The role of biodiversity on pest control ecosystem services in UK apple orchards

In this thesis I assess the ability of biodiversity to provide a functioning pest control ecosystem service to control moth pest species in UK apple orchards. I assess the ability of four types of farm management: organic, Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF), integrated pest management (IPM) and conventional, to measure the ability of pest predation from birds, and the impact that predation has on apple yields. I firstly describe the history and the landscape of the study area, an overview of the methods used and the farming systems that the field study and experiments took place on in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 I assess farmland biodiversity by monitoring birds and butterflies as indicator species of biodiversity, to understand if farm management impacts biodiversity levels. Biodiversity was highest on organic orchards, which supports the plethora of studies in the literature. Using this information of biodiversity levels on orchard management types, in Chapter 4 I investigate whether this biodiversity supports a pest control service, and to a natural pest control service compares to a synthetic alternate used on non-organic orchards, through using a sentinel prey experiment in field. Pest control services were greater on organic farms, and followed the same patterns as insectivorous bird abundance, species richness, diversity, and density. This chapter also compares moth pest levels to understand the pest pressures across farms, which harbour different pest control strategies and showed that moth pest levels were broadly similar across all farm management types. Finally, in Chapter 5 I compare the farm management options available to famers, both the natural pest control system and the synthetic control system, using economic valuation methods. Although a natural pest control service from birds is present on organic orchards (Chapter 4), the yield per hectare increased significantly on non-organic orchards (expect LEAF) but is found to be in-different to yield value per hectare of organic orchards in variable scenarios. Importantly, the synthetic alternative to a pest control service available from wild insectivorous birds was found to be an insignificant farm management variable that impacts apple yield and yield value on non-organic orchards

Climate-driven spatial mismatches between British orchards and their pollinators: increased risks of pollination deficits

Understanding how climate change can affect crop-pollinator systems helps predict potential geographical mismatches between a crop and its pollinators, and therefore identify areas vulnerable to loss of pollination services. We examined the distribution of orchard species (apples, pears, plums and other top fruits) and their pollinators in Great Britain, for present and future climatic conditions projected for 2050 under the SRES A1B Emissions Scenario. We used a relative index of pollinator availability as a proxy for pollination service. At present there is a large spatial overlap between orchards and their pollinators, but predictions for 2050 revealed that the most suitable areas for orchards corresponded to low pollinator availability. However, we found that pollinator availability may persist in areas currently used for fruit production, but which are predicted to provide sub-optimal environmental suitability for orchard species in the future. Our results may be used to identify mitigation options to safeguard orchard production against the risk of pollination failure in Great Britain over the next 50 years; for instance choosing fruit tree varieties that are adapted to future climatic conditions, or boosting wild pollinators through improving landscape resources. Our approach can be readily applied to other regions and crop systems, and expanded to include different climatic scenarios

Regulating services

No abstract available

The valuation of biodiversity conservation by the South African Khomani San "bushmen" community

The restitution of land to the Khomani San "bushmen" and Mier "agricultural" communities in May 2002 marked a significant shift in conservation in the Kgalagadi area in South Africa. The Khomani San and Mier communities were awarded land inside and outside the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Given that the Khomani San interact more with nature, biodiversity conservation will only benefit from the land restitution in this case if the Khomani San are good environmental stewards. Therefore, this paper uses the contingent valuation method to investigate the values assigned to biodiversity conserved under the various forms of land tenure arrangements by the Khomani San in the Kgalagadi area and compares them to similar valuations by the adjacent Mier community. The proposed conservation programme sought to plant as many native trees, shrubs and grasslands as required to reduce biodiversity loss by 10% in terms of the quantities of each of the selected major species of the area. Despite the fact that the conservation programme has both winners and losers when implemented under any of the three land tenure arrangements considered, the findings suggest that the Khomani San, whose attitudes towards modern conservation have not been evaluated until now, and the adjacent Mier community generally attach a significant economic value to biodiversity in their area. The net economic value for conserving biodiversity under the various forms of land tenure arrangements by the Khomani San ranged from R928 to R4 672 relative to the Mier community’s range of R25 600 to R64 000. However, for both communities, in order for all members of the local communities to support biodiversity conservation unconditionally, mechanisms for fair distribution of the associated costs and benefits should be put in place.biodiversity, contingent valuation, Khomani San, Kgalagadi, land restitution

Food systems and diets: Facing the challenges of the 21st century

The world is facing a nutrition crisis: approximately three billion people from every one of the world’s 193 countries have low-quality diets. Over the next 20 years, multiple forms of malnutrition will pose increasingly serious threats to global health. Population growth combined with climate change will place increasing stress on food systems, particularly in Africa and Asia where there will be an additional two billion people by 2050. At the same time, rapidly increasing urbanization, particularly in these two regions, will affect hunger and nutrition in complex ways – both positively and negatively. Unless policy makers apply the brakes on overweight, obesity and diet-related disease and accelerate efforts to reduce undernutrition, everyone will pay a heavy price: death, disease, economic losses and degradation of the environment. A response, equivalent to that marshalled to tackle HIV/AIDS, malaria and smoking is needed to meet these challenges. Around the world, coordinated action needs to be accompanied by fundamental shifts in our understanding and in our policy actions. Much more emphasis must be given to positioning agricultural growth as a way to improve diet quality, rather than merely delivering sufficient calories. Food systems need to be repositioned from just supplying food to providing high-quality diets for all. This will require policy initiatives far beyond agriculture to encompass trade, the environment and health, which harness the power of the private sector and empower consumers to demand better diets. This report is a call to action for world leaders and their governments. Leadership and commitment will be essential in driving forward the decisions set out in this report and in delivering the necessary priority actions to reshape the global food system

Hydrolink 2022/2. Global Water Security

Topic: Global Water Securit