IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v223y2025ics0308521x24003366.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vegetation-based Ecological Functions Sustainability Index (VEFSI) for optimizing ecosystem services in orchards

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno, Ilaria
  • Mania, Ilaria
  • Lovera, Matteo
  • Brondino, Luca
  • Peano, Cristiana

Abstract

The need to quantify sustainability in agriculture and the ecosystem services it provides is increasingly felt by the sector. Indicators and indices are useful tools for this purpose, but are currently scarce in the specialized fruit-growing sector. In addition, there is a need for a more holistic view of the orchard system, which also considers unproductive spaces, such as the inter-row, where techniques can be implemented to improve adaptation to climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno, Ilaria & Mania, Ilaria & Lovera, Matteo & Brondino, Luca & Peano, Cristiana, 2025. "Vegetation-based Ecological Functions Sustainability Index (VEFSI) for optimizing ecosystem services in orchards," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:223:y:2025:i:c:s0308521x24003366
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104186
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X24003366
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104186?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Swinton, Scott M. & Lupi, Frank & Robertson, G. Philip & Hamilton, Stephen K., 2007. "Ecosystem services and agriculture: Cultivating agricultural ecosystems for diverse benefits," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 245-252, December.
    2. Giovanna Giacalone & Cristiana Peano & Deborah Isocrono & Francesco Sottile, 2021. "Are Cover Crops Affecting the Quality and Sustainability of Fruit Production?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-10, November.
    3. Morugán-Coronado, Alicia & Linares, Carlos & Gómez-López, María Dolores & Faz, Ángel & Zornoza, Raúl, 2020. "The impact of intercropping, tillage and fertilizer type on soil and crop yield in fruit orchards under Mediterranean conditions: A meta-analysis of field studies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    4. Logsdon, Rebecca A. & Chaubey, Indrajeet, 2013. "A quantitative approach to evaluating ecosystem services," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 257(C), pages 57-65.
    5. Wei, Wenwen & Liu, Tingting & Zhang, Shuai & Shen, Lei & Wang, Xiuyuan & Li, Luhua & Zhu, Yun & Zhang, Wei, 2024. "Root spatial distribution and belowground competition in an apple/ryegrass agroforestry system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    6. Garba, Ismail I. & Bell, Lindsay W. & Chauhan, Bhagirath S. & Williams, Alwyn, 2024. "Optimizing ecosystem function multifunctionality with cover crops for improved agronomic and environmental outcomes in dryland cropping systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    7. Mekonnen H Daba & Sintayehu W Dejene, 2018. "The Role of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Carbon Sequestration and its Implication for Climate Change Mitigation," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 11(2), pages 53-62, May.
    8. Assefa, A. & Haile, Alemseged Tamiru & Dhanya, C. T. & Walker, D. W. & Gowing, J. & Parkin, G., 2021. "Impact of sustainable land management on vegetation cover using remote sensing in Magera micro Watershed, Omo Gibe Basin, Ethiopia," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 103:102495..
    9. Schipanski, Meagan E. & Barbercheck, Mary & Douglas, Margaret R. & Finney, Denise M. & Haider, Kristin & Kaye, Jason P. & Kemanian, Armen R. & Mortensen, David A. & Ryan, Matthew R. & Tooker, John & W, 2014. "A framework for evaluating ecosystem services provided by cover crops in agroecosystems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 12-22.
    10. Sean L. Maxwell & Richard A. Fuller & Thomas M. Brooks & James E. M. Watson, 2016. "Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers," Nature, Nature, vol. 536(7615), pages 143-145, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Theocharis Chatzistathis & Victor Kavvadias & Thomas Sotiropoulos & Ioannis E. Papadakis, 2021. "Organic Fertilization and Tree Orchards," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-20, July.
    2. Valencia Torres, Angélica & Tiwari, Chetan & Atkinson, Samuel F., 2021. "Progress in ecosystem services research: A guide for scholars and practitioners," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    3. Vermunt, D.A. & Wojtynia, N. & Hekkert, M.P. & Van Dijk, J. & Verburg, R. & Verweij, P.A. & Wassen, M. & Runhaar, H., 2022. "Five mechanisms blocking the transition towards ‘nature-inclusive’ agriculture: A systemic analysis of Dutch dairy farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    4. Kristian Steensen Nielsen & Theresa M. Marteau & Jan M. Bauer & Richard B. Bradbury & Steven Broad & Gayle Burgess & Mark Burgman & Hilary Byerly & Susan Clayton & Dulce Espelosin & Paul J. Ferraro & , 2021. "Biodiversity conservation as a promising frontier for behavioural science," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(5), pages 550-556, May.
    5. Smith, Helen F. & Sullivan, Caroline A., 2014. "Ecosystem services within agricultural landscapes—Farmers' perceptions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 72-80.
    6. Emblemsvåg, Jan, 2022. "Wind energy is not sustainable when balanced by fossil energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    7. Shah, Syed Mahboob & Liu, Gengyuan & Yang, Qing & Casazza, Marco & Agostinho, Feni & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2021. "Sustainability assessment of agriculture production systems in Pakistan: A provincial-scale energy-based evaluation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 455(C).
    8. Rocío Silva-Pérez & Gema González-Romero, 2022. "GIAHS as an Instrument to Articulate the Landscape and Territorialized Agrifood Systems—The Example of La Axarquía (Malaga Province, Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-21, February.
    9. Pascual, Unai & Narloch, Ulf & Nordhagen, Stella & Drucker, Adam G., 2011. "The economics of agrobiodiversity conservation for food security under climate change," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(01), pages 1-30, November.
    10. repec:idb:brikps:64718 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Alamanos, Angelos & Koundouri, Phoebe, 2022. "Economics of Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Water Resource Planning and Management," MPRA Paper 122046, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Baskaran, Ramesh & Cullen, Ross & Colombo, Sergio, 2010. "Testing different types of benefit transfer in valuation of ecosystem services: New Zealand winegrowing case studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1010-1022, March.
    13. Adam Pawlewicz & Wojciech Gotkiewicz & Katarzyna Brodzińska & Katarzyna Pawlewicz & Bartosz Mickiewicz & Paweł Kluczek, 2022. "Organic Farming as an Alternative Maintenance Strategy in the Opinion of Farmers from Natura 2000 Areas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-22, March.
    14. Schleyer, Christian & Plieninger, Tobias, 2011. "Identifying obstacles to the design and implementation of payment schemes for ecosystem services provided through farm trees," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 115992, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Marie Lassalas & Sabine Duvaleix & Laure Latruffe, 2024. "The technical and economic effects of biodiversity standards on wheat production," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 51(2), pages 275-308.
    16. Wang, Haoluan & Swallow, Brent M., 2017. "Linking Agricultural Land Conservation and Provision of Ecosystem Services: A Choice Experiment Approach," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258537, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Posthumus, H. & Rouquette, J.R. & Morris, J. & Gowing, D.J.G. & Hess, T.M., 2010. "A framework for the assessment of ecosystem goods and services; a case study on lowland floodplains in England," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1510-1523, May.
    18. Athanasios Ragkos & Alexandros Theodoridis & Georgios Arsenos, 2019. "Alternative Approaches of Summer Milk Sales from Transhumant Sheep and Goat Farms: A Case Study from Northern Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-21, October.
    19. Biancamaria Torquati & Giulia Giacchè & Tiziano Tempesta, 2020. "Landscapes and Services in Peri-Urban Areas and Choice of Housing Location: An Application of Discrete Choice Experiments," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-21, October.
    20. Agboola, Oluwagbenga David & Yu, Han, 2023. "Neighborhood-based cross fitting approach to treatment effects with high-dimensional data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    21. Fan, Fan & Henriksen, Christian Bugge & Porter, John, 2016. "Valuation of ecosystem services in organic cereal crop production systems with different management practices in relation to organic matter input," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(PA), pages 117-127.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:223:y:2025:i:c:s0308521x24003366. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.