Assessing ecosystem services and biodiversity tradeoffs across agricultural landscapes in a mountain region

摘要

The ability of agricultural areas to produce non-commodity outputs in addition to food andfiber, i.e. multifunctionality, is increasingly at the core of policies promoting sustainability.Assessing the potential benefits for biodiversity and understanding tradeoffs among multipleecosystem services (ES) from agricultural areas remain key challenges, especially in mountainous landscapes. Through a case-study approach, we assess the tradeoffs and synergiesbetween the ES associated with agricultural areas. We map and assess the ES provided byseven study areas in northern Italy, aiming to provide guidance on the relationship betweenthe agricultural land use intensity and provision of ES. In total, we performed a quantitativeevaluation of 10 ES indicators, followed by their thematic aggregation and correlationanalyses to gain a better understanding of the spatial ES tradeoffs. Our findings highlightthat the transition to intensive forms of agricultural exploitation, in addition to the loss ofhabitats, also involves a reduction in cultural services.