The influence of landscape composition and configuration on crop yield
resilience
Abstract
A key goal of sustainable agriculture is to produce sufficient food
whilst minimising environmental damage. To achieve this we need to
understand the role of agricultural landscapes in providing diverse
ecosystem services and how these affect crop production and resilience,
i.e. maintaining crop yields despite environmental perturbation. We used
ten years of English wheat yield data to derive three metrics of
resilience (relative function, yield stability and resistance to an
extreme event). We explored their relationships with aspects of
landscape composition and configuration (10km × 10km scale) known to
affect ecosystem service components (e.g. beneficial invertebrates) and
delivery (e.g. pest control). We found that resilience was uniformly
enhanced in landscapes with higher coverage of semi-natural habitats.
However, this was most pronounced for resilience metrics derived over
shorter timescales (e.g. resistance) and metrics showed contrasting
responses to landscape configuration, suggesting trade-offs if managing
landscapes for resilience over shorter vs. longer timescales.