Long-term agricultural diversification increases financial profitability, biodiversity, and ecosystem services: a second-order meta-analysis
Estelle Raveloaritiana · Thomas Cherico Wanger
期刊Nature Communications / Nat Commun
类型Article
发表2026-01-26 (online)
卷期页17(1): 1016
收录2026-10-03
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关键词agricultural diversificationprofitabilitybiodiversityecosystem servicespollinationsoil qualitycarbon sequestrationintercroppingorganic farmingsoil inoculation
标签—
农药在土壤中广泛分布,但它们对土壤生物多样性的影响仍知之甚少。在这里,我们考察了 63 种农药对 26 个欧洲国家跨越林地、草地和农田的 373 个地点的土壤古菌、细菌、真菌、原生生物、线虫、节肢动物和关键功能基因组的影响。农药残留被检测到 70%的地点,并成为继土壤性质之后的第二大土壤生物多样性模式驱动因素。我们的分析进一步揭示了生物体和功能特定的模式,强调了土壤生物多样性上复杂而广泛的非靶标效应。农药改变了微生物功能,包括磷和氮循环,并抑制了有益类群,包括丛枝菌根真菌和捕食细菌线虫。我们的研究结果表明,需要将功能和分类学特征整合到未来的风险评估方法中,以保护土壤生物多样性,这是生态系统功能的核心。
Sustainable agriculture in the 21st century requires the production of sufficient food, while reducing environmental impacts and safeguarding human livelihoods. Many studies have confirmed agricultural diversification with practices such as intercropping, organic farming, and soil inoculations, as suitable pathways to achieve these goals, but the long-term viability of socioeconomic and ecological benefits is uncertain. Here, we use a second-order meta-analysis to quantify long-term effects of agricultural diversification practices on socioeconomic and ecological benefits based on 120 years of data from 184 meta-analyses with 6741 effect sizes. Diversification increases financial profitability, biodiversity, pollination, soil quality, and carbon sequestration from 37 to 189% over 20 years, and we find no significant effects on crop yield, pest control, and climate regulation. Non-crop and crop diversification practices and use of organic amendments increase or maintain most of these benefits over time. Trade-off analysis between yield and all services shows win-win outcomes during the first 40 years. Our synthesis provides the urgently needed evidence for farmers and other decision-makers that diversification increases long-term financial profitability, biodiversity, soil quality, and climate change mitigation benefits. A large-scale implementation of agricultural diversification requires, however, careful consideration of factors that mediate these benefits. Then, agricultural diversification can be upscaled for long-term socioeconomic and nature-positive outcomes and, ultimately, for a global food system transformation. Feeding a growing population while protecting the environment is a major global challenge. This study suggests that agricultural diversification enhances long-term profitability, biodiversity, soil health, and climate benefits while maintaining crop yields, supporting a shift toward nature-positive farming.

@article{raveloaritiana2026,
author = {Estelle Raveloaritiana and Thomas Cherico Wanger},
title = {Long-term agricultural diversification increases financial profitability, biodiversity, and ecosystem services: a second-order meta-analysis},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
volume = {17},
number = {1},
pages = {1016},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-025-67757-7},
publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
}· END ·