Scientific papers

Conceptual paper: Altering Ecosystem Services While Considering Soil Health and Farm Income: Conceptual Framework in Crop Farming Systems

How can farmers take care of nature while keeping their soils healthy and making a living?

This is a question at the heart of sustainable agriculture — and the focus of our new research. Farms don’t just produce food. They also provide 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬: things like pollination, clean water, carbon storage, and biodiversity. These services are vital for society, but improving them often means farmers must change how they manage their land.

To make sense of this complexity, we developed a 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 that puts ecosystem services at the centre of 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬’ 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 — linking them with 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐬𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 in one picture.