Positive effects of photovoltaic solar plants on agro-ecosystems?

We talk about the positive effects of photovoltaic solar plants on agroecosystems and about the possibility of reversing the negative impact, due to loss of habitat, of photovoltaic solar plants into a positive effect as an element that generates habitat heterogeneity.

What is an agrarian landscape?

Well, it is a transformed natural landscape; we modify the structure and control the processes of ecosystems to obtain natural resources (examples of agrarian landscapes are pastures or fields). Well, these agroecosystems (these transformed natural ecosystems) are complex and heterogeneous, productive because they provide us with natural, biodiverse resources. And why are they biodiverse? Because they are heterogeneous.

And what is heterogeneity?

Well, we explain it with an example: imagine a desert area with the same environmental conditions of light, temperature, humidity and fertility all over the surface; a hostile and lifeless environment. Now we introduce a stone into the system and environmental gradients are generated around the rock: shade and lower temperature, humidity, and fertility due to the retention of inorganic particles and organic matter in suspension. The wind carries a seed that hits the rock, falls and germinates in this new favorable environment. A dispersed herbivorous invertebrate can be established to feed on the plant. A lizard can go hunting invertebrates... In other words, a single element of the landscape that generates environmental heterogeneity already creates a microecosystem. The fact is that there is a direct relationship between heterogeneity and biodiversity.

Look at the photo of the countryside, how many landscape elements that generate environmental heterogeneity can we identify? different crops, herbaceous and woody, borders between plots, patches of natural vegetation, scattered and row trees, marshes... Extensive agriculture is a system of sustainable use of natural resources that shapes a biodiverse agrarian landscape: the countryside. Well, the countryside is an agrarian landscape in danger of extinction due to the intensification of agriculture, which simplifies, degrades and impoverishes the ecosystem: it reduces environmental heterogeneity to a minimum.

Can the negative effects be reversed?

The main negative effect of solar plants is habitat loss, but... could solar plants work as elements that generate environmental heterogeneity and promote the biodiversity of agricultural ecosystems? Could a negative impact (loss of habitat) be reversed in a positive one (environmental heterogeneity)?

In Environmental Ideas we assess the negative impacts of photovoltaic solar plants and design measures to correct, mitigate or compensate them, but we also do research to identify and enhance positive effects on agro-ecosystems.

Could solar plants work as elements that generate environmental heterogeneity and promote the biodiversity of agricultural ecosystems?