Perspectives for Agroecosystem Management:: Balancing Environmental and Socio-economic Demands

Neuherberg

Preface

During the last century, agricultural production in Western Europe developed from little scale farming oriented on regional characteristics and site specificities into high technology and maximum yield level based systems. Farms that had formerly employed sophisticated crop rotations coupled with animal production moved into two-crop-systems or monocultures and transfers of protein rich feeds for animal production. The application of synthetic chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides, and the use of modern equipment led to high production on more productive soils and to food security. High power machines enabled deeper tillage and improved soil management, as well as economical use of resources, but also less employment in rural areas. In view of nutritional value and quality, food reached highest standards.

However, the intensively used landscape showed serious limits of a maximum yield and maximum income agriculture. Chemical contamination of water, air and soil, soil erosion by water and wind, and a drastic decrease of biodiversity in uniform production systems led to rapid deterioration of the environmental quality of agroecosystems. The trophic state of rivers increased from nitrogen and phosphorus inputs. Residues of nutrients and pesticides, often applied in high doses, were leached into other natural ecosystems, into aquatic systems and finally to the ground water aquifer and the marine ecosystems. Climatic relevant trace gazes were emitted to the atmosphere in amounts proportional to the high doses of nitrogen fertilizers. Numerous plant and animal species disappeared after the change from the traditional low tech system to the high tech land use in Central Europe. And furthermore, contamination of food with pesticide residues and nitrate lead to doubts about the healthy value of this food production.

It was in the seventies of the 20th century when the first thoughts arouse to minimize these negative effects on the environmental quality in Germany. Impact of chemicals was quantified and legislation started to regulate the application of pesticides and of organic residues like slurries. However, the economic and political constraints for farmers, the needs of societal development for more food security were decisive. A first active answer on the management scale was the establishment of organic farming by some farmers during the last decades and, more extended in some regions, an adoption of integrated farming which minimizes chemical and technical impact as far as possible in a sustainable way. Yet, the real effect of land use change on species richness, on soil erosion, groundwater quality and trace gas emission was hardly investigated. New knowledge was necessary toward the understanding of ecosystems, including all scales from the arable field to the entire landscape. The challenge was to understand the functioning of agricultural ecosystems, farms, landscapes, to understand these biological systems under human steering, to understand the whole impacts of cultivation and interrelationships with adjacent ecosystems in order to establish a sustainable use of agricultural soils. Designing landscapes with high food quality and minimization of impacts at all scales would realize high yield to assure food security for the future world population. At the same time, such new management systems had to support the economic survival of farms and farmers.

In 1989, scientists of the GSF – National Research Center for Environment and Health (Friedrich Beese, now at University of Göttingen) and of the Technical University of Munich (Gerhard Fischbeck, Jörg Pfadenhauer, Udo Schwertmann, among others) created an interdisciplinary research network for the investigation of ecosystem processes in a real agricultural landscape, FAM (= Forschungsverbund Agrarökosysteme München; Munich Research Association for Agricultural Ecosystems). The aim of FAM was to work out instruments and to develop strategies for a sustainable agricultural land use. Three central hypotheses were: If land is cultivated according to the principles of sustainability and ecological compatibility,

1. adjoining systems will not be exposed to excessive quantities of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds and foreign organic substances (xenobiotics),

2. the diversity of plants, animals and microorganisms as well as of their communities will be greater, and rarer species will also be able to establish sustainable populations,

3. the economical use of the resources required for the production of food will be increased, and the quality of the products will be maintained at a high level.

FAM comprised a variety of scientific disciplines that had rarely been in cooperation before, so agronomy, plant and animal production, agro-techniques, soil science, population biology of plants and animals, socio-economics as well as mathematics, geography, modelling and more. In a concerted action, the German Federal Ministry of Sciences and Education and the Bavarian Ministry of Science, Research and Arts assured the financial support of this research network.

