, and provisioning ecosystem services (crop yield) across a land use intensity gradient (which includes prairie strips)? Within prairie strip treatments, where sampling effort occurred within and at increasing distance from strips, dung beetle abundance, spider abundance and richness, active carbon, decomposition, and pollination decreased with distance from prairie strips, and this effect increased between the first and second year. Across the entire land use intensity gradient, treatments with prairie strips and reduced chemical inputs had higher butterfly abundance, spider abundance, and pollination services. In addition, soil organic carbon, butterfly richness, and spider richness increased with a decrease in land use intensity. Crop yield in one treatment with prairie strips was equal to that of the highest intensity management, even while including the area taken out of production. We found no effects of strips on ant biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions (N2O and CH4). Our results show that, even in early establishment, prairie strips and lower land use intensity can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services without a disproportionate loss of crop yield.

Contrasting effects of bioenergy crops on biodiversity

“…Converting unprofitable subfield areas minimizes indirect land use change by removing crops from the least productive areas; precision techniques could also compensate for yield losses incurred if they increase yield in other parts of fields due to enhanced management (i.e., variable rate fertilization). Adding perennial bioenergy habitat in this manner would increase local biodiversity and enhance the broad suite of ecosystem services that occur when perennial elements are incorporated into arable fields ( 15 , 16 ). It would also add both compositional and configurational complexity to simplified landscapes, bringing about improvements to biodiversity and ecosystem services at larger spatial scales ( 8 , 13 , 14 , 43 , 57 , 58 ).…”

“…Biodiversity in perennial biofuel crops is usually higher than in arable crops (8,10,11). In addition, in general, adding perennial features to agricultural landscapes can promote valuable ecosystem services locally and at landscape scales by increasing structural complexity (8,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Still, perennial biofuel systems tend to be less biodiverse than natural and seminatural reference systems (2,11,17), so their net effects on ecosystems and biodiversity (in addition to their net carbon balance) will depend both on characteristics of the crops in question and on which ecosystems they replace.…”

Butterfly biodiversity increases with prairie strips and conservation management in row crop agriculture

“…and the displacement of farmland (Basso, 2021). Connected strips and patches of prairie on marginal land across agricultural landscapes would benefit butterflies and other species, and ecosystem functions with minimal effect on yield (Kemmerling et al, 2022; Schulte et al, 2017) and should be the focus of future research and policy. Considering other landscape features such as connectivity and proximity to source populations will maximise the potential for prairie strips to benefit biodiversity (Hussain et al, 2023).…”

“…Prairie strips are multifunctional with their ability to reduce erosion and nutrient runoff in contoured agricultural landscapes and support biodiversity on farms. Importantly, prairie strips can increase biodiversity and ecosystem services without disproportionately affecting crop yield (Kemmerling et al, 2022). Prairie strips are similar to other management practices such as filter strips, hedgerows, and wildflower strips that harbour butterflies (Dover, 2019; Dover & Sparks, 2000; Haaland et al, 2011; Wix et al, 2019) and could serve as a promising conservation tool for butterflies of both common and rare species (Kolkman et al, 2022).…”

The impact of policy design on willingness to pay for ecosystem services from prairie strips

“…The Science‐based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips (STRIPS) team in Iowa has been operating as a pilot program for more than 15 years, during which it has helped match funding to landowners to incorporate prairie strips and analyzed the impacts on environmental indicators. Results from other regions have also shown significant positive environmental impacts of prairie strips (Kemmerling et al, 2022).…”