Multiple Sustainable Practices Are Crucial for Enhancing the Provisioning of Agroecosystem Services Worldwide
Feeding the largest share of the global population, cereal production must enhance sustainability while ensuring food security under global change. Unfortunately, the number of sustainable practices needed to support production, ecosystem services and land conservation remains virtually unknown. We compiled a database of 1570 observations from 349 sites in 57 countries to assess how the number of sustainable practices influences multiple ecosystem services. Our findings reveal that a high number of sustainable practices is crucial for enhancing agroecosystem services such as soil carbon storage, fertility and microbial habitat while supporting yield. Sustainable practices such as crop rotation, limited tillage and incorporation of crop residues were especially important. North America, Eastern Europe and China were particularly dependent on the use of multiple sustainable practices to maintain ecosystem services. Findings underscore the need for integrative strategies employing multiple sustainable practices for mitigating global change, ensuring food security and sustaining ecosystems.
Authors
- María del Mar Alguacil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8495-8707)
- Yue Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7693-3910)
- Raúl Ochoa‐Hueso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1839-6926)
- Daniel Sacristán (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6174-7624)
- Margarita Ros (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0375-7004)
- Kaiyan Zhai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8671-7912)
- Matthias C. Rillig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3541-7853)
- José Antonio Pascual (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7485-1092)
- Dongxue Tao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1360-9056)
- Antonio Rafael Sánchez‐Rodríguez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8734-2035)
- Tadeo Sáez‐Sandino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9539-4716)
- Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6499-576X)
- Guiyao Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1385-3913)
- Tao Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2475-3480)
- Luna Medrano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9014-9092)
- Gema del Río
- Javier Alejandre
- Daniel Revillini
Institutions
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Universitat de València (ES)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Universidad de Cádiz (ES)
- Ministerio de Ganadería Agricultura y Pesca (UY)
- Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura (ES)
- Berlin Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (DE)
- Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (ES)
- Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (CN)
- Northeast Forestry University (CN)
- University of Córdoba (ES)
- Western Sydney University (AU)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Ecology Letters
- Published
- 2025-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70276
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 12.86
Funders
- European Commission
- Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico