Creating phytochemically diverse foodscapes through landscape interventions

Abstract

Landscape interventions can lead to the establishment of resource patches or “islands” with a diversity of bioactive-containing forages (e.g., legumes, herbs, shrubs) in monotonous rangelands or pasturelands, viewed as a “sea” of low-diversity vegetation devoid of functional biochemicals. Strategies aimed at enhancing the diversity of plant communities promote heterogeneity in chemical, structural and functional landscape traits that offer options to foragers, and thus allow for balanced diets that improve nutrition and maintain or restore health. Such heterogeneity promotes a broad array of ecosystem services that significantly improve landscape resilience to environmental disturbances.