title: Wildlife-friendly farming increases crop yield: evidence for ecological intensification.
abstract: Ecological intensification has been promoted as a means to achieve environmentally sustainable increases in crop yields by enhancing ecosystem functions that regulate and support production. There is, however, little direct evidence of yield benefits from ecological intensification on commercial farms growing globally important foodstuffs (grains, oilseeds and pulses). We replicated two treatments removing 3 or 8% of land at the field edge from production to create wildlife habitat in 50-60 ha patches over a 900 ha commercial arable farm in central England, and compared these to a business as usual control (no land removed). In the control fields, crop yields were reduced by as much as 38% at the field edge. Habitat creation in these lower yielding areas led to increased yield in the cropped areas of the fields, and this positive effect became more pronounced over 6 years. As a consequence, yields at the field scale were maintained--and, indeed, enhanced for some crops--despite the loss of cropland for habitat creation. These results suggested that over a 5-year crop rotation, there would be no adverse impact on overall yield in terms of monetary value or nutritional energy. This study provides a clear demonstration that wildlife-friendly management which supports ecosystem services is compatible with, and can even increase, crop yields.
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK rfp@ceh.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Richard F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Pywell
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Heard
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK.
authors.forename: Ben A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Woodcock
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK.
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hinsley
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK.
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ridding
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Farming Company, Bicester OX26 1UN, UK.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nowakowski
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bullock
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000502:physiology*; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000254:growth & development*; D004739:England
keywords: agri-environment schemes; ecosystem services; pest control; pollination; sustainable intensification of agriculture