CATIE-Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza, Turrialba, Cartago, 30501, Costa Rica.
Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Apr 12;119(15):e2119959119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2119959119. Epub 2022 Apr 4.
Biodiversity-mediated ecosystem services (ES) support human well-being, but their values are typically estimated individually. Although ES are part of complex socioecological systems, we know surprisingly little about how multiple ES interact ecologically and economically. Interactions could be positive (synergy), negative (trade-offs), or absent (additive effects), with strong implications for management and valuation. Here, we evaluate the interactions of two ES, pollination and pest control, via a factorial field experiment in 30 Costa Rican coffee farms. We found synergistic interactions between these two critical ES to crop production. The combined positive effects of birds and bees on fruit set, fruit weight, and fruit weight uniformity were greater than their individual effects. This represents experimental evidence at realistic farm scales of positive interactions among ES in agricultural systems. These synergies suggest that assessments of individual ES may underestimate the benefits biodiversity provides to agriculture and human well-being. Using our experimental results, we demonstrate that bird pest control and bee pollination services translate directly into monetary benefits to coffee farmers. Excluding both birds and bees resulted in an average yield reduction of 24.7% (equivalent to losing US$1,066.00/ha). These findings highlight that habitat enhancements to support native biodiversity can have multiple benefits for coffee, a valuable crop that supports rural livelihoods worldwide. Accounting for potential interactions among ES is essential to quantifying their combined ecological and economic value.
生物多样性介导的生态系统服务（ES）支持人类福祉，但它们的价值通常是单独估计的。尽管 ES 是复杂的社会生态系统的一部分，但我们对多种 ES 如何在生态和经济上相互作用知之甚少。相互作用可能是积极的（协同作用）、消极的（权衡）或不存在的（加性效应），这对管理和估值有重要影响。在这里，我们通过在 30 个哥斯达黎加咖啡农场进行的因子野外实验来评估授粉和害虫控制这两种 ES 的相互作用。我们发现这两种关键 ES 对作物生产存在协同作用。鸟类和蜜蜂对结实率、果实重量和果实重量均匀性的综合积极影响大于它们的单独影响。这代表了在农业系统中 ES 之间存在积极相互作用的现实农场规模的实验证据。这些协同作用表明，对单个 ES 的评估可能低估了生物多样性为农业和人类福祉提供的益处。利用我们的实验结果，我们证明了鸟类防治害虫和蜜蜂授粉服务直接为咖啡农带来了经济利益。同时排除鸟类和蜜蜂会导致平均产量减少 24.7%（相当于每公顷损失 1066.00 美元）。这些发现强调了为支持本地生物多样性而进行的栖息地增强可以为咖啡带来多种益处，咖啡是一种在全球范围内支持农村生计的有价值的作物。考虑 ES 之间潜在的相互作用对于量化它们的综合生态和经济价值至关重要。
