Abstract
Ecosystem Services within an Agro-
Ecosystem
Agricultural ecosystems produce food, fiber, and nonmarketed
ecosystem services (ES). Agriculture also
typically involves high negative external costs associated
with, for example, fossil fuel use. We estimated, via fieldscale
ecological monitoring and economic value-transfer
methods, the market and nonmarket ES value of a
combined food and energy (CFE) agro-ecosystem that
simultaneously produces food, fodder, and bioenergy.
Such novel CFE agro-ecosystems can provide a significantly
increased net crop, energy, and nonmarketed ES
compared with conventional agriculture, and require
markedly less fossil-based inputs. Extrapolated to the
European scale, the value of nonmarket ES from the CFE
system exceeds current European farm subsidy payments.
Such integrated food and bioenergy systems can
thus provide environmental value for money for European
Union farming and nonfarming communities.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Ambio |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Pages (from-to) | 186-193 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISSN | 0044-7447 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |