TY - CHAP A1 - Tsonkova, Penka A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Quinkenstein, Ansgar A1 - Böhm, Christian ED - Mosquera-Losada, María Rosa ED - Pantera, Anastasia ED - Rosati, A. ED - Amaral, J. ED - Smith, J. ED - Rigueiro-Rodriguez, A. ED - Watté, J. ED - Dupraz, Christian T1 - Assessment of ecosystem services provided by alley cropping systems for biomass production in Germany T2 - 1st European Agroforestry Conference 9-10 October 2012, Brussels, Book of Abstratcs N2 - Alley cropping systems which integrate strips of short rotation coppices into conventional agricultural sites (ACS) have recently gained increasing interest in Germany. These ACS can be used for the simultaneous production of crops and woody biomass which enables farmers to diversify the provision of market goods. Integrating trees into the agricultural landscape can create additional benefits for the farmer and society also known as ecosystem services (ES). The scientific literature suggests that ACS are able to provide additional benefits as compared to conventional agriculture. Among the important ES provided by ACS are carbon sequestration, soil fertility, water quality, groundwater recharge, and biodiversity. However, assessment methods are required which are easy to use and provide reliable information regarding change in ES with change of the land use practice. In this context, our aim was to develop a methodology to assess selected ES provided by ACS in Germany. For this purpose an indicator set was selected from the literature and linked with the relevant ES previously identified. Furthermore, a model was developed to facilitate the calculation of the indicators. The results showed that ACS established at agricultural sites have higher capacity to provide ES as compared to single-crop agriculture. The capacity of ACS with 50% trees is higher than the capacity of ACS with 30% trees which suggests that the capacity of the system to provide ES increases with increased proportion of trees. The methodology seems to be a promising tool to facilitate the assessment of ES provided by the land management practices considered. In the long term this measurement approach can be broadened to include monetary evaluation of ES. This will enable rewarding farmers for providing environmental benefits therefore, accurately compensating them for the outputs supplied. Y1 - 2012 SN - 978-84-96351-79-0 SP - 60 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Tsonkova, Penka A1 - Quinkenstein, Ansgar A1 - Böhm, Christian A1 - Freese, Dirk ED - Burkhard, B. ED - Crossmann, N. ED - Nedkov, S. T1 - Selection of indicators to assess ecosystem services provided by alley cropping system T2 - Book of abstracts of the 4th ESP Conference 2011 - Ecosystem Services: integrating Science and Practice; Workshop 1: Quantifying, mapping, and modeling of ecosystem services, held 4-7 October in Wageningen, Netherlands Y1 - 2011 UR - http://www.espconference.org/downloadattachment/79653/64887/Book%20of%20abstracts%20-%20Workshop%201.pdf ER -