Land sparing, or agricultural intensification, is a common strategy in agriculture to protect ecosystems and maintain food security by keeping land out of production. However, intensive agriculture is associated with many negative environmental impacts, including widespread biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, eutrophication and freshwater depletion.
Agricultural intensification
Land sparing, or agricultural intensification, is a common strategy in agriculture to protect ecosystems and maintain food security by keeping land out of production. However, intensive agriculture is associated with many negative environmental impacts, including widespread biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, eutrophication and freshwater depletion.
Nº 46
1) Europe
2) United Kingdon, Southern England and Wales
- Land, Food & Agriculture
- Restoration & Preservation of Ecosystems & Land
- Intensification of Agriculture
Agricultural intensification
1) The intensification of agricultural production in Europe has been shown to have a negative impact on the biodiversity of agro-ecosystems and to lead to a biotic homogenisation of the landscape. Eutrophication is a major process associated with the reduction of habitat diversity and species loss.
2) A study carried out in southern England and Wales quantified and compared bat activity in selected habitats on farms belonging to one of two categories: organic farms or conventional farms. As organic farms do not use agrochemicals, this comparison between the two types of farm serves as a way of capturing the impact of agricultural intensification on bat populations. The results of the study show that bat activity is significantly higher on organic farms, as is bat foraging activity. The study also concludes that bats serve as bioindicators and that more bat activity in the habitat surrounding organic farms may indicate better overall habitat quality and prey availability.
- Cascading (far-reaching effects following each other)
1) Storkey, J., Meyer, S., Still, K. S., & Leuschner, C. (2012). The impact of agricultural intensification and land-use change on the European arable flora. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 279(1732), 1421–1429. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1686
2) Wickramasinghe, L.P., Harris, S., Jones, G. and Vaughan, N. (2003), Bat activity and species richness on organic and conventional farms: impact of agricultural intensification. Journal of Applied Ecology, 40, 984-993. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2003.00856.x
Watson, S. C., Newton, A. C., Ridding, L. E., Evans, P. M., Brand, S., McCracken, M., … & Bullock, J. M. (2021). Does agricultural intensification cause tipping points in ecosystem services?. Landscape Ecology, 36(12), 3473-3491. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01321-8
Rasmussen, L. V., Coolsaet, B., Martin, A., Mertz, O., Pascual, U., Corbera, E., … & Ryan, C. M. (2018). Social-ecological outcomes of agricultural intensification. Nature Sustainability, 1(6), 275-282. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0070-8
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