The net return from animal activity in agro-ecosystems: trading off benefits from ecosystem services against costs from crop damage.

ABSTRACT: Animals provide benefits to agriculture through the provision of ecosystem services, but also inflict costs such as damaging crops. These benefits and costs are mostly examined independently, rather than comparing the trade-offs of animal activity in the same system and quantifying the net return from beneficial minus detrimental activities. Here, I examine the net return associated with the activity of seed-eating birds in almond orchards by quantifying the economic costs and benefits of bird consumption of almonds. Pre-harvest, the consumption of harvestable almonds by birds cost growers AUD$57.50 ha (-1) when averaged across the entire plantation. Post-harvest, the same bird species provide an ecosystem service by removing mummified nuts from trees that growers otherwise need to remove

SUBMITTER: Luck GW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4176426 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature