Supporting ecosystem services on commercial farms: using evidence to inform land management decisions

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This research aims to make recommendations for how to manage commercial farms to support biodiversity and ecosystem services whilst maintaining or increasing yields and profits. Sets of recommendations will be specific to different farm types or landscape types, and will build upon detailed scientific understanding of underlying ecological processes.In the last ten years, scientists have described how ecosystems provide services that are essential for food production, such as clean water, a healthy soil and good climate, pollination and pest control. They are measuring these services and how much they are worth to society, and beginning to understand how important a variety of species and habitats is for providing the services. The big gap is translating all this knowledge into practical advice for commercial farmers. The research takes two approaches. The first approach will develop a sophisticated decision support tool that incorporates a wide range of scientific knowledge, some of it very uncertain, into the cost-sensitive decisions that farm managers have to make about how to manage land. This will compare the effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services of a range of different land management options, including possible crop rotations, interventions to support biodiversity and interventions to increase yield. It will consider the costs (or the available profits) of the alternative options, and produce an optimal strategy that maximises biodiversity and ecosystem value whilst retaining viable profit. When the science is uncertain, the software tool will allow the researcher to find out whether this matters to the ultimate decision or not. For example, if we can't be sure exactly how much pollination of oilseed rape is enhanced by providing nectar and pollen margins, does this make a difference to whether or not farmers should incorporate pollen and nectar margins, given that these margins have a range of other known benefits but involve a loss of yield due to reduced cropping area? Of course, the solutions will be sensitive to the costs built into the model, but these will be developed in partnership with commercial agronomists and will be as realistic as possible.The second approach will develop a package of agri-environment measures to support beneficial insects in a range of different farm types. Beneficial insects provide two ecosystem services - pollination for insect-pollinated crops and some pest control service on all crops. Supporting these services in farmland is complex. Both are delivered by a variety of free-living mobile organisms. The actual insect species involved varies from place to place and from year to year, and the different species need different resources, such as adult food, food for their young, overwintering sites or hunting grounds. The researcher will devise a set of indicator species for delivering these services in orchards, soft fruit farms, arable farms and horticulture. The indicator set will cover all major resource needs and incorporate any specialised reliance on particular resources. For the indicator species set in each farming type, the research will then pool relevant ecological knowledge, including population modelling where available, and expert assessment to produce a set of agri-environment options that provide the appropriate amount and arrangement of resources to support delivery of pollination and pest control from the natural ecosystem.