Publication Details |
| Category | Text Publication |
| Reference Category | Preprints |
| DOI | 10.2139/ssrn.5204451 |
| Title (Primary) | Minimizing trade-offs in agricultural landscapes through optimal spatial allocation of agri-environmental practices |
| Author | Bonato, M.; Burian, A.; Equihua, J.A.; Cord, A.; Bartkowski, B.; Strauch, M.
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| Source Titel | SSRN |
| Year | 2025 |
| Department | OEKON; CLE |
| Language | englisch |
| Topic | T5 Future Landscapes |
| Abstract | The implementation of agri-environmental practices (AEP) is a key strategy to reach biodiversity and environmental objectives in agricultural landscapes, but their widespread application is often hampered by perceived trade-offs with crop production. However, the extent of these trade-offs remains poorly understood and has rarely been quantified in real-world case studies.Hence, our aim was to analyze trade-offs between crop yield, water quality and farmland biodiversity using an optimization approach for the spatial allocation of AEP for a catchment in Eastern Germany. Potential AEP were selected based on a co-design approach with local stakeholders (stakeholder-based scenario) and were complemented by additional AEP to reach current EU policies targets (policy-based scenarios). Consequences for crop production and environmental objectives were evaluated through spatially-explicit crop, water and biodiversity models.Contrary to common perception, we found that crop losses required to increase environmental objectives were marginal (maximum loss of 1.1% in the stakeholder-based scenario). The implementation of AEP even led to win-win outcomes for crop production and environmental objectives in over 20% of the Pareto-optimal solutions as compared to the status quo. These win-win outcomes resulted merely from biophysical effects as positive biodiversity feedbacks to agriculture were not included in our model. Spatial optimization of AEP allocation was key to mediating trade-offs across scenarios, highlighting the large potential of spatially explicit approaches for the management of agricultural landscapes. |
| Persistent UFZ Identifier | https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=30858 |
| Bonato, M., Burian, A., Equihua, J.A., Cord, A., Bartkowski, B., Strauch, M. (2025): Minimizing trade-offs in agricultural landscapes through optimal spatial allocation of agri-environmental practices SSRN 10.2139/ssrn.5204451 |
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