Ecological Processes and Services (PROSE)

Biodiversity here refers to the genetic, taxonomic or functional diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms interacting within the cultivated ecosystem. Making use of ecosystem services, such as supplying nutrients to plants or controlling pests, weeds and diseases, is one of the best ways to reduce agriculture’s dependence on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, while meeting the need to increase agricultural production both in quantity and quality.

It is also a way to increase the resistance and resilience of agroecosystems in front to environmental disturbances. That said, it implies a profound change in action guidelines for the management of agricultural production systems, with a transition from an often individual, reactive approach based on the use of inputs at plot level to a collective, territorial organisation of biodiversity management and associated ecosystem services.