German Sanchez

 Agricultural intensification has been accompanied by an increment of productivity which is often translated into higher economic benefits and food supply. This sector, however, is directly linked with the natural environment and consequently, land-use decisions have a clear impact on ecosystem services, including biodiversity. In this work, we propose a spatial landscape optimization model to identify the trade-offs between economic output and biodiversity levels, solved by the Guroby optimizer algorithm. We develop an index for species-specific habitat suitability responding to crop selection and intensification levels. We simulate crop yields under different managements considering soil and climate characteristics of each location with the STICS crop growth simulation model. We also account for changes in intensification constraints that allow us to design optimal conservation areas allocation and apply it to Lleida (Spain), where a conflict between agricultural intensification and biodiversity has arisen during the last decades. We quantify the trade-offs between biodiversity goals and economic value and find that under the same level of biodiversity, the latest can be significantly increased by reorganizing land-uses locations and conservation areas.