A cautious approach to subsidies for environmental sustainability.

Transformational change is possible, but design and implementation must seek to avoid lock-in.

Environmental impacts of genetically modified crops.

Genetically modified (GM) crops have been adopted by some of the world's leading agricultural nations, but the full extent of their environmental impact remains largely unknown. Although concerns regarding the direct environmental effects of GM crops have declined, GM crops have led to indirect changes in agricultural practices, including pesticide use, agricultural expansion, and cropping patterns, with profound environmental implications. Recent studies paint a nuanced picture of these environmental impacts, with mixed effects of GM crop adoption on biodiversity, deforestation, and human health that vary with the GM trait and geographic scale. New GM or gene-edited crops with different traits would likely have different environmental and human health impacts.

Biodiversity-production feedback effects lead to intensification traps in agricultural landscapes.

Intensive agriculture with high reliance on pesticides and fertilizers constitutes a major strategy for 'feeding the world'. However, such conventional intensification is linked to diminishing returns and can result in 'intensification traps'-production declines triggered by the negative feedback of biodiversity loss at high input levels. Here we developed a novel framework that accounts for biodiversity feedback on crop yields to evaluate the risk and magnitude of intensification traps. Simulations grounded in systematic literature reviews showed that intensification traps emerge in most landscape types, but to a lesser extent in major cereal production systems. Furthermore, small reductions in maximal production (5-10%) could be frequently transmitted into substantial biodiversity gains, resulting in small-loss large-gain trade-offs prevailing across landscape types. However, sensitivity analyses revealed a strong context dependence of trap emergence, inducing substantial uncertainty in the identification of optimal management at the field scale. Hence, we recommend the development of case-specific safety margins for intensification preventing double losses in biodiversity and food security associated with intensification traps.

How does framing influence preference for multiple solutions to societal problems?

Solutions to environmental and social problems are often framed in dichotomous ways, which can be counterproductive. Instead, multiple solutions are often needed to fully address these problems. Here we examine how framing influences people's preference for multiple solutions. In a pre-registered experiment, participants (N = 1,432) were randomly assigned to one of four framing conditions. In the first three conditions, participants were presented with a series of eight problems, each framed with multiple causes, multiple impacts, or multiple solutions to the problem. The control condition did not present any framing information. Participants indicated their preferred solution, perceived severity and urgency of the problem, and their dichotomous thinking tendency. Pre-registered analyses showed that none of the three frames had a significant impact on preference for multiple solutions, perceived severity, perceived urgency, or dichotomous thinking. However, exploratory analyses showed that perceived severity and urgency of the problem were positively correlated with people's preference for multiple solutions, while dichotomous thinking was negatively correlated. These findings showed no demonstrable impact of framing on multi-solution preference. Future interventions should focus on addressing perceived severity and urgency, or decreasing dichotomous thinking to encourage people to adopt multiple solutions to address complex environmental and social problems.

Exploring scenarios for the food system-zoonotic risk interface.

The unprecedented economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the global necessity of mitigating the underlying drivers of zoonotic spillover events, which occur at the human-wildlife and domesticated animal interface. Spillover events are associated to varying degrees with high habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss through land use change, high livestock densities, agricultural inputs, and wildlife hunting-all facets of food systems. As such, the structure and characteristics of food systems can be considered key determinants of modern pandemic risks. This means that emerging infectious diseases should be more explicitly addressed in the discourse of food systems to mitigate the likelihood and impacts of spillover events. Here, we adopt a scenario framework to highlight the many connections among food systems, zoonotic diseases, and sustainability. We identify two overarching dimensions: the extent of land use for food production and the agricultural practices employed that shape four archetypal food systems, each with a distinct risk profile with respect to zoonotic spillovers and differing dimensions of sustainability. Prophylactic measures to curb the emergence of zoonotic diseases are therefore closely linked to diets and food policies. Future research directions should explore more closely how they impact the risk of spillover events.

Common pesticides disrupt critical ecological interactions.

Critical ecological interactions can be disrupted by pesticides, leading to serious ecosystem and economic harm. For the most part, however, the extent and magnitude of these impacts are unknown. We argue for increased investigation of ecosystem impacts of common pesticides by scientists and scrutiny by regulators.

