Читать книгу North American Agroforestry - Группа авторов - Страница 20

One of the primary advantages of agroforestry in the United States probably rests in its ecological benefits and resultant environmental protection characteristics (Garrett et al., 1994; Jose, 2009; Jose & Gordon, 2008; Jose, Walter, & Kumar, 2019; Kremen & Merenlender, 2018; Udawatta & Jose, 2012). As an ecologically based land management strategy, agroforestry practices help maintain ecosystem diversity and processes that are important to the long‐term sustainability of any extractive land use practice such as agriculture and forestry. This approach offers the opportunity to maintain and possibly improve the quality of the soil resource by reducing erosion, enhancing nutrient capital, and improving water infiltration and retention rates (Dollinger & Jose, 2018; Udawatta, Gantzer, & Jose, 2017). Trees also moderate microclimatic extremes, assuring cooler summers and warmer winters. Such conditions are beneficial to the production of certain food crops and livestock under severe environmental conditions as well as to human comfort. Agroforestry practices can also result in decreases in chemical (e.g., fertilizers and pesticides) and energy inputs of farming systems, all important to an environmentally sensitive society (Jose, 2019; Lerch, Lin, Goyne, Kremer, & Anderson, 2017). There is a growing movement to value some of the environmental services provided by agroforestry practices, allowing their benefits to be translated into economic incentives for landowners.