A farm, large enough and suitable for the FAM was rented from the Scheyern Benedictine Monastery about 40 km northwest of Munich in the district of Pfaffenhofen/Ilm. The Monastery is situated in the Tertiary Hill Landscape (part of the South German Molasse Basin) and was installed as the Scheyern Experimental Station. This farm had formerly been managed according to the local rules of maximum yields, with an effective application of synthetic chemicals and being exposed to hilly typical erosion and leaching losses. It was now adapted and optimized toward environmental sound agriculture. Two farming systems were established, an organic and an integrated one. Organic Farming applies the principle of closed cycles of nutrients and resources within the farm. Avoiding external energy supply (in the form of mineral fertilizers and pesticides) is postulated to improve and maintain the quality of biotic and abiotic resources. Integrated Crop Cultivation aims at avoiding erosion and soil consolidation by crop rotation with cover crops, application of chemicals according to the pest threshold principle, use of wide tyres, and a reduction of soil tillage. Studying these farming systems should allow understanding transformation processes and the development of soil fertility as well as matter fluxes, so of water and solutes at scales from the field to ponds, on the farm and to the catchment area, from the soil surface to the ground water. Besides, it should clarify interrelationships leading to losses of floral and faunal biodiversity on one hand and the needs for their reestablishment on the other hand. The entire area was redesigned in order to minimize soil erosion and to establish more diversity in the landscape, so by fallows, hedges and more structural units in the landscape, mostly oriented toward environmental functions (retention areas for eroded material, habitats for flora and fauna and more).

A dense 50 × 50 m sampling grid was established to allow monitoring of changes. New techniques of positioning and remote sensing were adapted to agricultural scale for establishment of yield maps and analysis of yield parameters. GPS-positioning of harvesters occurred worldwide for the first time in Scheyern. Remote sensing equipment, partially mounted on tractors, was adapted for soil and stand analysis, for terrain analysis and topography assessment. The basis of precision agriculture was developed. At the same time, lab scale methodologies especially molecular tools and approaches as well as stable isotope probing were employed to analyse environmental samples and processes, especially with regard to their biological functions.

The project demonstrated the possibility to maintain a highly productive agriculture together with lower environmental impacts on the basis of knowledge and technologies; it showed also options for further amelioration of organic and integrated farming practice.

Results were discussed with farmers and led to new management procedures on the farm, some being adopted also by farmers in this region. Impacts of the application of the new technical systems were analysed by several scientific domains of the project.

We are pleased to thank to the multitude of persons involved in this long-term research, to thank to the authors of the chapters of this book, of this latest effort to aggregate a multitude of results, knowledge and conclusions from the project FAM. The results of our joint project were published in details in 500 scientific papers, 60 PhD-Theses and presented on numerous international scientific meetings of all scientific research domains. Annual reports were distributed to decision makers and stakeholders.

An important product of the Scheyern project is the worldwide best-documented agricultural area terrain on the farm and landscape level as well as the corresponding farming systems. This documentation will provide the basis for newly needed environmental research considering the actual developments in land use toward renewable resources.

Striving to present in broad and aggregated form the multiple results and overall conclusions of the Scheyern project, we hope that the present book may be instructive in view on appropriate use of agricultural ecosystems. It may also deliver basic knowledge to further perspectives and future developments of agroecosystem management.

