Functional traits in agriculture: agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services

Stephen A Wood; Daniel S Karp; Fabrice DeClerck; Claire Kremen; Shahid Naeem; Cheryl A Palm

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.013

Functional traits in agriculture: agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services

Trends Ecol Evol. 2015 Sep;30(9):531-9. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.013. Epub 2015 Jul 17.

Authors

Stephen A Wood¹, Daniel S Karp², Fabrice DeClerck³, Claire Kremen⁴, Shahid Naeem⁵, Cheryl A Palm⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Agriculture and Food Security Center, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. Electronic address: saw2177@columbia.edu.
² Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; The Nature Conservancy, Berkeley, CA 94705, USA.
³ Agriculture and Food Security Center, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA; Agrobiodiversity and Ecosystem Services Programme, Biodiversity International, Montpellier 34000, France.
⁴ Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁵ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
⁶ Agriculture and Food Security Center, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.

PMID: 26190137
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.013

Abstract

Functional trait research has led to greater understanding of the impacts of biodiversity in ecosystems. Yet, functional trait approaches have not been widely applied to agroecosystems and understanding of the importance of agrobiodiversity remains limited to a few ecosystem processes and services. To improve this understanding, we argue here for a functional trait approach to agroecology that adopts recent advances in trait research for multitrophic and spatially heterogeneous ecosystems. We suggest that trait values should be measured across environmental conditions and agricultural management regimes to predict how ecosystem services vary with farm practices and environment. This knowledge should be used to develop management strategies that can be easily implemented by farmers to manage agriculture to provide multiple ecosystem services.

Keywords: agriculture; agrobiodiversity; biodiversity-ecosystem functioning; ecosystem services; functional diversity; functional trait.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Agriculture / methods*
Biodiversity*
Ecosystem*
Models, Theoretical