Abstract
In temperate forested regions, historical agricultural production and value have been characterized by booms and busts. Agricultural diversification can encourage more stable agricultural development in the future. Agricultural Census and Survey data from 1840 to 2017 were used to estimate crop and livestock species’ product production and value for Maine, USA. These data were also used to calculate agricultural diversity indicators over time such as species richness, relative abundance, effective number of species, species diversification index, evenness, Shannon-Weiner index, and composite entropy index. Maine’s historical grass-based livestock systems included crops raised to feed livestock from the state’s establishment until the 1950’s. Since the 1950’s, production and value of livestock commodity products (e.g., meat chicken, eggs) have busted after initial booms. Three categories where diversity indicators have become more favorable since the 1950’s in Maine include livestock, livestock forage/feed, and potatoes and potato rotation crops. Mixed vegetables, fruits, nuts, and specialty crops as a category have had diversity increases during the 1970’s back-to-the-land movement and over the past two decades. Floriculture, propagation, and X-Mas trees as a category have witnessed volatile diversity indicator changes over time. Past diversification strategies can inspire farmers to go “back to the future” to improve sustainability.
Subject
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment,Geography, Planning and Development,Building and Construction
Reference90 articles.
1. Measuring Forest Biodiversity Status and Changes Globally;Hill;Front. For. Glob. Chang.,2019
2. The effect of natural disturbances on forest biodiversity: An ecological synthesis;Viljur;Biol. Rev.,2022
3. Environmental drivers of forest biodiversity in temperate mixed forests—A multi-taxon approach;Tinya;Sci. Total Environ.,2021
4. Biodiversity along temperate forest succession;Hilmers;J. App. Ecol.,2018
5. Flatebo, G., Foss, C.R., and Pelletier, S.K. (1999). Biodiversity in the Forests of Maine: Guidelines for Land Management, University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Available online: http://www.upperstjohnriver.com/BFM.pdf.
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献