The Editors

Munich, in January 2007

Part I

Approaching Sustainable Agriculture

Outline

Chapter 1.1: Outline of the Scheyern Project

Chapter 1.2: Sustainable Land Use by Organic and Integrated Farming Systems

Chapter 1.1

Outline of the Scheyern Project

P. Schröder, B. Huber, H.J Reents, J.C Munch and J. Pfadenhauer

Publisher Summary

Agricultural practices have undergone intense changes, which are evidenced by significant advances in technology and mechanization, specialization of agricultural undertakings, discontinuation of labor-intensive farming branches, increased field size, drainage of wetlands, and the removal of hedges and boundary strips. Understanding ecosystems as functional units that contain organisms interacting with each other and the abiotic environment, agricultural systems have to be regarded and classified as specific ecosystems. Contrary to natural systems, human activities interfere in agrosystems with almost all structural elements and processes in order to enhance productivity, secure yields and foster selected species—all to supply food and energy to a food web outside of the agricultural ecosystem. This chapter provides an introduction to the Scheyern project, which aims to tackle problems of intensive agriculture and to propose novel solutions for agroecosystem management. The project establishes guidelines for an ecologically compatible, site-adequate, and sustainable management of rural landscapes, while maintaining high productivity levels. An extensive research concept was elaborated in order to acquire such guidelines. This agroecosystem-oriented, interdisciplinary research aimed to record, assess, forecast, and evaluate the time course of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of management-induced, changes on different structural and scale levels. Recommendations are made to analyze and classify ecosystems according to their dominating processes, specific structures, or functions.

1.1.1 Background

Agricultural practices have undergone intense changes over the last decades which are evidenced by significant advances in technology and mechanisation, specialisation of agricultural undertakings, discontinuation of labour-intensive farming branches, increased field size, drainage of wetlands and the removal of hedges and boundary strips. In addition, more and more yield-raising production means (fertiliser, pesticides and fuel) have been used, tillage treatment has intensified and the import of animal fodder and fertilisers has increased. Further, an increase in livestock per hectare of land has resulted in higher amounts of manure per hectare, thus polluting the groundwater. Parallel to this development, there is a decrease in available work force, and farmers and their families are increasingly employed in areas outside of agriculture. Moreover, agricultural buildings and farmyard sites are utilised for other purposes and agricultural road networks are enlarged. The urbanisation of former farming villages, as well as the sealing of surfaces, has increased; flowering meadows are now hardly found, whereas ‘standard’ green areas are expanding. In addition, agricultural research and advisory services have been for a long time principally oriented at enhancing production and lowering costs and expenditure of human labour. The negative consequences of these developments are known: increased erosion, occurrence of fertilisers and pesticides in groundwater, soil compaction from heavy machinery, depletion of fauna and flora due to large crop fields and destroyed habitats, and an inappropriate mass livestock husbandry. Animal production concentrates in certain regions, with the consequence of an uncoupling of the production of feed and the generation of high amounts of waste and pollution of soils and groundwater. The fact that most of the livestock is heavily dependent on medication causes further threats to end users and the production basis.

The insight that agricultural productivity and sustainability must be unified is slowly catching on. Agriculture has to nourish the population and provide plant and animal resources for secondary industry processing. Farming assures the economic existence of individual farms and the rural community by utilising land for effective agricultural production. This provokes conflicts with other land use demands such as industrial, transportation and housing development, the production of drinking water or preservation of natural resources for recreation and wildlife refuges. In the national and global exchange systems, Germany is among the world-leading net import nations of food, in spite of having fertile soils, favourable climate and surplus agricultural production in some areas. Only these food transfers from abroad allow agricultural production below yield optima, a high rate of meat consumption and the loss by impermeabilisation of 900 ha of arable land every week (which could nourish approximately 2000 people; Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung, 2002).

It is logical that all forms of agriculture cause changes in the balances and fluxes of the pre-existing ecosystem, thereby limiting self-regulatory ecosystem (resiliency) functions. The intensive agriculture of the past, with its strong reduction of landscape structures and vast decoupling of energy and matter cycles, has caused stress and degradation of the production basis which has already led to a loss of these resiliency functions in many regions; massive influence has been also exerted on neighbouring compartments. This has resulted in the well-known problems of pesticide loads, high phosphate loads to surface waters via over-fertilised soils or erosion as such. To overcome the economic, social and political inadequacies leading to ecological degradation, the demand for sustainable agricultural management needs to be transposed into knowledge-based practical instructions and political regulations on a regional scale. Thus, applied research for a sustainable and ecologically compatible land use aimed at sufficient food production is ever so important.

