Silvopastoral systems enhance sustainability in the Yucatán Peninsula by improving ecosystem health and animal welfare

Cattle production based on monoculture pastures can increase greenhouse gas emissions, degrade soils, reduce biodiversity, and compromise animal welfare, limiting sustainability and resilience to climate change. Silvopastoral systems integrate livestock with trees, shrubs, and grasses and have been proposed as a more sustainable alternative. Here we show that silvopastoral systems in the Yucatán Peninsula improve multiple indicators of ecosystem health compared with monoculture pastures. Cattle in silvopastoral systems emit less methane per unit of dry matter intake and exhibit lower skin temperatures. These systems also increase soil nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, enhance soil organic matter stabilization, and are associated with lower abundance of rodents susceptible to West Nile virus. Our findings indicate that silvopastoral systems improve ecosystem services, soil fertility, and animal welfare while potentially reducing proxies associated with zoonotic risk. These results support the development of more sustainable livestock systems in tropical regions. Silvopastoral systems enhance livestock sustainability by reducing methane emissions, improving soil fertility and animal welfare, and lowering indicators associated with zoonotic risk compared with monocultures, based on evaluation of 23 sustainability indicators in cattle systems.