María Rosa Mosquera-Losada – författare

Agroforestry has come of age during the past three decades. The age-old practice of growing trees and crops and sometimes animals in interacting combinations – that has been ignored in the single-commodity-oriented agricultural and forestry development paradigms – has been brought into the realm of modern land-use. Today agroforestry is well on its way to becoming a specialized science at a level similar to those of crop science and forestry science. To most land-use experts, however, agroforestry has a tropical connotation. They consider agroforestry as something that can and can only be identified with the tropics. That is a wrong perception. While it is true that the tropics, compared to the temperate regions, have a wider array of agroforestry systems and hold greater promise for potential agroforestry interventions, it is also true that agroforestry has several opportunities in the temperate regions too. Indeed, the role of agroforestry is now recognized in Europe as exemplified by this book, North America, and elsewhere in the temperate zone. Current interest in ecosystem management in industrialized countries strongly suggests that there is a need to embrace and apply agroforestry principles to help mitigate the environmental problems caused or exacerbated by commercial agricultural and forestry production enterprises.

Agroforestry has come of age during the past three decades. The age-old practice of growing trees and crops and sometimes animals in interacting combinations – that has been ignored in the single-commodity-oriented agricultural and forestry development paradigms – has been brought into the realm of modern land-use. Today agroforestry is well on its way to becoming a specialized science at a level similar to those of crop science and forestry science. To most land-use experts, however, agroforestry has a tropical connotation. They consider agroforestry as something that can and can only be identified with the tropics. That is a wrong perception. While it is true that the tropics, compared to the temperate regions, have a wider array of agroforestry systems and hold greater promise for potential agroforestry interventions, it is also true that agroforestry has several opportunities in the temperate regions too. Indeed, the role of agroforestry is now recognized in Europe as exemplified by this book, North America, and elsewhere in the temperate zone. Current interest in ecosystem management in industrialized countries strongly suggests that there is a need to embrace and apply agroforestry principles to help mitigate the environmental problems caused or exacerbated by commercial agricultural and forestry production enterprises.

Agroforestry seeks to balance protection of forest resources, the exploitation of the ecosystem services that trees can contribute to agriculture and the role of agroforestry in diversifying the range of agricultural products and markets. This volume reviews the latest research on the role and implementation of main types of agroforestry, understanding and assessing the ecosystem services that agroforestry can deliver and techniques for optimising agroforestry practice. The book's main focus is on temperate agroforestry, but also reviews particular issues facing agroforestry in the tropics. The collection will be a standard reference for forestry and agricultural scientists in universities, government and other research centres in agroforestry

This book features five peer-reviewed reviews on the implementation of agroforestry practices.The first chapter reviews the use of integrated crop-livestock systems, with a focus on agroforestry systems. The chapter discusses the potential environmental and economic benefits of agroforestry systems, as well as their contribution to animal health and welfare.The second chapter considers the plantation and management of temperate agroforestry systems which combine timber trees and herbaceous crops. The chapter covers choice of tree species, techniques of tree planting, plantation maintenance and approaches to tree pruning and thinning.The third chapter provides an overview of the implementation of alley cropping in agroforestry systems. The chapter explores the economic and ecological benefits of alley cropping, as well as the challenges and major considerations of implementing these practices within North America.The fourth chapter addresses the challenges and key issues in the sustainable production and use of willow as feedstock for biofuel production in northern temperate regions, including the issues of feedstock quality for biofuel use.The final chapter explores the contribution of agroforestry to meet global strategies to increase biodiversity while sustainably increasing agricultural systems resource efficiency.

This book features four peer-reviewed reviews on the range of regenerative techniques used to enhance biodiversity.The first chapter reviews the benefits of field margins in enhancing biodiversity in agroecosystems by supporting plant diversity, increasing the abundance and diversity of beneficial insects, providing wildlife corridors and contributing to landscape heterogeneity. It also considers the design and management of field margins and their economic impacts.The second chapter explores the impact and management of hedgerows in promoting biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. It also discusses the range of ecological processes and biodiversity in hedgerows, from hedge structure and woody species to ground flora and nutrient cycling.The third chapter considers the development of a cell-based spatial modelling approach to better understand the interactions between planned biodiversity and associated biodiversity within alley cropping systems. The chapter also assesses the implications for different management strategies to optimise associated biodiversity.The final chapter outlines the principles, benefits, and practical management strategies of multispecies swards. The chapter also highlights their importance in creating sustainable and resilient agricultural systems that meet both agronomic and environmental goals.