Eco-environmental Protection Research Institute, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Protected Horticultural Technology, Shanghai Engineering Research Centre of Low-carbon Agriculture, Shanghai, China.
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Wetland Ecosystem Research Station, Institute of Biostatistics, Shanghai Institute of Eco-Chongming, (SIEC), Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Elife. 2018 May 24;7:e35103. doi: 10.7554/eLife.35103.
Urban agriculture is making an increasing contribution to food security in large cities around the world. The potential contribution of biodiversity to ecological intensification in urban agricultural systems has not been investigated. We present monitoring data collected from rice fields in 34 community farms in mega-urban Shanghai, China, from 2001 to 2015, and show that the presence of a border crop of soybeans and neighboring crops (maize, eggplant and Chinese cabbage), both without weed control, increased invertebrate predator abundance, decreased the abundance of pests and dependence on insecticides, and increased grain yield and economic profits. Two 2 year randomized experiments with the low and high diversity practices in the same locations confirmed these results. Our study shows that diversifying farming practices can make an important contribution to ecological intensification and the sustainable use of associated ecosystem services in an urban ecosystem.
都市农业正为世界各地的大城市的粮食安全做出越来越大的贡献。生物多样性对城市农业系统生态强化的潜在贡献尚未得到研究。我们展示了 2001 年至 2015 年期间从中国特大城市上海的 34 个社区农场的稻田收集的监测数据，并表明没有杂草控制的大豆和邻近作物（玉米、茄子和白菜）边界作物的存在增加了无脊椎动物捕食者的数量，减少了害虫的数量和对杀虫剂的依赖，并增加了粮食产量和经济效益。在同一地点进行的两项为期 2 年的、具有低和高多样性实践的随机实验证实了这些结果。我们的研究表明，多样化的农业实践可以为城市生态系统中的生态强化和相关生态系统服务的可持续利用做出重要贡献。
