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Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems

Management and design affect systems’ ability to deliver ecosystem services and meet sustainable intensification needs for a growing population. Soil–plant–animal health evaluations at the systems level for conventional and silvopastoral environments are lacking and challenge adoption across tempera...

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Autores principales: Amorim, Helen C. S., Ashworth, Amanda J., O’Brien, Peter L., Thomas, Andrew L., Runkle, Benjamin R. K., Philipp, Dirk
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10618464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37907572
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45960-0
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author Amorim, Helen C. S.
Ashworth, Amanda J.
O’Brien, Peter L.
Thomas, Andrew L.
Runkle, Benjamin R. K.
Philipp, Dirk
author_facet Amorim, Helen C. S.
Ashworth, Amanda J.
O’Brien, Peter L.
Thomas, Andrew L.
Runkle, Benjamin R. K.
Philipp, Dirk
author_sort Amorim, Helen C. S.
collection PubMed
description Management and design affect systems’ ability to deliver ecosystem services and meet sustainable intensification needs for a growing population. Soil–plant–animal health evaluations at the systems level for conventional and silvopastoral environments are lacking and challenge adoption across temperate regions. Impacts of silvopasture on soil quality, microclimate, cattle heat stress, forage quality and yield, and cattle weight gain were compared to a conventional pasture in the mid-southern US. Here, we illustrate silvopastures have greater soil organic carbon, water content, and overall quality, with lower temperatures (soil and cattle) than conventional pastures. Forage production and cattle weight gains were similar across systems; yet, conventional pasture systems would need approximately four times more land area to yield equivalent net productivity (tree, nuts, forage, and animal weight) of one ha of silvopasture. Temperate silvopastures enhanced delivery of ecosystem services by improving soil quality and promoting animal welfare without productivity losses, thus allowing sustainable production under a changing climate.
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spelling pubmed-106184642023-11-02 Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems Amorim, Helen C. S. Ashworth, Amanda J. O’Brien, Peter L. Thomas, Andrew L. Runkle, Benjamin R. K. Philipp, Dirk Sci Rep Article Management and design affect systems’ ability to deliver ecosystem services and meet sustainable intensification needs for a growing population. Soil–plant–animal health evaluations at the systems level for conventional and silvopastoral environments are lacking and challenge adoption across temperate regions. Impacts of silvopasture on soil quality, microclimate, cattle heat stress, forage quality and yield, and cattle weight gain were compared to a conventional pasture in the mid-southern US. Here, we illustrate silvopastures have greater soil organic carbon, water content, and overall quality, with lower temperatures (soil and cattle) than conventional pastures. Forage production and cattle weight gains were similar across systems; yet, conventional pasture systems would need approximately four times more land area to yield equivalent net productivity (tree, nuts, forage, and animal weight) of one ha of silvopasture. Temperate silvopastures enhanced delivery of ecosystem services by improving soil quality and promoting animal welfare without productivity losses, thus allowing sustainable production under a changing climate. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10618464/ /pubmed/37907572 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45960-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Amorim, Helen C. S.
Ashworth, Amanda J.
O’Brien, Peter L.
Thomas, Andrew L.
Runkle, Benjamin R. K.
Philipp, Dirk
Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems
title Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems
title_full Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems
title_fullStr Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems
title_full_unstemmed Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems
title_short Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems
title_sort temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10618464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37907572
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45960-0
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