Effects of natural habitat composition and configuration, environment and agricultural input on soybean and maize yields in Argentina

GOLDENBERG, MATÍAS G.; BURIAN, ALFRED; SEPPELT, RALF; SANTIBAÑEZ, FERNANDA; BAGNATO, CAMILO; SATORRE, EMILIO; MARTINI, GUSTAVO D.; GARIBALDI, LUCAS A.

AGRICULTURE, ECOSYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2022

0167-8809

A fundamental challenge of land use management is to sustain the production of food,38 energy and fiber whilst preserving biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Some39 promising solutions to current resource-use conflicts are rooted in (agro) ecological40 intensification, which proposes that ecosystem functions provided by natural habitat can41 largely replace agrochemical inputs. Here, we evaluate how natural habitat is distributed42 in relation to agricultural input and the environmental potential for crop production, and43 whether natural habitat can explain the variations in yield not explained by management44 and environmental factors. In our analysis, we relied on environmental and management45 variables from 2,858 soybean and 1,548 individual maize fields provided by a farming46 organization in Argentina, and assessed landscape metrics of natural habitat47 composition (percentage of natural habitat) and configuration (edge density) for each48 one. We found that fields with higher fertilizer and seed input had lower percentages of49 natural habitat. Spatial variation in yield was well explained by environmental and50 management variables for both soybean and maize fields, and landscape metrics showed51 no relationship to the residuals of the models. However, fields recently transformed52 from natural habitat had higher yields than those with a long history of agricultural use.53 We conclude that compensatory management may mask the beneficial effects of natural54 habitat to some extent, especially in fields with intensive agrochemical use.