Weed Functional Diversity as Affected by Agroecological Service Crops and No-Till in a Mediterranean Organic Vegetable System.

Corrado Ciaccia,Elena Testani,Laura Armengot Martinez,Gabriele Campanelli,Alessandra Trinchera,Fabrizio Leteo

doi:10.3390/plants9060689

Corrado Ciaccia, Elena Testani + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9060689

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Abstract

This paper explores the effect of agroecological service crops (ASCs), i.e., crops included in the crop rotation for their ecosystem services, terminated with an in-line tillage roller crimper (ILRC) on weed community composition and their functional traits in comparison to a tilled control without ASC. A two-year study was performed in a long-term experiment with vegetables under organic management. Four different cereal crops were introduced as ASCs. Weed abundance and richness and the functional traits were assessed at three different stages, i.e., before and after ASC termination and before harvest of the following crop, melon. All the ASCs showed strong weed suppression, with few differences between the cereals tested. Weed communities with ASCs had later flowering onset and wider flowering span compared to the control, which positively affects weed dispersal and attraction of beneficial insects. However, weed communities with ASCs had higher values for traits related to competition (specific leaf area, seed weight and more perennials). A trade-off between weed suppression and selection of more competitive weed communities by the introduction of ASCs managed with the ILRC should be evaluated in the long-run. The use of the ILRC alternating with other soil management practices seems the more effective strategy to benefit from the minimal soil tillage while avoiding the selection of disservice-related traits in the weed community.

Highlights

The implementation of agroecological practices can improve the sustainability of production systems, minimizing the negative environmental impacts of agriculture and increasing the ecological services provided besides the yield [1,2,3].The introduction of agroecological service crops (ASCs) in cropping systems can provide or promote agroecosystem services by modifying the associated diversity, like that of spontaneous flora [4]
Effect of ASC Introduction on Weed Density/Cover, Species Richness, Community Composition and Overall, the introduction of ASCs compared to a tilled fallow control affected all the traits assessed
Since the factor year includes the effects of weather conditions and a different seedbank, we performed the analyses separately for each experimental year in order to better disentangle and observe common/diverging trends of the effect of the ASCs (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The introduction of agroecological service crops (ASCs) in cropping systems (i.e., crops planted to obtain ecosystem services more than strictly focused on yield improvement, such as catch crops, cover crops, trap crops or, green manures) can provide or promote agroecosystem services by modifying the associated diversity, like that of spontaneous flora [4]. This can happen regardless of the placement of the ASCs in the crop rotation Including cereals as ASCs can contribute to weed management due to their strong competitive and allelopathic effect compared to other crop families [7]

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