Crop diversity effects on pollination and natural pest control services: Is ecological evidence enough to promote food security?

Sustainability of coupled human and natural systems requires a balance of environmental, economic and social components. Yet, these components are often studied in isolation, even in agricultural systems, where all three are inherently intertwined. Here we will present results from an ecological case study that show how crop diversification improves native bee and natural predator services provided to strawberry. However, when these results were shared with the agricultural community, there was resistance to the management recommendations based on economic and socio-political grounds. When asked to share their experiences with using agricultural diversification practices in a survey, these community members emphasized the challenge of capital, labor, ecosystem service tradeoffs (e.g. vegetation that supports pollinators also attracts pests) and tensions with regulations that didn’t support increased biodiversity on their farms (e.g. Food Safety Modernization Act). The ultimate lesson learned was that ecological studies regarding management practices to support biodiversity and ecosystem services must include a simultaneous exploration of multiple ecosystem services, economics and current socio-political arenas. The framework for and preliminary experiences with such a project, recently launched summer 2015, will be shared. Discussion about the benefits of and challenges with this kind of interdisciplinary research is welcomed.