Dietary patterns of a versatile large carnivore, the puma (Puma concolor).

Large carnivores play critical roles in terrestrial ecosystems but have suffered dramatic range contractions over the past two centuries. Developing an accurate understanding of large carnivore diets is an important first step towards an improved understanding of their ecological roles and addressing the conservation challenges faced by these species.The puma is one of seven large felid species in the world and the only one native to the non-tropical regions of the New World. We conducted a meta-analysis of puma diets across the species' range in the Americas and assessed the impact of varying environmental conditions, niche roles, and human activity on puma diets. Pumas displayed remarkable dietary flexibility, consuming at least 232 different prey species, including one Critically Endangered and five Endangered species.Our meta-analysis found clear patterns in puma diets with changing habitat and environmental conditions. Pumas consumed more larger-bodied prey species with increasing distance from the equator, but consumption of medium-sized species showed the opposite trend.Puma diets varied with their realized niche; however, contrary to our expectations, puma consumption of large species did not change with their trophic position, and pumas consumed more small prey and birds as apex predators. Consumption of domestic species was negatively correlated with consumption of medium-sized wild species, a finding which underscores the importance of maintaining intact native prey assemblages.The tremendous dietary flexibility displayed by pumas represents both an opportunity and a challenge for understanding the puma's role in ecosystems and for the species' management and conservation. Future studies should explore the linkages between availability and selection of primary and other wild prey, and consequent impacts on predation of domestic species, in order to guide conservation actions and reduce conflict between pumas and people.

Farm size affects the use of agroecological practices on organic farms in the United States.

Organic agriculture outperforms conventional agriculture across several sustainability metrics due, in part, to more widespread use of agroecological practices. However, increased entry of large-scale farms into the organic sector has prompted concerns about 'conventionalization' through input substitution, agroecosystem simplification and other changes. We examined this shift in organic agriculture by estimating the use of agroecological practices across farm size and comparing indicators of conventionalization. Results from our national survey of 542 organic fruit and vegetable farmers show that fewer agroecological practices were used on large farms, which also exhibited the greatest degree of conventionalization. Intercropping, insectary plantings and border plantings were at least 1.4 times more likely to be used on small (0.4-39 cropland ha) compared with large (≥405 cropland ha) farms, whereas reduced tillage was less likely and riparian buffers were more likely on small compared with medium (40-404 cropland ha) farms. Because decisions about management practices can drive environmental sustainability outcomes, policy should support small and medium farms that already use agroecological practices while encouraging increased use of agroecological practices on larger farms.

A Framework on Polarization, Cognitive Inflexibility, and Rigid Cognitive Specialization.

Polarization is pervasive in the current sociopolitical discourse. Polarization tends to increase cognitive inflexibility where people become less capable of updating their beliefs upon new information or switching between different ways of thinking. Cognitive inflexibility can in turn increase polarization. We propose that this positive feedback loop between polarization and cognitive inflexibility is a form of threat response that has benefited humans throughout their evolutionary history. This feedback loop, which can be driven by conflict mindset, group conformity, and simplification of information, facilitates the formation of strong bonds within a group that are able to eliminate threats and increase individual fitness. Although cognitive inflexibility is conventionally seen as maladaptive, here we argue that cognitive inflexibility may be an adaptation under polarization. That is, in a highly polarized society most people only interact with members of their own social group, without having to confront perspectives from another group or interacting with out-group members. In this context, cognitive inflexibility creates rigid cognitive specialization, a set of cognitive traits that allow people to operate efficiently within their social circles but not outside of it. Although rigid cognitive specialization benefits individuals in the short term, it may lead to more polarization over the long run, and thus produce more conflict between groups. We call on future research to examine the link between cognitive inflexibility and rigid cognitive specialization.

Pesticide exposure of wild bees and honey bees foraging from field border flowers in intensively managed agriculture areas.

