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Forskningsartikel2019Vetenskapligt granskadÖppen tillgång

Towards valuation of biodiversity in agricultural soils: A case for earthworms

Plaas, Elke; Meyer-Wolfarth, Friederike; Banse, Martin; Bengtsson, Jan; Bergmann, Holger; Faber, Jack; Potthoff, Martin; Runge, Tania; Schrader, Stefan; Taylor, Astrid

Sammanfattning

Soil biodiversity is deteriorating in Europe due to an on-going intensification of agriculture, climate change and food production supporting measures of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Nevertheless, the CAP tries to take biodiversity into account via proposing a range of agri-environmental measures. These ES contribute to food security, climate change mitigation, water retention and plant biomass growth. Healthy soils also help to prevent erosion, desertification, and landslides and to stabilise crop yields. The provision of ES by soil biota is a result of their impact on soil processes in interaction with soil conditions as well as soil management practices of the farmers such as tillage or crop rotations. Some taxa amongst soil biota play key roles in regulating soil processes. With respect to biocontrol of soil-borne pests, the earthworm species Lumbricus terrestris is known to play an important role in suppressing toxigenic plant pathogens, such as Fusarium culmorum and its mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON). We highlight the importance of earthworms for pest control to conceptualise and show how farmers' management practices influence soil ecosystem services and outline how this can be examined in a socio-ecological context by providing a concrete example of an economical evaluation of ES provided by earthworms.

Nyckelord

Ecosystem services; Soil biodiversity; Economic value; Soil management practices; Sustainability; Ecosystem engineers

Publicerad i

Ecological Economics
2019, Volym: 159, sidor: 291-300
Utgivare: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

      SLU författare

    • Associerade SLU-program

      SLU Nätverk växtskydd

      Globala målen

      SDG15 Skydda, återställa och främja ett hållbart nyttjande av landbaserade ekosystem, hållbart bruka skogar, bekämpa ökenspridning, hejda och vrida tillbaka markförstöringen samt hejda förlusten av biologisk mångfald
      SDG13 Vidta omedelbara åtgärder för att bekämpa klimatförändringarna och dess konsekvenser
      SDG2 Avskaffa hunger, uppnå tryggad livsmedelsförsörjning och förbättrad nutrition samt främja ett hållbart jordbruk

      UKÄ forskningsämne

      Ekologi
      Nationalekonomi
      Markvetenskap

      Publikationens identifierare

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.02.003

      Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/99507