A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production
Dainese, Matteo; Smith, Henrik G.; Andersson, Georg K.S.; Ekroos, Johan, et al. (2019). A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production. Science Advances, 5, (10)
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Published
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English
Authors:
Dainese, Matteo
;
Smith, Henrik G.
;
Andersson, Georg K.S.
;
Ekroos, Johan
, et al.
Department:
Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
Biodiversity
BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
Lund university sustainability forum
Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Research Group:
Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Abstract:
Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield-related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance of species richness, abundance, and dominance for pollination; biological pest control; and final yields in the context of ongoing land-use change. Pollinator and enemy richness directly supported ecosystem services in addition to and independent of abundance and dominance. Up to 50% of the negative effects of landscape simplification on ecosystem services was due to richness losses of service-providing organisms, with negative consequences for crop yields. Maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystem service providers is therefore vital to sustain the flow of key agroecosystem benefits to society. Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).
Keywords:
Biodiversity ;
Crops ;
Cultivation ;
Forestry ;
Land use ;
Biological pest controls ;
Dominant species ;
Ecosystem functions ;
Ecosystem services ;
Food production ;
Global synthesis ;
Service-providing ;
Species richness ;
Ecosystems
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