Leading up to the 1980s, most agroecosystem research had been concerned with yield effects and yield optimisation on a field scale and with matter dynamics in small watersheds. This approach gave short- to midterm results from implemented land use systems. Therefore, as the FAM Munich Research Network on Agroecosystems (Forschungsverbund Agrarökosysteme München) was founded in 1989, the discussion regarding ways to minimise environmental damage caused by agricultural production lacked a fundamental understanding of long-term ecosystem processes and their interaction with economic and technical compulsions. A favoured solution at that time – from an ecological perspective – was the reduction of agricultural intensity by either setting aside land or implementing organic farming or extensive agriculture. At the same time, and becoming increasingly important, integrated farming systems have been suggested as a means towards sustainable and resource-conserving agriculture.

Understanding ecosystems as functional units that contain organisms interacting with each other and the abiotic environment, agricultural systems have to be regarded and classified as specific ecosystems.

Ecosystems might be analysed and classified according to their dominating processes, specific structures or functions (Figure 1). Contrary to natural systems, human activities interfere in agrosystems with almost all structural elements and processes in order to enhance productivity, secure yields and foster selected species – all to supply food and energy to a food web outside of the agricultural ecosystem.

Figure 1 Ecosystem and agroecosystem – Human influence.

Research concept

In 1989, a group of scientists from the Munich area gathered to tackle the burning problems of intensive agriculture and to propose novel solutions for agroecosystem management. They formed the core group of the FAM Munich Research Network on Agroecosystems. The overall aim was to establish guidelines for an ecologically compatible, site-adequate and sustainable management of rural landscapes, while maintaining high productivity levels. To acquire such guidelines, an extensive research concept was elaborated, which comprised the following points:

– Methods should be developed which (1) are sensitive enough to record and quantify early-stage, area-specific changes in the system; (2) are precise enough to allow for long-term assessment of developments; (3) can be carried over to other systems; and (4) also permit economical evaluations of occurring changes to the ecosystem and production sites.

– Changes should be documented, assessed, evaluated and prognosticated.

– Methods for the restoration of damaged ecosystems should be developed.

– Environmentally sound and sustainable land use strategies should be developed and transferred to agricultural practices.

– Models should be developed to aid the future development of agroecological activities.

– Changes should be recorded, assessed, forecast and evaluated.

This agroecosystem-oriented, interdisciplinary research aimed to record, assess, forecast and evaluate the time course of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of management-induced changes on different structural and scale levels (Table 1).

Table 1

Experimental levels studied by the FAM Munich Research Network on Agroecosystems.

The 150 ha former cloister estate Scheyern was selected as the area under investigation. The research station is situated in the Tertiary Hill slopes, a typical Bavarian agrarian landscape, demonstrating all problems associated with intensive agricultural use. Following a 2-year inventory phase, the research station was reorganised and subdivided into two farming systems: organic farming and integrated farming. To understand changes at field and farm levels, of the water dislocation to ponds and groundwater, and in the development of biodiversity, a total run time of 15 years was defined as the project duration. The farming systems should be self-reliant, economical sustainable and competitive and act as a normal commercial farm in the region.

FAM hypotheses

The FAM defined three central hypotheses (Table 2). These hypotheses called for a holistic approach, including information on farming, energy and matter fluxes in the agroecosystem as well as on adjoining ecosystems. Instruments sensitive enough to detect and quantify early-stage, site-specific system changes with sufficient accuracy to forecast future development and spatial distribution needed to be developed. Furthermore, it became increasingly important to set up instruments which could be transferred to other systems, as well as allow for an economical and ecological evaluation of encountered changes.

Table 2

Three central hypotheses of the FAM Munich Research Network on Agroecosystems.

1.1.2 Research station and project phases

FAM study area

Research Station Scheyern (Figure 2) was leased for a time period of 15 years, divided into several phases: inventory phase (1990–1992), landscape redesign (fall/winter, 1992/1993), project phase (1993–1998) and future project phase (1999–2005).

Figure 2 Aerial view of Research Station Scheyern.

The FAM project was carried out at Research Station Scheyern, a 150 ha cloister estate located 40 km north of Munich in southern Bavaria. Scheyern is situated at an altitude of 445–498 m above sea level in the Tertiary Hills, a landscape demonstrating typical problems associated with intensive agricultural use, such as erosion, soil compaction, groundwater contamination, impoverishment of flora and fauna and having only few existing hedges and fallow strips.

