Integrating biodiversity into the Water Energy Food Land Climate Nexus for holistic sustainability assessment of agriculture

Rising food demand intensifies pressure on resources and ecosystems, necessitating holistic sustainability assessments. While the Nexus frameworks evaluate resource interlinkages and identify hotspots, existing tools prioritize water, energy, land, and climate efficiencies, often overlooking biodiversity, a key determinant of ecosystem stability. This study addresses this gap by introducing three biodiversity indicators (biodiversity loss, mass productivity per biodiversity loss, and economic productivity per biodiversity loss) to establish a Water–Energy–Food–Land–Climate–Biodiversity (WEFLCB) Nexus framework. Applied to wheat production in Punjab, Pakistan, which is facing resource-ecosystems trade-offs, the framework employs geospatial analysis to assess sustainability across agro-climatic zones. Integrating biodiversity metrics amplified spatial variability. The northern region experienced a 6–16% decline in WEFLCB scores compared to the Water–Energy–Food–Land–Climate (WEFLC) nexus index, primarily due to biodiversity loss from intensive land use and management. In contrast, the central and southern zones showed improved WEFLCB scores as a result of incorporating biodiversity metrics. The southern and western arid regions exhibited excessive water use (> 5300 m³/ha), and the central plains emerged as greenhouse gas hotspots (~ 1460 kg CO₂-eq/ha) linked to energy-intensive practices. Productivity-adjusted metrics shifted sustainability hotspots to the north, highlighting yield limitations from multifactorial stresses. The Nexus score showed the highest sensitivity to energy use, while biodiversity per economic productivity and energy economic productivity were the least sensitive indicators. This study presents a biodiversity-inclusive Nexus framework as a scalable model for sustainable agriculture, balancing productivity with conservation to address food security and environmental resilience.