Agricultural Landscapes: History, Status and Challenges

B - Book chapters etc edited externally

Muller, L., Eulenstein, F., Dronin, N. M., Mirschel, W., McKensie, B. M., Antrop, M., Jones, M., Dannowski, R., Schindler, U., Behrendt, A., Rukhovich, O. V., Sychev, V. G., Scheudzhen, A. K., Romanenkov, V. A., Trofimov, I., Robinson, G. M., Schreg, R., Blum, W. E. H., Salnjikov, E., Saparov, A., Pachikin, K., Rombke, J., Manton, M., Angelstam, P., Hennings, V. and Poulton, P. R. 2021. Agricultural Landscapes: History, Status and Challenges. in: Mueller, L., Sychev, V. G., Dronin, N. M. and Eulenstein, F. (ed.) Exploring and Optimizing Agricultural Landscapes. Innovations in Landscape Research Springer.

AuthorsMuller, L., Eulenstein, F., Dronin, N. M., Mirschel, W., McKensie, B. M., Antrop, M., Jones, M., Dannowski, R., Schindler, U., Behrendt, A., Rukhovich, O. V., Sychev, V. G., Scheudzhen, A. K., Romanenkov, V. A., Trofimov, I., Robinson, G. M., Schreg, R., Blum, W. E. H., Salnjikov, E., Saparov, A., Pachikin, K., Rombke, J., Manton, M., Angelstam, P., Hennings, V. and Poulton, P. R.
EditorsMueller, L., Sychev, V. G., Dronin, N. M. and Eulenstein, F.
Abstract

Agricultural landscapes (rural landscapes, agrolandscapes) are territories shaped by agricultural production. They have enabled the development of human civilizations and are a cultural achievement. Peasants, farmers and agricultural enterprises feed society. They have created agricultural landscapes for their business and habitats for their life. To understand transformation processes in agricultural landscapes, we analyse the history of agriculture with a special focus on Europe and Eurasia. Current agricultural landscapes in a crowded, globalized world are multifunctional, highly complex systems. They not only serve to produce food commodities and energy for the increasing and expanding urban population but also provide diverse ecosystem services and need to cater for the demands of the rural population. Current agriculture is highly productive in wealthy countries, but due to high inputs it is also responsible for environmental problems such as water pollution and loss of biodiversity. Industrial-style agriculture in large fields has resulted in increased productivity but simplified the structure of landscapes and eliminated elements of nature and rural culture. Major problems that urgently need to be addressed include trends towards disrupting natural cycles in agricultural production, soil and water degradation, ageing populations in villages and the breakdown of rural infrastructure. Agricultural landscape research provides analyses to understand these processes and helps elaborate sustainable scientific, technical and cultural solutions.

KeywordsAgriculture ; Landscape; History; Transformations; Research; Food security; Land productivity; Intensification; Degradation; Agro-environmental monitoring ; Europe; Russia; China
Year of Publication2021
Book titleExploring and Optimizing Agricultural Landscapes. Innovations in Landscape Research
PublisherSpringer
SeriesInnovations in Landscape Research book series (ILR)
ISBN9783030674489
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67448-9_9
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Funder project or codeS2N - Soil to Nutrition [ISPG]
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online15 Jun 2021

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