Bees are critical for food crop pollination, yet their populations are declining as agricultural practices intensify. Pollinator-attractive field border plantings (e.g. hedgerows and forb strips) can increase bee diversity and abundance in agricultural areas; however, recent studies suggest these plants may contain pesticides. Pesticide exposure for wild bees remains largely unknown; however, this information is needed to inform agricultural practices and pesticide regulations meant to protect bees. It is important to determine whether border plantings that attract and support pollinators may also deliver pesticides to them. In this study, we collected various samples for pesticide residue analysis, including: multiple species of wild bees, honey bees, flowers from four types of bee-attractive field border plants, and soil. Silicone bands were also utilized as passive aerial samplers of pesticide residues. The five pesticides detected most frequently across all samples were the insecticide bifenthrin, the herbicides thiobencarb, metolaclor, and propanil, and the fungicide fluopyram. We detected the greatest number of parent pesticides in bands (24), followed by soil (21). Pesticides were also detected in field border plant flowers (16), which do not receive direct pesticide applications, and included many products which were not applied to adjacent field crops. Pesticide concentrations were lower in bees than in flowers but higher in bees than in soils. Pesticide residue per bee (ng/bee) increased with increasing wild bee size, though pesticide concentration (ng/g) did not increase. While honey bees and wild bees contained a similar number and concentration of pesticides overall, pesticide mixtures varied by bee type, and included some mixtures known to cause sublethal effects. The results from this study highlight the benefits of measuring more sample types to capture the total exposome of bees, including a greater range of bee species, as well as the need to consider exposure to pesticides at the landscape level.

Interactive effects of multiscale diversification practices on farmland bird stress.

Farmland diversification practices (i.e., methods used to produce food sustainably by enhancing biodiversity in cropping systems) are sometimes considered beneficial to both agriculture and biodiversity, but most studies of these practices rely on species richness, diversity, or abundance as a proxy for habitat quality. Biodiversity assessments may miss early clues that populations are imperiled when species presence does not imply persistence. Physiological stress indicators may help identify low-quality habitats before population declines occur. We explored how avian stress indicators respond to on-farm management practices and surrounding seminatural area (1-km radius) across 21 California strawberry farms. We examined whether commonly used biodiversity metrics correlate with stress responses in wild birds. We used ∼1000 blood and feather samples and body mass and wing chord measurements, mostly from passerines, to test the effects of diversification practices on four physiological stress indicators: heterophil to lymphocyte ratios (H:L), body condition, hematocrit values, and feather growth rates of individual birds. We then tested the relationship between physiological stress indicators and species richness, abundance, occurrence, and diversity derived from 285 bird point count surveys. After accounting for other biological drivers, landscape context mediated the effect of local farm management on H:L and body condition. Local diversification practices were associated with reduced individual stress in intensive agricultural landscapes but increased it in landscapes surrounded by relatively more seminatural area. Feathers grew more slowly in landscapes dominated by strawberry production, suggesting that nutritional condition was lower here than in landscapes with more crop types and seminatural areas. We found scant evidence that species richness, abundance, occurrence, or diversity metrics were correlated with the individual's physiological stress, suggesting that reliance on these metrics may obscure the impacts of management on species persistence. Our findings underscore the importance of considering landscape context when designing local management strategies to promote wildlife conservation.

Algunas veces se considera a las prácticas de diversificación agrícola (es decir, los métodos usados para producir alimentos de manera sustentable mediante el enriquecimiento de la biodiversidad en los sistemas de cultivo) como benéficas para la agricultura y la biodiversidad, pero la mayoría de los estudios sobre estas prácticas dependen de la riqueza, abundancia o diversidad de especies como indicadores de la calidad del hábitat. Las valoraciones de la biodiversidad pueden ignorar las señales tempranas de una población en peligro cuando la presencia de la especie no implica persistencia. Los indicadores de estrés fisiológico pueden auxiliar en la identificación de hábitats de baja calidad antes de que ocurra la declinación poblacional. Analizamos las respuestas de los indicadores de estrés en aves al manejo en las granjas y áreas seminaturales circundantes (1 km de radio) de 21 cultivos de fresas en California. Evaluamos si las medidas comunes de biodiversidad se correlacionan con las respuestas al estrés de las aves silvestres. Usamos aproximadamente mil muestras de sangre y plumas y medidas de masa corporal y cuerda alar, la mayoría de paseriformes, para analizar los efectos de las prácticas de diversificación sobre cuatro indicadores de estrés fisiológico: la relación heterófilos/linfocitos (H:L), condición corporal; valores hematocritos; y la tasa de crecimiento de las plumas en aves individuales. Después probamos la relación entre los indicadores de estrés fisiológicos y la riqueza, abundancia, presencia y diversidad de especies tomadas de 285 conteos por puntos de aves. Después de considerar otros factores biológicos, el contexto del paisaje medió el efecto de la gestión de las granjas locales sobre la H:L y la condición corporal. Las prácticas locales de diversificación estuvieron asociadas con una reducción en el estrés individual en los paisajes con agricultura intensiva; sin embargo, el estrés aumentó en los paisajes rodeados por áreas relativamente más seminaturales. Encontramos poca evidencia que respalde que las medidas de riqueza, abundancia, presencia y diversidad de especies estuvieran correlacionadas con el estrés fisiológico de los individuos, lo que sugiere que depender de estas medidas puede nublar el impacto de la gestión sobre la persistencia de las especies. Nuestros descubrimientos apuntalan lo importante que es considerar el contexto del paisaje cuando se diseñan las estrategias de gestión local para promover la conservación de la fauna.

