About this Research Topic
Natural features such as hedgerows, water bodies and water courses, wooded blocks, and wetlands, provide ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. The management of these landscape features and the application of beneficial management practices (BMPs) in agroecosystems will variably impact agricultural productivity, ecosystem services, and animal and human health. As a result, a one-health approach should be applied in the assessment of benefits, side-effects, and trade-offs of natural features and BMPs in agroecosystems. This approach will provide decision makers with ways to optimally manage natural features and BMPs so to make the entire agroecosystem more resilient to a broad array of anthropogenic, environmental, and climate stressors.
Unfortunately, research and management of natural features and BMPs in agroecosystems are usually not one-health framework oriented, which can lead to some difficulties in predicting positive and negative impacts on agricultural productivity, and human, animal, and environmental health together. As consequence, land management research and landscape stewards too often miss important benefits and antagonistic effects of BMPs and natural capital in agroecosystems. Therefore, it is important to view these issues of concern through a one-health lens.
To thoroughly comprehend the one-health approach the following points are pivotal:
1. The critical assessment of natural feature management in agricultural landscapes and other agricultural BMPs, within the one-health framework, i.e., the integration of human, animal, and environmental health.
2. Research around process-based tools and models even from ‘non-traditional’ disciplines to predict either directly, or indirectly, ecosystem services and one-health impacts; as these approaches, in fact, provide robust, integrated, and bio-physically relevant outputs.
3. The use of one-health observatories set at scales to represent thoroughly the bio-physical-anthropogenic interactions that can occur in the agroecosystem of interest. This is aimed at achieving a better understanding of the interplay among natural capital, agricultural productivity, environmental health, and human and animal well-being.
This Research Topic welcomes submissions on the following topics but are not limited to:
• Benefits, trade-offs, and side-effects of natural features/agricultural BMPs in agro-ecosystems; contextualized, or largely contextualized, with a one-health framework
• Innovative and/or non-traditional process-based modeling tools to predict directly or indirectly ecosystem services (or critical derivatives of them) within an agroecosystem context to assess one health endpoint.
• Studies that use ecosystem-scale observatories to examine beneficial management practices, natural capital, and sustainable agricultural production systems, within the one-health framework.
Unfortunately, research and management of natural features and BMPs in agroecosystems are usually not one-health framework oriented, which can lead to some difficulties in predicting positive and negative impacts on agricultural productivity, and human, animal, and environmental health together. As consequence, land management research and landscape stewards too often miss important benefits and antagonistic effects of BMPs and natural capital in agroecosystems. Therefore, it is important to view these issues of concern through a one-health lens.
To thoroughly comprehend the one-health approach the following points are pivotal:
1. The critical assessment of natural feature management in agricultural landscapes and other agricultural BMPs, within the one-health framework, i.e., the integration of human, animal, and environmental health.
2. Research around process-based tools and models even from ‘non-traditional’ disciplines to predict either directly, or indirectly, ecosystem services and one-health impacts; as these approaches, in fact, provide robust, integrated, and bio-physically relevant outputs.
3. The use of one-health observatories set at scales to represent thoroughly the bio-physical-anthropogenic interactions that can occur in the agroecosystem of interest. This is aimed at achieving a better understanding of the interplay among natural capital, agricultural productivity, environmental health, and human and animal well-being.
This Research Topic welcomes submissions on the following topics but are not limited to:
• Benefits, trade-offs, and side-effects of natural features/agricultural BMPs in agro-ecosystems; contextualized, or largely contextualized, with a one-health framework
• Innovative and/or non-traditional process-based modeling tools to predict directly or indirectly ecosystem services (or critical derivatives of them) within an agroecosystem context to assess one health endpoint.
• Studies that use ecosystem-scale observatories to examine beneficial management practices, natural capital, and sustainable agricultural production systems, within the one-health framework.
Keywords: One health, agro-ecosystems, ecosystem services, natural capital, modeling
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
