Project: Connections in the landscape. Role of landscape complexity in agroecosystem sustainability.

Acronym	AgroBioConnect (Reference Number: 49)
Duration	01/02/2023 - 31/01/2026
Project Topic	Satisfying the rising demands for agricultural products with existing intensive agricultural farming practices is expected to exacerbate damage to the environment. Agrobiodiversity practices offer the opportunity to reconcile agriculture with sustainability. Unsustainable activities that cause agroecosystem degradation and loss of biodiversity are associated with poor agroecosystem service delivery while heterogeneous landscapes are associated with more biodiverse and resilient ecosystems. The transition towards agricultural practices based on agrobiodiversity requires a holistic understanding of the ecological mechanisms at work in agroecosystems at the landscape level and their link with the technical dimension of the agricultural practices including understanding how landscape structure and complexity affect the supply of agroecosystem services. AgroBioConnect aims to investigate the effect of landscape complexity over time and land cover/productivity dynamics on the above and belowground ecosystem services in a range of European agricultural landscapes. The relationship between the landscape spatial pattern and the ecosystem services provision will be analyzed using a multiscale/multilevel approach pursued by linking data from satellite remote sensing with biodiversity data collected in the field. The multilevel approach will be structured at three levels of analysis: level 1 defines the landscape diversity assessed with remote sensing, and this is related to levels 2 and 3 representing the above- and belowground functional biodiversity connected to associated ecosystem services. At the aboveground level, the overall arthropod abundance and diversity as well as the presence of beneficial arthropods like predators, parasitoids and pollinators, that are important providers of ecosystem services such as pest control and pollination, will be monitored. At the belowground level, soil functioning will be assayed by quantifying the gene expression of the soil microbiota’s key genes involved in the main biogeochemical cycles. The soil microbial diversity will also be analyzed using NGS metagenomic approaches. The Remote Sensing data analysis will provide reliable information on the degree of landscape fragmentation at various spatial scales over the last decades, allowing for a continuous assessment of changes and the analysis of related impacts on agrobiodiversity and the sustainability of crop production. The multilevel approach proposed by AgroBioConnect will allow to gain a more holistic view combining different sources of knowledge at different spatial scales. In AgroBioConnect the multilevel approach will drive a better understanding on how landscape complexity influences ecosystem services provision. AgroBioConnect will provide valuable knowledge for improving the agricultural landscape management for our stakeholders/land managers, as well as useful information for implementing policy and actions targeted to achieve adaptation to climate change. AgroBioConnect brings together partners from six countries with a complementary scientific and technological background. The partners have recognized experience and expertise in ecology, agrobiodiversity, soil quality, entomology, plant ecology and taxonomy, biological control agent and in the use of remote sensing analysis for environmental monitoring and management.
Website	visit project website
Network	SusCrop
Call	3rd Transnational Joint Call on Sustainable Crop Production with FACCE JPI

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	The National Institute of Horticultural Research	Coordinator	Poland
2	CREA Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria	Partner	Italy
3	Natural Resources Institute Finland	Partner	Finland
4	NIAB	Partner	United Kingdom
5	University of Copenhagen	Partner	Denmark
6	Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet	Partner	Sweden
7	HortiAdvice A/S	Partner	Denmark
8	FaunaPhotonics	Partner	Denmark