DOI: 10.5061/dryad.np5hqbzqk
title: Experimental evidence of multiple ecosystem services and disservices provided by ecological intensification in Mediterranean agro-ecosystems

description: 1. Intensifying agricultural production in sustainable ways is pivotal to
 increasing food production while reducing environmental impacts.
 Ecological intensification is based on managing organisms that provide
 services underlying crop production to simultaneously intensify
 agricultural production and increase biodiversity. However, few studies
 address the interactions and trade-offs between biodiversity, multiple
 ecosystem services and crop production. 2. We experimentally quantified
 the effect of uncultivated field margins, a prominent practice of
 ecological intensification, on agricultural production, biodiversity, as
 well as on multiple ecosystem services and disservices, in an intensive
 Mediterranean agro-ecosystem. We used a split-plot design and sampled
 butterflies, rodent and arthropod pests, arthropod natural enemies (both
 parasitoids and predators), weeds, damage to crop and crop yield in
 different distances into the field in three tomato and eleven wheat crops
 along the growing season. 3. Field margins increased natural enemy
 densities, reduced pest-damage to crop and consequently increased yield in
 tomato crops. Notably, we found that pest control by one predator species
 was dominant in the field centre, while parasitoid natural enemies were
 confined to the field edges. Pest control was more prominent in the late
 crop-stage compared to early season sampling and field margins increased
 weed control in tomato crops by reducing weed cover. 4. Field margins
 increased natural enemy densities in wheat at the beginning of the season,
 but effects on arthropod pests were inconsistent. Field margins slightly
 increased weed cover, but had no impact on rodent densities and total
 yield. 5. Butterfly abundance, but not richness, was positively affected
 by vegetated field margins. 6. Synthesis and applications: Our results
 highlight the importance of a mechanistic and holistic approach to
 promoting ecological intensification. Although field margins provided pest
 and weed control in the highly intensive tomato crop, they increased weed
 cover in wheat, which could potentially restrict yields at the field
 scale. Farmers' guidelines should therefore consider the interactive
 effects of multiple services on a variety of crops. Moreover, biodiversity
 components that do not provide crop production services should be
 independently targeted (e.g. by sowing plants that provide food
 resources).
description: The methods are described in detail in the manuscript and
 supplementary material in Segre et al. (2020) <em>J. Appl.
 Ecol.</em>  <strong>List of files in the
 database:</strong> PlotList.csv - sampling design and
 plot attributes of the tomato and wheat experiment. VegetationCompositionMtx.csv - vegetation composition in
 field margins in the experiment plots (species-sites matrix
 format). Butterfly.csv - butterfly sampling data. Rodents.csv -
 rodents captures data. Weeds.csv - weed sampling data.
 Yield - yield
 sampling data. TomatoFruitDamage.csv and TomatoLeafDamage.csv - damage to
 tomato crop sampling data. TomatoVacuumData.csv
 and WheatVacuumData.csv - vegetation dwelling arthropods sampling data in
 both experiments. The file MetaData.csv contains a list of column names and
 descriptions for all files.