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

本研究旨在就如何管理商业农场提出建议，以支持生物多样性和生态系统服务，同时保持或提高产量和利润。整套建议将针对不同的农场类型或景观类型，并将建立在对潜在生态过程的详细科学理解的基础上。在过去十年中，科学家描述了生态系统如何提供对粮食生产至关重要的服务，例如清洁的水、健康的土壤和良好的气候、授粉和虫害防治。他们正在衡量这些服务以及它们对社会的价值，并开始了解各种物种和栖息地对提供这些服务的重要性。最大的差距是将所有这些知识转化为商业农民的实用建议。这项研究采用了两种方法。第一种方法将开发一种复杂的决策支持工具，将广泛的科学知识（其中一些非常不确定）纳入农场管理者必须就如何管理土地做出的成本敏感决策中。这将比较一系列不同的土地管理方案对生物多样性和生态系统服务的影响，包括可能的作物轮作、支持生物多样性的干预措施和提高产量的干预措施。它将考虑备选方案的成本（或可获得的利润），并制定一个最佳战略，使生物多样性和生态系统价值最大化，同时保留可行的利润。当科学不确定时，软件工具将允许研究人员找出这是否对最终决定有影响。例如，如果我们不能确切地确定提供花蜜和花粉边缘对油菜的授粉有多大的促进作用，那么考虑到这些边缘有一系列其他已知的好处，但由于种植面积减少而导致产量损失，这是否会影响农民是否应该采用花粉和花蜜边缘？当然，解决方案将对模型中内置的成本敏感，但这些解决方案将与商业农学家合作开发，并将尽可能现实。第二种方法将制定一揽子农业环境措施，以支持一系列不同农场类型的益虫。益虫提供两种生态系统服务——为昆虫传粉的作物授粉和对所有作物进行虫害防治。在农田中支持这些服务是复杂的。两者都是由各种自由活动的生物传递的。实际涉及的昆虫种类因地而异，因年而异，不同的物种需要不同的资源，如成虫的食物、幼虫的食物、越冬地或狩猎场。研究人员将设计一套指示物种，以便在果园、软果农场、耕地农场和园艺中提供这些服务。这套指标将涵盖所有主要资源需求，并包括对特定资源的任何专门依赖。对于每种耕作类型中设定的指标物种，研究将汇集相关的生态知识，包括可用的种群建模和专家评估，以产生一套农业环境选择方案，提供适当数量和安排的资源，以支持从自然生态系统提供授粉和虫害防治。

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.