Biodiversity in Agriculture: Enhancing Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Farming

Ensuring agricultural production is pivotal for achieving food security in the frame of the growing human population. However, the continued conversion of natural areas to farmland has led to habitat degradation for many species. While biodiversity holds intrinsic value, it also provides critical ecosystem services. Maintaining natural areas with high biodiversity around agricultural fields is essential for several reasons. These areas support crop pollination by insects, birds, and other animals, increasing crop yields and the quality of fruits, vegetables, and seeds. Additionally, biodiversity helps control crop diseases through natural predators and competitors, reducing the need for chemical pesticides, lowering costs, and minimizing environmental impact.

Moreover, plant genetic and species diversity within agroecosystems can effectively counteract various stressors, ensuring sustained productivity. Soil also benefits from plant diversity in time and space, as diverse root networks and increased organic carbon input to the soil support a wide variety of microorganisms that enhance organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. Increased soil organic carbon and microorganisms diversity and activity improves soil structure, water infiltration and regulation, and soil suppressiveness, boosting soil fertility, structure, and productivity and leading to healthier crops.

Although these ecosystem services are well-recognized by ecologists and utilized in agroecological practices, there remain gaps in our understanding of the quantitative effects of biodiversity—both crop and associated communities—on agricultural yields at local and broader scales. Creating sustainable practices and solutions across diverse ecological landscapes is crucial to ensure food production, farmer income, and environmental conservation while maintaining connected ecosystem services.

This Research Topic aims to explore the multifaceted role of biodiversity in agriculture, including its impact on ecosystem services, crop productivity, pest and disease management, soil health, and climate resilience. Farmers and researchers can develop sustainable farming practices that balance productivity with ecological health by integrating diverse biological resources within agricultural landscapes. Submissions should focus on innovative practices, empirical studies, and meta-analyses that provide insights into how biodiversity can be harnessed to promote sustainable agriculture, aiming to highlight interdisciplinary approaches that bridge the gap between agricultural productivity and ecological conservation.

This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, data reports, methodology, and case studies that address the following or related themes:

o Quantifying the ecosystem services biodiversity provides, such as pollination, pest control, water regulation, and carbon sequestration.

o Economic valuation of ecosystem services and their integration into agricultural planning and policy.

o Genetic diversity in crops and livestock as a means to enhance resilience against pests, diseases, and climate variability.

o Practices that promote soil biodiversity, such as cover cropping, reduced tillage, and organic amendments.

o Case studies on the use of biodiversity for biological control and integrated pest management (IPM).

o Strategies to conserve and enhance pollinator habitats within agricultural landscapes.

o The role of biodiversity in enhancing agricultural resilience to climate change.

o Adaptive management practices that leverage biodiversity to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events and changing climatic conditions.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Agrobiodiversity, Ecosystem Services, Sustainable Farming, Soil Health, Pest Management, Pollinators, Climate Resilience, Crop Diversity, Biological Control

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.