Christopher J Watson , Renata Mazzei , Bérenger Bourgeois , Élise Smedbol , Noé Guiraud , Jim Félix-Faure , Hada Damar , Maxime Tremblay , Pierre-Andé Bordeleau , Mathieu Vaillancourt , Andrea Bertolo , Gilbert Cabana , Stephane Campeau , Maurice Doyon , Valérie Fournier , Vincent Fugère , Valérie Gravel , François Guillemette , Caroline Halde , Jessica A Head , Raphaël Proulx
{"title":"Towards sustainable agricultural landscapes: Lessons from an interdisciplinary research-based framework applied to the Saint Lawrence floodplain","authors":"Christopher J Watson , Renata Mazzei , Bérenger Bourgeois , Élise Smedbol , Noé Guiraud , Jim Félix-Faure , Hada Damar , Maxime Tremblay , Pierre-Andé Bordeleau , Mathieu Vaillancourt , Andrea Bertolo , Gilbert Cabana , Stephane Campeau , Maurice Doyon , Valérie Fournier , Vincent Fugère , Valérie Gravel , François Guillemette , Caroline Halde , Jessica A Head , Raphaël Proulx","doi":"10.1016/j.baae.2024.07.005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Floodplains are unique environments that provide a dynamic link between terrestrial and aquatic systems. Intensification of human activity – particularly agriculture and urbanisation – has resulted in the degradation of floodplains worldwide. Restoration and sustainable management of floodplains requires holistic assessment and compromise between stakeholders to successfully balance environmental, economic, and social benefits. Yet, understanding these complex systems sufficiently to provide evidence-based recommendations is a challenge. We present the lessons learned from establishing an interdisciplinary research-based framework on the agricultural floodplain of Lake Saint Pierre, Québec, Canada, whose mandate was to a) understand and define key environmental, agricultural, and socioeconomic attributes of the landscape, b) quantify the trade-offs and synergies between these attributes across different agricultural practices, regions, and land uses, and c) explore novel agri-environmental management practices to assess their role in sustainable floodplain management. Within this manuscript, we explore the benefits that such an approach offers in evaluating sustainable floodplain land use. We found that an interdisciplinary research-based approach demonstrated important benefits such as knowledge transfer, more efficient use of resources (e.g., personnel, funding), and a flexible yet robust research framework. A framework of individual research projects connected to broader interdisciplinary themes allowed a more holistic synthesis of the floodplain systems and assessment of agri-environmental practices. By implicitly considering spatial and social scales, we conceptualised not just how redistribution of the land use types can meet sustainable management objectives, but also explored how compromises within existing uses can optimise socio-economic, agricultural and environmental dimensions and move towards a sustainable multifunctional landscape.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8708,"journal":{"name":"Basic and Applied Ecology","volume":"80 ","pages":"Pages 11-22"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179124000501/pdfft?md5=c2c8e127715bc1632763f47151a4afca&pid=1-s2.0-S1439179124000501-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Basic and Applied Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179124000501","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Floodplains are unique environments that provide a dynamic link between terrestrial and aquatic systems. Intensification of human activity – particularly agriculture and urbanisation – has resulted in the degradation of floodplains worldwide. Restoration and sustainable management of floodplains requires holistic assessment and compromise between stakeholders to successfully balance environmental, economic, and social benefits. Yet, understanding these complex systems sufficiently to provide evidence-based recommendations is a challenge. We present the lessons learned from establishing an interdisciplinary research-based framework on the agricultural floodplain of Lake Saint Pierre, Québec, Canada, whose mandate was to a) understand and define key environmental, agricultural, and socioeconomic attributes of the landscape, b) quantify the trade-offs and synergies between these attributes across different agricultural practices, regions, and land uses, and c) explore novel agri-environmental management practices to assess their role in sustainable floodplain management. Within this manuscript, we explore the benefits that such an approach offers in evaluating sustainable floodplain land use. We found that an interdisciplinary research-based approach demonstrated important benefits such as knowledge transfer, more efficient use of resources (e.g., personnel, funding), and a flexible yet robust research framework. A framework of individual research projects connected to broader interdisciplinary themes allowed a more holistic synthesis of the floodplain systems and assessment of agri-environmental practices. By implicitly considering spatial and social scales, we conceptualised not just how redistribution of the land use types can meet sustainable management objectives, but also explored how compromises within existing uses can optimise socio-economic, agricultural and environmental dimensions and move towards a sustainable multifunctional landscape.
期刊介绍:
Basic and Applied Ecology provides a forum in which significant advances and ideas can be rapidly communicated to a wide audience. Basic and Applied Ecology publishes original contributions, perspectives and reviews from all areas of basic and applied ecology. Ecologists from all countries are invited to publish ecological research of international interest in its pages. There is no bias with regard to taxon or geographical area.