Gary Bentrup

Branching out: Agroforestry as a climate change mitigation and adaptation tool for agriculture

MEETING MULTIPLE DEMANDS UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE US and Canadian agricultural lands are being pressed to provide more environmental and economic services, while at the same time their capacity to provide these services under potential climate change (CC) is being questioned (Field et al. 2007; CAST 2011). Producers are already experiencing weather patterns outside of climate norms (e.g., the 2011 droughts in Texas, and flooding along the Missouri River in the United States and along the Red River in Canada) that have had significant impacts on production. Predictions of future climate conditions for the US Midwest include longer growing seasons that could potentially increase crop yields but also increase heat waves, floods, droughts, and insect and weed issues that may then adversely impact production (USGCRP 2009). Climate change drives many stressors and interacts with many nonclimatic stressors. This makes it difficult to forecast outcomes in any general way other than many existing threats to agricultural production, such as erosion and pests, which will most likely be exacerbated under shifting climate (Field et al. 2007; USGCRP 2009). Creating profitable and healthy operations under this unpredictable interplay of factors driven by shifting climate (and, along with it, shifting markets) will…

Science for action at the local landscape scale

For landscape ecology to produce knowledge relevant to society, it must include considerations of human culture and behavior, extending beyond the natural sciences to synthesize with many other disciplines. Furthermore, it needs to be able to support landscape change processes which increasingly take the shape of deliberative and collaborative decision making by local stakeholder groups. Landscape ecology as described by Wu (Landscape Ecol 28:1–11, 2013) therefore needs three additional topics of investigation: (1) the local landscape as a boundary object that builds communication among disciplines and between science and local communities, (2) iterative and collaborative methods for generating transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable change, and (3) the effect of scientific knowledge and tools on local landscape policy and landscape change. Collectively, these topics could empower landscape ecology to be a science for action at the local scale.

Enhancing ecosystem services: Designing for multifunctionality

It is increasingly recognized that ecosystem services provide a foundation for the well-being of individuals and society (MEA 2005). Land managers typically strive to enhance particularly desirable services. For example, farmers plant crops and manage the soil and hydrologic conditions to favor crop production. In agricultural regions such as the US Corn Belt, exceptionally high agricultural production has been achieved, but at the expense of other ecosystem services, including abundant wildlife and clean water. In the past, land managers were unaware of these tradeoffs or simply considered them less important in favor of a collective mindset to maximize agricultural production. More recently, however, there has been rising demand for a broader range of ecosystem services coupled with documented degradation of landscape capabilities to provide them. Concern over these circumstances has grown among policymakers, scientists, and conservationists (MEA 2005), and there is now a general recognition that we must be more deliberate in managing our agricultural landscapes for multiple ecosystem services (Brandt and Vejre 2004; Foley et al. 2005; Palmer et al. 2004; Secchi et al. 2008). How should conservation planners go about this task? What methods are available to guide them toward this goal? In this paper, we present a…

Connecting Landscape Fragments Through Riparian Zones

Restoring forest ecosystem goods and services to agricultural landscapes can be a daunting challenge that stems from the unfeasibility of converting large tracts of food-producing land back into forest and of converting farmers and farming communities into forest managers. Natural science principles suggest that a resolution may be possible through restoration of forest in riparian zones. Riparian zones occupy a small portion of landscapes, but can yield high levels of multiple ecosystem goods and services. Success, however, will require application of social science principles that govern whether farmers, landholders, and communities accept and implement riparian forest restoration. Conducting a multi-scale planning process is important for integrating both natural and social science principles in a way that produces effective restoration plans and encourages their implementation.

Native and agricultural forests at risk to a changing climate in the Northern Plains

Native and agricultural forests in the Northern Plains provide ecosystem services that benefit human society—diversified agricultural systems, forest-based products, and rural vitality. The impacts of recent trends in temperature and disturbances are impairing the delivery of these services. Climate change projections identify future stressors of greater impact, placing at risk crops, soils, livestock, biodiversity, and agricultural and forest-based livelihoods. While these native and agricultural forests are also a viable option for providing mitigation and adaptation services to the Northern Plains, they themselves must be managed in terms of climate change risks. Because agricultural forests are planted systems, the primary approaches for reducing risks are through design, plant selection and management. For native forests, management, natural disturbances, and collaboration of multiple ownerships will be needed to address key risks.

Agroforestry: Enhancing resiliency in U.S. agricultural landscapes under changing conditions

Agroforestry, the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal production systems, is being deployed to enhance productivity, profitability, and environmental stewardship of agricultural operations and lands across the United States. This assessment provides a science-based synthesis on the use of agroforestry for mitigation and adaptation services in the face of climatic variability and change. It provides technical input to land-use sector issues in the National Climate Assessment (NCA) and serves as a framework for including agroforestry systems in agricultural strategies to improve productivity and food security and to build resilience in these landscapes. It also provides follow-up to the technical input report by Walthall et al. (2012) that established the need for innovative strategies to address significant climatic variability challenges faced by U.S. agriculture.