Integrating high-speed videos in capture-mark-recapture studies of insects.

Capture-mark-recapture (CMR) studies have been used extensively in ecology and evolution. While it is feasible to apply CMR in some animals, it is considerably more challenging in small fast-moving species such as insects. In these groups, low recapture rates can bias estimates of demographic parameters, thereby handicapping effective analysis and management of wild populations. Here, we use high-speed videos (HSV) to capture two large dragonfly species, Anax junius and Rhionaeschna multicolor, that rarely land and, thus, are particularly challenging for CMR studies. We test whether HSV, compared to conventional "eye" observations, increases the "resighting" rates and, consequently, improves estimates of both survival rates and the effects of demographic covariates on survival. We show that the use of HSV increases the number of resights by 64% in A. junius and 48% in R. multicolor. HSV improved our estimates of resighting and survival probability which were either under- or overestimated with the conventional observations. Including HSV improved credible intervals for resighting rate and survival probability by 190% and 130% in A. junius and R. multicolor, respectively. Hence, it has the potential to open the door to a wide range of research possibilities on species that are traditionally difficult to monitor with distance sampling, including within insects and birds.

Time to Integrate Pollinator Science into Soybean Production.

Soybeans cover 129 million hectares globally. Soybean productivity can increase with pollinator management, but soybean cultivation practices commonly ignore biotic pollination. If pollinator habitats are created within soybean landscapes and policies to limit agricultural expansion are implemented, millions of hectares could be restored for biodiversity without loss of soybean production.

Pollinator interaction flexibility across scales affects patch colonization and occupancy.

Global change alters ecological communities and may disrupt ecological interactions and the provision of ecosystem functions. As ecological communities respond to global change, species may either go locally extinct or form novel interactions. To date, few studies have assessed how flexible species are in their interaction patterns, mainly due to the scarcity of data spanning long time series. Using a ten-year species-level dataset on the assembly of mutualistic networks from the Central Valley in California, we test whether interaction flexibility affects pollinators' colonization and persistence and their resulting habitat occupancy in a highly modified landscape. We propose three metrics of interaction flexibility associated with different scales of organization within ecological communities and explore which species' traits affect them. Our results provide empirical evidence linking species' ability to colonize habitat patches across a landscape to the role they play in networks. Phenological breadth and body size had contrasting effects on interaction flexibility. We demonstrate the relationship between mutualistic networks and species' ability to colonize and persist in the landscape, suggesting interaction flexibility as a potential mechanism for communities to maintain ecosystem function despite changes in community composition.

Building effective policies to conserve pollinators: translating knowledge into policy.

Pollination management recommendations are becoming increasingly precise, context-specific and knowledge-intensive. Pollination is a service delivered across landscapes, entailing policy constructs across agricultural landscapes. Diversified farming practices effectively promote pollination services. Yet it remains difficult to secure large-scale uptake by farming communities. A strong foundation upon which to base policy formulation stems from respecting the perspective of farmers and local communities on the need to conserve pollinators, alongside scientific understanding. Ecological intensification resonates with both indigenous knowledge, local communities and scientific understanding. It emphasizes that the regulating functions of nature require both landscape-level agroecosystem design and recognition of the complexity of agricultural systems. Facilitating ecological intensification across landscapes requires collective decision-making, with institutional innovation in local structures and food system governance.

