Agricultural landscape features can mitigate field-edge yield declines: Insights from yield monitor and remote sensing data

Mitigating field-edge yield declines would reduce yield losses on farms. The processes controlling crop yield at the field edge may result from the local environment and/or surrounding landscape context. We combine precision yield monitor and remote sensed data to identify the factors that contribute to field-edge yield declines at the landscape, farm, and field scales. We found environmental conditions, including wind and moisture, can significantly affect field-edge yield declines. Landscape features such as hedgerows, which may exacerbate shading and wetness, can worsen these effects. However, interactions between landscape features across scales indicate an important role of ecosystem service providers in mitigating field-edge yield declines, as local seminatural features relate to greater positive effects when located in diverse habitat (i.e. resource-rich) landscapes. The efficacy of management practices, such as the creation of new off-crop features that support biodiversity, depends on the surrounding landscape. When growers have flexibility over the placement of management features, such as turning headlands or the creation of new agri-environmental features such as the establishment hedgerows, these decisions should be informed by their knowledge of the existing landscape and environment at the local-, farm- and landscape-scale.