The researchers found that farms with diverse crops planted together provide more secure, stable habitats for wildlife, and are more resilient to climate change than the single-crop standard that dominates today’s agriculture industry.

The research provides a rare, long-term look at how farming practices affect bird biodiversity in Costa Rica.

“Farms that are good for birds are also good for other species,” says coauthor Jeffrey Smith, a graduate student in the biology department at Stanford University. “We can use birds as natural guides to help us design better agricultural systems.”

By and large, the team found that diversified farms are more stable in the number of birds they support, provide a more secure habitat for those birds, and shield against the effects of climate change much more effectively than single-crop farms.

“The tropics are expected to suffer even more intensely in terms of prolonged dry seasons, extreme heat, and forest dieback under climate change,” says senior author Gretchen Daily, director of the Stanford Natural Capital Project and the Center for Conservation Biology. “But diversified farms offer refuge—they can buffer these harmful effects in ways similar to a natural forest ecosystem.”

The findings highlight the importance of farms that grow multiple crops in a mixed setting instead of the more common practice of planting single-crop “monocultures.”

“This study shows that climate change has already been impacting wildlife communities, continues to do so, and that local farming practices really matter in protecting biodiversity and building climate resilience,” says lead author Nick Hendershot, a graduate student in the biology department.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that diversified farmlands not only provide refuge to more common bird species, they also protect some of the most threatened. Species of international conservation concern, like the great green macaw and the yellow-naped parrot, are at risk in Costa Rica due to habitat loss and the illegal pet trade.

Read the full article about crop diversity at Futurity.