Significance Statement
The ELIA model comprehensively assesses the links between the
energy and information flows driven by farming, the land cover patterns
they imprint, and the species
richness in human-transformed landscapes.
When this model is used as a
predictor of biodiversity, the information-based redistribution of
energy flows becomes a primary indicator of the key role of farmers’
knowledge and labour in maintaining the ecological functionality of
biocultural landscapes by means of a subtle and historically changing
human-nature relationship. TheELIA modelling and results are very useful for land-use policies
aimed at addressing the energy-food-biodiversity trilemma currently
posed at global scale.