Crop diversity enriches arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in an intensive agricultural landscape.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are keystone symbionts of agricultural soils but agricultural intensification has negatively impacted AMF communities. Increasing crop diversity could ameliorate some of these impacts by positively affecting AMF. However, the underlying relationship between plant diversity and AMF community composition has not been fully resolved. We examined how greater crop diversity affected AMF across farms in an intensive agricultural landscape, defined by high nutrient input, low crop diversity and high tillage frequency. We assessed AMF communities across 31 field sites that were either monocultures or polycultures (growing > 20 different crop types) in three ways: richness, diversity and composition. We also determined root colonization across these sites. We found that polycultures drive the available AMF community into richer and more diverse communities while soil properties structure AMF community composition. AMF root colonization did not vary by farm management (monocultures vs polycultures), but did vary by crop host. We demonstrate that crop diversity enriches AMF communities, counteracting the negative effects of agricultural intensification on AMF, providing the potential to increase agroecosystem functioning and sustainability.

Agricultural diversification promotes multiple ecosystem services without compromising yield.

Enhancing biodiversity in cropping systems is suggested to promote ecosystem services, thereby reducing dependency on agronomic inputs while maintaining high crop yields. We assess the impact of several diversification practices in cropping systems on above- and belowground biodiversity and ecosystem services by reviewing 98 meta-analyses and performing a second-order meta-analysis based on 5160 original studies comprising 41,946 comparisons between diversified and simplified practices. Overall, diversification enhances biodiversity, pollination, pest control, nutrient cycling, soil fertility, and water regulation without compromising crop yields. Practices targeting aboveground biodiversity boosted pest control and water regulation, while those targeting belowground biodiversity enhanced nutrient cycling, soil fertility, and water regulation. Most often, diversification practices resulted in win-win support of services and crop yields. Variability in responses and occurrence of trade-offs highlight the context dependency of outcomes. Widespread adoption of diversification practices shows promise to contribute to biodiversity conservation and food security from local to global scales.

Ecological intensification and diversification approaches to maintain biodiversity, ecosystem services and food production in a changing world.

How do we redesign agricultural landscapes to maintain their productivity and profitability, while promoting rather than eradicating biodiversity, and regenerating rather than undermining the ecological processes that sustain food production and are vital for a liveable planet? Ecological intensification harnesses ecological processes to increase food production per area through management processes that often diversify croplands to support beneficial organisms supplying these services. By adding more diverse vegetation back into landscapes, the agricultural matrix can also become both more habitable and more permeable to biodiversity, aiding in conserving biodiversity over time. By reducing the need for costly inputs while maintaining productivity, ecological intensification methods can maintain or even enhance profitability. As shown with several examples, ecological intensification and diversification can assist in creating multifunctional landscapes that are more environmentally and economically sustainable. While single methods of ecological intensification can be incorporated into large-scale industrial farms and reduce negative impacts, complete redesign of such systems using multiple methods of ecological intensification and diversification can create truly regenerative systems with strong potential to promote food production and biodiversity. However, the broad adoption of these methods will require transformative socio-economic changes because many structural barriers continue to maintain the current agrichemical model of agriculture.

The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis.

Floral plantings are promoted to foster ecological intensification of agriculture through provisioning of ecosystem services. However, a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of different floral plantings, their characteristics and consequences for crop yield is lacking. Here we quantified the impacts of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control (18 studies) and pollination services (17 studies) in adjacent crops in North America, Europe and New Zealand. Flower strips, but not hedgerows, enhanced pest control services in adjacent fields by 16% on average. However, effects on crop pollination and yield were more variable. Our synthesis identifies several important drivers of variability in effectiveness of plantings: pollination services declined exponentially with distance from plantings, and perennial and older flower strips with higher flowering plant diversity enhanced pollination more effectively. These findings provide promising pathways to optimise floral plantings to more effectively contribute to ecosystem service delivery and ecological intensification of agriculture in the future.