Climate and soil characteristics

Average annual precipitation in the Scheyern area is 803 mm, and the mean annual temperature is 7.4°C. Research Station Scheyern represents the boundary between the loess-loam clay ridge and the loess-loam sand ridge tertiary landscape (clay contents varying from 90 to 450 g kg−1), whereby the tertiary hilltops and eroded slopes are of sand–gravel–clay composition. However, approximately 85% of the research station is covered by a thin (<2 m) loess–loam or by loess deposits, and the area is divided by three main valleys, two of which bear a line of ponds.

Landscape history

The Tertiary Hills, located between the pleistocene moraines of the alpine glaciers and the Danube River, have coarse- and fine-grained deposits originating from the upper sweet water molasses and are largely covered by thin quaternary loess layers. The landscape is characterised by asymmetrical valleys shaped by uneven loess deposition, solifluction and erosion. The natural habitat is primarily composed of woodruff, oak and beech forests. Agricultural activities in this area taking place since the younger Stone Age and, in particular, the intensive agriculture of the last decades have resulted in a marked reduction of forests, hedges, lynchets and buffer strips. The Bavarian Tertiary Hills represent one third of Bavaria’s agricultural region and demonstrate the typical pressures of intensive agriculture: compaction, erosion and overdressing, low nutrient efficiency and subsequent pollution of surface and groundwater, as well as impoverishment of flora and fauna.

1.1.3 Two farming systems

The organic farming system

The goals of the organic farm were to establish closed nutrient and resource cycles, on a 68.5 ha area having predominantly low-sorption soils, following the principles of organic farming according to Naturland and Bioland, which are members of the German Association for Organic Farming (AGÖL).

A seven-field crop rotation was set up on 31.5 ha arable land with (1) lucerne-clover-grass-meadow (fixing N over 1.5 years, harvested as forage); (2) seed potatoes with mustard intercropping; (3) winter wheat with cover crop; (4) sunflowers (oil) with undersowing of lucerne-clover-grass-meadow; (5) lucerne-clover-grass-meadow as forage; (6) winter wheat with white clover undersowing; and (7) winter rye with undersowing of lucerne-clover-grass-meadow. The organic farm also had a 95-head cattle herd for meat production, 25 ha of grassland and 3.5 ha set-aside land meant for succession.

Ecological aims were achieved by (1) banning mineral fertiliser and pesticides; (2) minimising external energy and matter supplies, damages to fauna and flora and matter exports to surface and ground water; and (3) optimising N cycling in the crop rotation. Tillage intensity was reduced to a level in which weed control and soil conservation efforts were balanced; ploughs were only used when necessary. Wide tyres and use of combinations reduced both frequency and impact of vehicular traffic. Mulching was implemented; cover crops and underseeds with diverse species conserved the soil, controlled weeds and enhanced habitat diversity. An important factor in organic farming was the selection of crop varieties having a broad resistance against pests and which were competitive to weeds. Especially in the case of potatoes, resistance against Phytophtora infestans and Colorado beetles represented a decisive factor. Manure was applied at appropriate soil and weather conditions and immediately incorporated to minimise NH3 volatilisation losses.

Integrated farming system

Integrated farming system was established on 46 ha having well-buffered soils. The arable land (30 ha) was cultivated with a four-field crop rotation with cover crops: (1) winter wheat; (2) potatoes; (3) winter wheat; and (4) maize. The remaining area was used as grassland (1.8 ha) and fallow land (8.8 ha). Potatoes and wheat were grown as cash crops; maize was used to feed 45 fattening bulls living in neighbouring farms. The slurry was brought back to the fields.

To achieve sustainability, integrated farming reduced tillage frequency and intensity; moldboard ploughs were not used. Harrowing and chiselling were favoured methods in Scheyern. Wide tyres and combinations minimised soil compaction and erosion. Cover crops, wheat and maize stubble mulch protected the soil surface and enhanced soil faunal and microbial activity. Further tillage was avoided by direct and no-till planting in mulch of the previous crop or cover crop. Leaching was reduced by using crop varieties with high ability to compete for nutrients, water and light. Crop varieties exhibiting adequate resistance to most important diseases were preferred. Fertilising strategies were optimised to the plants’ needs, and pesticides were used not for prevention (pest threshold principle) but only when necessary.

