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Sara Palomo-Campesino was funded by a grant from the Spanish National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology, co-funded by the Social European Fund (FPI-INIA). This work was also supported by AgroecologiCAM project funded by the European Union, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment and Madrid Regional Government under the Rural Development Programme (RDP-CM 2014-2020); by SIMBIOSIS API-AGRO project funded by the European Union, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment and Madrid Regional Government under the Rural Development Programme (RDP-CM 2014-2020); by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N_81819, by the project entitled: Co-design of novel contract models for innovative agri-environmental-climate measures and for valorisation of environmental public goods; and by SAVIA project (Sowing Alternatives for Agro-ecological Innovation) funded by the Universidad Aut'onoma de Madrid and the Direcci'on General de Inves-tigaci'on e Innovaci'on de la Consejeria de Educaci'on e Investigaci'on de la Comunidad de Madrid (SI1/PJI/2019-00444).

Analysis of institutional authors

García-Llorente, MAuthorHevia, VAuthorGonzalez, JaCorresponding Author

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September 19, 2022
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Do agroecological practices enhance the supply of ecosystem services? A comparison between agroecological and conventional horticultural farms

Publicated to:Ecosystem Services. 57 101474 - - 2022-10-01 57(), DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2022.101474

Authors: Palomo-Campesino, Sara; Garcia-Llorente, Marina; Hevia, Violeta; Boeraeve, Fanny; Dendoncker, Nicolas; Gonzalez, Jose A.;

Affiliations

Fractal Collect, cSan Remigio 2, Madrid 28022, Spain - Author
Madrid Inst Rural Agr & Food Res & Dev IMIDRA, Dept Appl Res & Agr Extens, Ctra Madrid Barcelona N-2 KM 38-200, Madrid 28802, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Ctr Invest Biodiversidad & Cambio Global CIBC UAM, E-28049 Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Dept Ecol, Social Ecol Syst Lab, Madrid 28049, Spain - Author
Univ Liege, Gembloux Agrobio Tech, TERRA BIOSE Biodiversite & Paysages, Passage Deportes 2, B-5030 Gembloux, Belgium - Author
Univ Namur, Dept Geog, 61 Rue Bruxelles, B-5000 Namur, Belgium - Author
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Abstract

Agricultural intensification has strongly impacted ecosystems and accelerated the process of global change. Consequently, agroecological practices are being increasingly adopted. Agroecological practices are biodiversity-based solutions that aim to generate sustainable and resilient agroecosystems, which could enhance the supply of ecosystem services. This study compared agroecological and conventional horticultural farms in terms of agro-ecological practices and ecosystem services supply. We conducted biophysical samplings and interviews on 24 agroecological and conventional farms over two summers in the Madrid Region (Spain). We used multiple in-dicators as proxies of the supply of 12 ecosystem services, and we identified the agricultural practices applied at each farm. We found that agroecological farmers applied more agroecological practices compared to conven-tional farmers, and agroecological farms had a higher potential to supply regulating, provisioning, and cultural services. Some agroecological practices, such as crop diversification, light tillage, and the use of organic pesti-cides, were associated with enhancing soil fertility, pest control, and pollination services. Our study provided empirical evidence that agroecological practices enhance ecosystem services at horticultural farms, which is extremely relevant to upscaling agroecology in the current context of ongoing European policy reforms.

Keywords

Aggregate stabilityAgroecological practiceAgroecological transitionBee diversityBiodiversityBiological-controlConservation agricultureConventional farmingCropping systemsEcosystem service indicatorsHorticultureIntensificationManagementPerceptionsSoil qualitySustainability

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Ecosystem Services due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 10/171, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Ecology. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.24. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 4.17 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 6.63 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-18, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 4
  • Scopus: 10

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-18:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 113.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 141 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Belgium.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Palomo-Campesino, S) and Last Author (GONZALEZ NOVOA, JOSE ANTONIO).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been GONZALEZ NOVOA, JOSE ANTONIO.