Experimental Assessment of Ecosystem Services in Agriculture

Ecosystem services (ES) in agriculture are vital for the supply of food and fibre. This chapter proposes a framework of ES associated with agroecosystems and a 'bottom-up' approach to assess ES experimentally at field level. It elaborates on the conceptual framework of ES in agroecosystems providing field-scale assessments, citing examples from Denmark and New Zealand. Field-scale assessment of ES in agriculture can help in redesigning agricultural landscapes using new ecotechnologies based on novel and sound ecological knowledge to enhance ES. The chapter demonstrates that there is a very wide range of ES provision, with organic arable cropping delivering many times the ES value of that provided by conventional farming. It also provides scenarios for balancing production and ES in agroecosystems that can be explored to maintain and improve farm sustainability and achieve food security.