Inventory phase (1990–1992)

The FAM project began with an inventory phase. During the 2-year preliminary period, the arable land (Figure 3) was uniformly cultivated with winter wheat (1991) and spring barley (1992), according to the principles of conventional farming. The aim of this phase was to record differences between the various sites at the research station and to create uniform starting conditions for subsequent project phases. A grid of 600 measuring points (50 m × 50 m) was established throughout the experimental sites, allowing an inventory of various conditions and parameters. Information obtained at these grid points was used to create a database (http://www.gsf.de/FAM/adis.html) used by the FAM research groups and for geoinformation systems (GIS). In addition, modern mathematical methods such as geostatistics and pedotransfer functions facilitated the generation of detailed maps of the entire research station.

Figure 3 Research Station Scheyern before land use redesign in 1992 (from Schröder et al., 2002).

Landscape redesign (fall/winter, 1992/1993)

Following the inventory phase, in fall 1992, partitioning of arable and grassland was redefined, considering aspects of nature and resource conservation (Figure 4). Plot size was reduced, and forest edges, hedges, field boundaries and fallow grounds were created. As countermeasure against erosion, buffer zones were created along brooks and ponds and on slopes, and grassland was established in the river valley. The landscape was redesigned to (1) avoid fertiliser and pesticide input into water bodies; (2) minimise erosion, water losses, soil compaction and fertiliser and pesticide overlapping on headlands; (3) enable more site-specific farming; (4) reduce effort and expenses required for agricultural purposes; (5) enhance the net income and aesthetic value of the farms and the biodiversity (fauna and flora); and (6) improve the recreational function of the landscape.

Figure 4 Research Station Scheyern after land use redesign in 1992 (from Schröder et al., 2002).

Furthermore, the central part of the research station (farmland) was divided along the main watershed into two farms: organic and integrated, each striving for ecological and economical sustainability (Figure 5). At the northern part of the research station, a 39 ha plot was further subdivided into experimental plots to conduct detailed studies on management-induced changes (Figure 6): A: arable land, W: grassland, F: set-aside land, Ö: organic farming, trial plots, I: integrated farming, trial plots. The grid co-ordinates (given as: xxx/yyy) allowed to identify each point at the research station.

Figure 5 Research Station Scheyern after 1992. Management systems and permanent monitoring equipment are shown (from Schröder et al., 2002).

Figure 6 Research Station Scheyern after 1992. Management systems, field numbers, grid system and long-term observation areas are shown (from Schröder et al., 2002).

The field size was reduced to cut erosive slope lengths and facilitate site-specific farming. Fallow strips (between 3 and 15 m wide) were reintroduced between fields (field margins) and along adjoining ecosystems (surface water and woods), to increase wildlife refuges and buffer capacity. Hedges were planted with indigenous species or implemented as dead wood pilings. Dams were erected to stop run-off at field borders. Steep arable land was transferred into grassland or set aside for succession (permanent fallows). Grassland seeds were enriched with meadow species, and grazing intensity was reduced at very wet or dry sites. A review of the project phase between 1990 and 1992 is provided in Tenhunen et al. (2000).

Project phase 1993–1998

After landscape redesign, different managing approaches of the organic farm and the integrated farm began, and trial plots in the northern part of Research Station Scheyern were set up for detailed studies (Figures 5 and 6). Permanent monitoring was possible by broad-measurement equipment; processes were analysed causally. About 30 subprojects dealt with several topics, e.g. soil properties and erosion, water and matter fluxes, crop plants, security of yield, plant nutrition, xenobiotics, diversity of flora and fauna, economic aspects, social acceptance, modelling and forecasting. In this phase, the main focus was to evaluate the economical and ecological changes induced by the different management systems. To reach this aim, indicators were sought and validated. In short, our investigations led to the following results, concerning the three main hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: Land use can conserve or re-establish ecosystem control functions

