Agricultural Biodiversity Outcomes
Healthy biodiversity is the foundation of resilient, productive, and regenerative agricultural systems. From soil microbes to pollinators, diverse plants and animals provide essential ecosystem services—pest control, pollination, nutrient cycling, water regulation, and climate resilience. However, until now, biodiversity outcomes have been some of the hardest to measure, verify, and scale. And as corporate sustainability commitments expand beyond carbon, biodiversity is rapidly emerging as a top priority alongside water quality. Many companies are increasingly seeking credible, science-based ways to understand, report, and invest in biodiversity outcomes across their supply chain.
Why Biodiversity Measurement in Agriculture Matters
Biodiversity has been recognized as a critical component to regenerative agriculture but has been underrepresented in environmental markets due to a lack of consistent, scalable measurement. This has limited our ability to compensate farmers for the biodiversity impacts from conservation practice implementation in EcoHarvest. A recent report published in ScienceDirect, Biodiversity modeling advances will improve predictions of nature’s contributions to people, highlights why modeling biodiversity must include impacts to species and communities—which is essential as we look to the benefits increased biodiversity contributes to agricultural system resilience and productivity.
ESMC’s Biodiversity Estimation for Agriculture Tool (BEAT)
In April 2026, we launched the Biodiversity Estimation for Agriculture Tool (BEAT), a new component of the EcoHarvest MRV platform. This tool represents a major step forward in bringing scientific rigor and market credibility to biodiversity outcomes in working agricultural landscapes.
Built on leading global frameworks, including the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (UK DEFRA) Biodiversity Metric, we partnered with TetraTech to adapt BEAT for North American agriculture. It translates complex ecological dynamics into a structured, quantifiable framework using five core components: habitat quality, weighted functional presence, conservation priority, habitat size, and time response.
By enabling credible, science-based quantification of biodiversity benefits associated with conservation practices, BEAT allows us to:
- Expand EcoHarvest payments beyond carbon to include biodiversity alongside water quality outcomes
- Provide farmers with new opportunities to be recognized and rewarded for conservation practice implementation
- Help members make more comprehensive, verifiable sustainability claims across their supply chains
- Support more resilient ecosystems by incentivizing practices that enhance habitats
BEAT Development: from Pilots to Incorporation into EcoHarvest
BEAT builds on years of research and field testing. In 2023, we piloted an earlier version in Kansas in partnership with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, demonstrating how practices like pollinator strips can generate measurable biodiversity value. Those insights informed the development of this tool, which introduces a more flexible, scalable framework applicable across diverse agricultural systems and BMPs.
Designed for scale and grounded in publicly available datasets, BEAT is among the first tools to bring structured biodiversity quantification into a full MRV system for agriculture. Future iterations will continue to refine the model, including the potential integration of targeted field-based measurements.
With the addition of BEAT, ESMC’s EcoHarvest platform now supports a more complete picture of environmental outcomes including carbon, water quality, and biodiversity.
Making Biodiversity Measurable: Science, Data, and Tools for Agricultural Systems: In April 2026, ESMC presented a webinar on advancing biodiversity quantification in agricultural systems featured Beckett Sterner from Arizona State University who explored the latest models, datasets, and guardrails needed to ensure credible biodiversity outcomes. ESMC’s Tapasya Babu also shared how ESMC is translating this science into practical tools, introduced ESMC’s new Biodiversity Estimation for Agriculture Tool (BEAT), and invited feedback from partners and stakeholders.
Where Soil Carbon Meets Life: A Keynote Perspective on Earthworms and Agroecosystem Biodiversity
April 2026: Biodiversity is increasingly recognized as a core driver of agronomic performance and climate resilience across agroecosystems. Once viewed as an environmental add-on at the margins of farming systems, it is now understood to be central to how soils function, crops grow, and landscapes remain productive over time.
Last month, we spoke with Dr. Rattan Lal, Distinguished Professor of Soil Science and Founder and Director of the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration at the Ohio State University, about his decades of research on soil organic carbon as a foundation for soil health—and the essential role earthworms play in that system. While biodiversity in agricultural systems spans everything from microbes to birds and pollinators, this article zooms in on earthworms as a tangible entry point to agricultural biodiversity.
Earthworms function as natural soil engineers. Their tunneling improves aeration and drainage, while their movement mixes organic matter with mineral soil to produce nutrient-rich castings. These physical changes enhance microbial activity, improve soil structure, and increase nutrient availability for plants, ultimately boosting crop productivity. Read the full discussion with Dr. Lal: Where Soil Carbon Meets Life: A Keynote Perspective on Earthworms and Agroecosystem Biodiversity
