Keywords
legume, grassland, technology, water, greenhouse gases
Start Date
1-7-2010 12:00 AM
Abstract
The ecosystem service framework provides a forum for scientists from a rangeof disciplines to communicate and work together alongside other key stakeholders.However to be effective, place-based comparison of the tradeoffs of ecosystem servicesneed further development. These place-based comparisons are vital in agricultural systemsdue to the increasing global demand for food production, coupled with the realization thatthis should be achieved with minimal negative impact on the environment. The farm is thelogical unit of management in agricultural systems and hence there is a need for ecosystemtradeoff assessments at the farm scale. We have carried out a literature review of thetradeoffs in the delivery of ecosystem services from intensively managed temperategrassland systems. Building on this work, we are now setting up a farm scale experimentto examine the tradeoffs, identified from the refereed literature, as requiring furtherinvestigation due to either limited or conflicting evidence. To facilitate an improvedunderstanding of these tradeoffs we need to learn how to model them, based on previousand current modelling frameworks and coupled with improved knowledge of internationalbest practice. Fundamentally, this requires a dialogue between modellers and fieldscientists.
Learning how to model ecosystem trade-offs at the farm scale
The ecosystem service framework provides a forum for scientists from a rangeof disciplines to communicate and work together alongside other key stakeholders.However to be effective, place-based comparison of the tradeoffs of ecosystem servicesneed further development. These place-based comparisons are vital in agricultural systemsdue to the increasing global demand for food production, coupled with the realization thatthis should be achieved with minimal negative impact on the environment. The farm is thelogical unit of management in agricultural systems and hence there is a need for ecosystemtradeoff assessments at the farm scale. We have carried out a literature review of thetradeoffs in the delivery of ecosystem services from intensively managed temperategrassland systems. Building on this work, we are now setting up a farm scale experimentto examine the tradeoffs, identified from the refereed literature, as requiring furtherinvestigation due to either limited or conflicting evidence. To facilitate an improvedunderstanding of these tradeoffs we need to learn how to model them, based on previousand current modelling frameworks and coupled with improved knowledge of internationalbest practice. Fundamentally, this requires a dialogue between modellers and fieldscientists.