The adapted management helped to reduce the transfer of C and N compounds as well as xenobiotics to adjacent systems. Through conservation tillage (direct drilling, mulching, reduced axle loads) coupled with the new plot design, soil loss was reduced and the soil pool of organic N in microbial biomass was increased, in spite of reduced N fertilisation. Emissions of N2O from arable land remained high. Nitrate and phosphate transfers to surface and ground water were significantly reduced. In the studied aquatic ecosystem, high nitrate and phosphate pools facilitated a high biomass macrophyte production. This biomass production buffered 50% of phosphate and 30% of nitrate input.

Another stress from former land use is atrazine, which is still detected in some ground water and deposition samples, even though application has been banned for several years. Of the applied pesticides, 0.1–0.2% of the dose were detected in surface waters after 1–2 weeks following application. With sufficient rain, a rapid movement in the soil was observed. Conservation tillage improved infiltration capacities. As a side effect, the amount of interflow (60–180 cm below ground), which is a typical phenomenon in the Tertiary Hills, and matter transport via interflow increased.

Adapting and improving the geophysical procedures of ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction enabled the mapping of mean water and clay contents in a high spatial resolution (5 m × 5 m). These data formed the basis for the validation of spatially extrapolating models and precision farming.

Hypothesis 2: Land use can conserve or re-establish habitat functions

Changing the production system – according to the principles of a sustainable and ecological compatible agriculture – helped increasing biological diversity of plant, animal and microbial communities. For the soil fauna, clear reactions to the changed management were indicated by an altered dominance structure of collembola and an increase in earthworm biomass. The reduced pest control efficiency in organic farming by the banning of chemical pesticides led to an increase in the abundance and species diversity of weeds. An increase in abundance was also observed in the integrated farm resulting from reduced tillage (increase in the surface diaspore pool and increased germination). In the integrated farm, increased competition by weeds was successfully encountered with an adaptation of herbicide applications. This in turn led to a significant decrease in rare and endangered species. An increased biodiversity was observed for several faunal groups.

Hypothesis 3: Land use can conserve or re-establish the economical and ecological productivity

It was verified that sustainable and environmentally friendly land use requires sparing employment of natural resources. Especially, the resources soil and water were significantly saved by the changed land use methods. At the same time, the input of energy per ton of wheat was diminished, although weed control efforts increased dramatically. Therefore, both production systems were shown to be economically sustainable.

Energy inputs in the integrated farm were highly influenced by mineral fertilisation. N-fertiliser efficiency was increased by improving application strategies. Yield mapping with the aid of GPS revealed a high spatial variability. Further improvements in N efficiency with respect to these differences in yield potentials would be possible by utilising precision farming.

Project phase 1999–2003

In the project phase 1999–2003, management of the organic and integrated farms continued as before. Monitoring of processes and conditions, recording of landscape redesign-induced changes and causal analysis of processes were also further carried out. The integrated farming system was optimised by precision farming. The establishment of indicators for sustainable land use was an essential requirement for the evaluation methods. Last, models were to be further developed so as to enable forecasting of processes up to the landscape level.

The FAM Munich Research Network on Agroecosystems was a cooperation between the Center of Life and Food Sciences, formerly known as the Agricultural Faculty of the Technical University of Munich in Freising-Weihenstephan, and the GSF – National Research Center for Environment and Health in Munich-Neuherberg. Approximately 30 scientific groups collaborated on this project. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research provided funding for the FAM project, as a centre of ecosystem research. The Bavarian State Ministry for Research and the Arts contributed the overhead costs and for the agrarian management of Research Station Scheyern. The GSF – National Research Center for Environment and Health in Munich-Neuherberg and the Technical University of Munich in Freising-Weihenstephan participated with their own financial resources. FAM was part of the international ecological research program ‘Man and the Biosphere’ (MaB) of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Thanks to U. Weller (UFZ, Leipzig) for conceptualising the maps of Research Station