title: Ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes: a spatially explicit approach to support sustainable soil management.
abstract: Soil degradation has been associated with a lack of adequate consideration of soil ecosystem services. We demonstrate a broadly applicable method for mapping changes in the supply of two priority soil ecosystem services to support decisions about sustainable land-use configurations. We used a landscape-scale study area of 302 km(2) in northern Victoria, south-eastern Australia, which has been cleared for intensive agriculture. Indicators representing priority soil services (soil carbon sequestration and soil water storage) were quantified and mapped under both a current and a future 25-year land-use scenario (the latter including a greater diversity of land uses and increased perennial crops and irrigation). We combined diverse methods, including soil analysis using mid-infrared spectroscopy, soil biophysical modelling, and geostatistical interpolation. Our analysis suggests that the future land-use scenario would increase the landscape-level supply of both services over 25 years. Soil organic carbon content and water storage to 30 cm depth were predicted to increase by about 11% and 22%, respectively. Our service maps revealed the locations of hotspots, as well as potential trade-offs in service supply under new land-use configurations. The study highlights the need to consider diverse land uses in sustainable management of soil services in changing agricultural landscapes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, The University of Melbourne, 4 Water Street, Creswick, VIC 3363, Australia.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7265-1772
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Forouzangohar
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Ecosystem Sciences, PMB 2, Urrbrae, SA 5064, Australia.
authors.forename: Neville D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Crossman
authors.affiliation: Future Farming Systems Research Division, Department of Environment & Primary Industries, P.O. Box 3100, Bendigo Delivery Centre, VIC 3554, Australia.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: MacEwan
authors.affiliation: Agriculture Productivity Group, Department of Environment & Primary Industries, 32 Lincoln Square, North Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia.
authors.forename: D Dugal
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, The University of Melbourne, 4 Water Street, Creswick, VIC 3363, Australia.
authors.forename: Lauren T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Bennett
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D012987:Soil
chemical_list: D012987:Soil