Do European agroforestry systems enhance biodiversityand ecosystem services? A meta-analysis

Mario Torralba e-mail: mtv@ign.ku.dkPhD student. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management

Landscape Architecture & PlanningUniversity of Copenhagen

Mario Torralba, Nora Fagerholm, Paul J. Burgess, Gerardo Morenos, Tobias Plieninger 2016. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 230: 150-161.

Agroforestry is the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crop and/or animal production systems to

benefit from the resulting ecological and economic interactions

Silvopastoral systemsCombining trees with forage and animal production. It

comprises forest or woodland grazing and open forest trees

Silvoarable systemsWidely spaced trees inter-cropped with annual or perennial crops. It comprises alley cropping, scattered trees and line

belts

Agroforestry systems

INTENSIFICATION

ABANDONMENT

Homogenization of landscapes

COMMON THREATS

Ruled by the same European policy framework

INTRODUCTION

Current Social demand has changed

New oportunities for agroforestrysystems

Provisioning Ecosystem Services

Supporting Ecosystem Services

Regulating Ecosystem Services

Cultural Ecosystem Services

IPBES theoretical framework

Central hypothesis of agroforestry: integration of trees within agricultural systemsresults in a more efficient acquisition of resources, such as solar radiation, water andnutrients, that the agricultural system would otherwise not acquire (Cannell et al. 1996).

Graves et al., 2007 Ecological Engineering 29: 434-449

Fagerholm et al. 2015

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Modified from Fagerholm et al. 2106

Research questions:1. Does European agroforestry enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services

relative to specialised agriculture or forestry?2. Which categories of ecosystem services are most supported by agroforestry?3. What differences arise between different kinds of agroforestry (i.e.

silvoarable systems, silvopastoral agroforestry)?

Landscape Architecture and Planning

Review Protocol

Data search

Data extraction

Data analysis

MethodsInclusion criteriaPublications which:- Compare agroforestry systems

with farmland/forestry.- European country- Quantitative ecosystem service

assessment based on primarydata

- Include means, standard deviation and n.

Hedge’s g for biodiversityg = (µAF- µC)/s

Response ratios for ecosystem serviceslr = ln(µAF) - ln(µC).

53 Publications365 Comparissons

Results

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esp

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Mediterranean vineyards

Mediterranean olive

Chestnut plantation

Intercropped walnut plantation

Intercropped chestnut plantation

Walnut plantation

Importance of the scale

French bocage Streubost

French pré-vergerSpanish dehesa

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

More information:mtv@ign.ku.dk

• Torralba, M., Fagerholm, N., Burgess, P.J., Moreno, G., Plieninger, T. Do Europeanagroforestry systems enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services? A meta-analysis. 2016Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 230: 150-161.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.06.002

• Fagerholm, N., Torralba, M., Burgess, P.J., Plieninger, T. 2016. A systematic map of ecosystemservices assessments around European agroforestry. Ecological Indicators 62: 47-65.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.11.016