Abstract
• We developed and validated a diagrammatic scale to assess herbivore leaf-feeding injury in cabbage. • We used an experimental network of seven intercropping designs. • Crop diversification via intercropping reduced herbivore feeding injury in cabbage. • Lower injury was observed with the presence of a within-field functional flower strip. • Individual and total yields were maintained in five out of seven intercropping designs. A single focus on yield in agroecosystems comes at the expense of other ecosystem services, for instance, biocontrol of pests. In this study, we investigated the potential of intercropping to improve the delivery of ecosystem services by cropping systems. Intercropping was expected to deliver a higher yield through facilitation and complementarity while simultaneously suppressing pests via pest habitat dilution and habitat provision for natural enemies. Utilizing a network of experiments on crop diversification with different spatial arrangements and different levels of genetic crop diversity across the Netherlands in 2018, we analyzed the effect of seven intercropping designs on crop injury by pests, yield and quality in cabbage. Individual cabbage leaf injury by herbivorous pests was assessed using a newly developed diagrammatic scale. Provisioning services were measured as individual cabbage fresh weight and yield per unit area. We found a significant negative relationship between crop diversity and herbivore feeding injury per cabbage: intercropping designs with more species, accessions and/or cultivars exhibited lower feeding injury. The presence of flower strips significantly reduced overall injury in the adjacent cabbage strip, despite higher injury found in the rows closer to the flower strip. There was no clear relationship between crop diversity and fresh marketable weight per cabbage, however five out of seven intercropping designs were able to maintain total yield per area when compared with the sole crop reference. Our results show that crop diversification can simultaneously support the production ecosystem service by maintaining fresh marketable weight per cabbage plant and productivity per unit area, as well as the regulating ecosystem service of pest control. These results provide a basis for redesigning large-scale arable fields into diversified productive systems, and thereby facilitate the transition towards more sustainable farming systems. A better understanding of crop functionality and management needs in diverse arrangements is relevant for such redesign.
Highlights
Agriculture is faced with the challenge of accommodating the twin goals of feeding humanity and operating within planetary boundaries (Rockstrom et al, 2009; Kahiluoto et al, 2014)
Despite some evidence that the number of parasitoids and parasitism rates are highest closest to flower strips (Lavandero et al, 2005; Balzan and Moonen, 2014), there is a risk of non-crop habitat acting as reservoirs for pests that invade crops
Farm management in an ecological intensification paradigm aims to deliver sustainable crop production by enhancing ecosystem services that minimize the need for external inputs to control pest infestation and sustain yield
Summary
Agriculture is faced with the challenge of accommodating the twin goals of feeding humanity and operating within planetary boundaries (Rockstrom et al, 2009; Kahiluoto et al, 2014). Agroecology, “the appli cation of ecological concepts and principles to the design and manage ment of sustainable agroecosystems”, offers a redesign approach to address the problems associated with input-intensive agriculture (Gliessman, 1990; Altieri, 1995). It goes beyond yield maximization, emphasizing conservation of natural resources to achieve high-quality food production within a socially and environmentally “just and safe space” (De Schutter, 2014; Wezel et al, 2014; Raworth, 2017). In highly productive agricultural systems improvement in farmland biodiversity in terms of species abundance and richness has been found to be associated with roughly proportionate yield loss (Letourneau et al, 2011; Finch and Collier, 2012; Gabriel et al, 2013; Rapidel et al, 2015; Cebrian-Piqueras et al, 2017)
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