Performing Department
KBS MABR
Non Technical Summary
Habitat loss and fragmentation are the largest causes of biodiversity loss and resulting declines in ecosystem services, including in agroecosystems. Global conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services will require regenerative agricultural solutions in cropland that also maintain yields. This challenge is identified as a Program Priority Area for Sustainable Agroecosystems, and it demands new data-supported approaches that deliver the highest biodiversity and ecosystem services gain while having the lowest loss in agricultural production. One such approach is to plant areas within farms that are consistently low yielding; these areas constitute 23 million acres of cropland in the US Midwest, to native perennial vegetation. Academic labs, a state agency, and sharecroppers will collaborate to plant areas that are now croplands to native perennial plants and to assess the consequences of that conservation.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
75%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Habitat loss and fragmentation are the largest causes of biodiversity loss and resulting declines in ecosystem services, including in agroecosystems. Global conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services will require regenerative agricultural solutions in cropland that also maintain yields. This challenge is identified as a Program Priority Area for Sustainable Agroecosystems, and it demands new data-supported approaches that deliver the highest biodiversity and ecosystem services gain while having the lowest loss in agricultural production. One such approach is to plant areas within farms that are consistently low yielding; these areas constitute 23 million acres of cropland in the US Midwest, to native perennial vegetation.Academic labs, a state agency, and sharecroppers will collaborate to plant areas that are now croplands to native perennial plants and to assess the consequences of that conservation. To accomplish these objectives, the group will identify areas within corn-soy fields that are consistently under-yielding. Experimental treatments will include so-called "prairie strips" running through the middle of croplands that will be compared to strips at the field border; strips that will be compared in areas with different underlying soil qualities (consistently low yielding vs. not); and strips compared to non-linear shapes that are consistently low yielding. These treatments will be coproduced with stakeholders in a series of roundtable discussions. Treatments will allow tests of basic tenants of landscape ecology: how habitat configuration, underlying soil, and proximity to other habitats impacts biodiversity (including pollinating insects, microbes, and nematodes) and ecosystem services (including soil health and pollination.
Project Methods
Site and zone identification: Experimental planting of native perennials will happen at the Fennville Farm Unit of the Allegan State Game Area, a 4,100-acre region of farms in Southwest Michigan. It is managed as a migratory stopover site for waterfowl and for grassland nesting birds. The cover type comprises row-crop agriculture, fallow hay fields, some forest, and naturalized native prairie grass and forbs. It is a managed waterfowl hunting area providing dry-field and some wetland hunting opportunities. The arrangement of row crops and other cover types is highly fragmented intentionally, for purposes of attracting migratory waterfowl. There are 300 field units (row-crop, fallow, and prairie) ranging in size from 1-43 acres. Importantly for this study, all existing natural areas are in surrounding landscapes, not in small areas within individual fieldTargeting areas for perennial plantings: Areas to be planted to native grassland plant species will be determined in consultation with DNR and their sharecropper farmers (including in roundtables described above), and informed by maps of consistently under-yielding/high conservation potential areas that we generate. Important, practical criteria for landowners include that the areas: 1) are consistent with conservation objectives identified by farmers and DNR; and 2) can maintain cropping efficiencies after they are taken out of row crops and planted to perennial grasslands (i.e., are in shapes that align with movement of equipment and do not increase area of headlands). With this in mind, we will identify target areas that lead to lowest yield loss, highest potential for biodiversity and ecosystem service gain, and greatest advances in science to inform future perennialization within farm fields by our team or others in the US Midwest, as we discuss next.Regional map of areas that are consistently under-yielding: We will select conservation areas for the implementation phase from a map of consistently under-yielding areas within farm fields. Areas with consistently low yield in the original map were identified by field sampling, remote sensing, and modeling approaches. Yield was sampled in 1,701 fields in 13 states; 629 fields produced 6 or more years of data that allowed assessment of yield variability. Physical environments were sampled using 55,500 airborne images in 4 states and 322 fields for up to 8 years per field with image res 0.5 m (RGB, VIs) and 2 m (thermal). Across the entire region, satellite images were at 30, 10, and 3 m resolution. Ecosystem models were used to determine yield variability; areas can be "stable" within consistently low or high yield, or they can be unstable with high or low yields in a given year.Field selection: At the Fennville Farm Unit, we will create conservation plots in 10 fields for each of the three treatment types (total of 30 fields). These fields in corn/soy rotation will be a minimum of 10 acres in area and in a shape that is able to accommodate the restoration areas in a way that is efficient for farming operations. To allow us to test for landscape effects on diversity and ecosystem services within plots, each plot will be located in a different field, and each treatment plot will be a minimum of 800m from any other plot.Experimental design: We will implement our perennial plantings in an experiment that includes three plot types (see Figure 5). One plot type will be a 20m wide x 500m long strip (= 2.5 acres) running through the farm field at least 100m from the edge of the field. Because areas away from the edge of a farm field that are consistently low yielding are typically not linear or contiguous, areas crossed by this type of strip can be consistently low yielding or unstable (varying from high to low yield among years). A second plot type will be a strip of the same dimension but running along the field edge in areas that are consistently low yielding. These two types of strips will permit tests of effects of strip location within fields and physical properties of soils (that affect crop yield) on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The third plot type will be of equal area to strips, but will have no constraint on configuration; it will occupy areas that are known to have consistently low yields and will be located at least 100m from the field edge. This area can be compared to the strip at the edge of the field to test whether habitat configuration affects biodiversity and ecosystem services after controlling for physical environmental factors that affect yield.