SECBIVIT Scenarios for providing multiple ecosystem services

In agroecosystems, multiple ecosystem services such as crop production, soil fertility conservation and pest regulation, need to be balanced to achieve both sustainable development goals and biodiversity targets. The main global change drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem services in viticultural landscapes are climate change, the invasion of alien (pest) species and land management changes. These drivers influence agricultural policies and land use decisions at the local and regional level which affect multiple dimensions of biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services. We will develop and test model frameworks which integrate different scenarios of land use across spatial scales for future management in viticultural regions from Spain, France, Germany, Austria and Romania. First, we will organise local workshops to develop stakeholder-driven scenarios which will be used as input for the agent-based models. Second, we will utilize existing knowledge from different European countries to build a predictive model for the delivery of ecosystem services in viticulture. Third, the model will be validated using independent field measurements of above- and below-ground biodiversity as well as multiple ecosystem services along gradients of landscape complexity and management options across five European regions. The outcomes of the project will be (i) a spatially-explicit model integrating winegrowers as agents influencing land use decisions, (ii) a model that quantifies ecosystem service provision in viticultural landscapes under different biodiversity scenarios to identify optimal land use management strategies, (iii) the validation of that model with empirical field data on biodiversity, landscape diversity and ecosystem services to estimate and communicate uncertainty and (iv) a software decision-support tool for stakeholders in viticulture that provides information on how to manage their crop in a given landscape context to enhance biodiversity and multiple ecosystem service provision.

In agroecosystems, multiple ecosystem services such as crop production, soil fertility conservation and natural pest control need to be balanced to achieve both sustainable development goals and biodiversity targets. The main global change drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem service loss in viticultural landscapes are climate change, the invasion of alien (pest) species and land management changes. These drivers influence land use decisions at the local and regional level which in turn affect biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services. We aimed to: (i) study the effects of the landscape context, climatic conditions and management intensities on multiple ecosystem services such as pest control, soil fertility, carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation of the case study regions and (ii) develop a locally-adapted model integrating different policy scenarios of land use for future management to evaluate the effects of those scenarios on biodiversity and ecosystem service provision. A unique large-scale long-term Spanish database showed that pest outbreaks of the European grapevine moth were much more likely in simple landscapes dominated by vineyards than in complex landscapes dominated by shrubland. Consequently, insecticide spray frequencies nearly doubled on farms in simple compared to farms in complex landscapes. Increased pesticide applications further reduced predation rates on the grapevine moth pupae across study regions. Natural enemies of vineyard pests like predatory mites were promoted through reduced pesticide use, spontaneous vegetation cover in the inter-rows and higher proportions of vineyards at the landscape scale. Bird and bat abundances were highly correlated with the cover of woody semi-natural habitats nearby vineyards, i.e. only few bird species were found in vineyard-dominated landscapes and bats were mainly foraging nearby hedges. Minimum tillage and cover crops increased collembola and earthworm populations. Contrary, microbial metabolic activity was higher in tilled than in low-tillage soils, thereby reducing the carbon pool by microbial mineralization. The analyses of winegrower decision making suggested that inter-row management and pesticide use and the factors that best explain their behavior vary significantly across study regions. Overall, many winegrowers indicated that following advice from extension agents, preserving biodiversity, and reducing costs were critical factors driving their decisions. The locally-adapted model showed that the local context matters for policies to have an impact, a single policy instrument can have large effects in one case but hardly make a difference in another. An ecological intensification strategy is necessary to solve both environmental issues and reduce costs related to external inputs to decrease negative externalities in viticulture.