Effects of intercropping and soil properties on root functional traits of cover crops

Bukovsky-Reyes, Santiago; Isaac, Marney E.; Blesh, Jennifer

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2019.106614

Cited by 36 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…This reflects the findings of Bukovsky-Reyes et al (2019), in which root traits for cereal rye, a fastgrowing grass, varied less than those for hairy vetch, a broadleaf legume, when grown together in mixture. Notably, cover crop shoot C:N ratio did not vary significantly across treatments for any of the three species in our experiment, which agrees with previous studies showing that chemical traits exhibit relatively less intraspecific variation than traits related more closely to plant form (e.g., height, root length) (Siefert et al 2015, Bukovsky-Reyes et al 2019). These findings highlight that ITV can reveal the causes and consequences of interactions occurring between cover crop species in mixture, which may, in turn, inform the selection of complementary species for cover crop mixtures.…”

Section: Intraspecific Trait Variation Explains Species Interactions In Mixturessupporting

confidence: 74%

“…This interspecific diversity is expected to drive significant interactions between species (e.g., competition and/or facilitation between legumes and non-legumes; Izaurralde et al 1992, which may then enhance mixture performance compared with monocultures. While evidence from unmanaged systems suggests that trait plasticity can result from interactions between species (Berg and Ellers 2010), little cover crop research to date has analyzed ITV between mixtures and component monocultures to more clearly identify the extent, causes, and consequences of interactions between species in mixture (Bukovsky-Reyes et al 2019). Such instances of ITV may then scale-up to influence agroecosystem services; for instance, ITV in cash crops has been linked to yield outcomes (Gagliardi et al 2015, Hayes et al 2019.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intraspecific trait variation improves understanding and management of cover crop outcomes

Herrick

Blesh

2021

Ecosphere

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Understanding links between functional trait diversity and ecosystem services can inform more sustainable management of agroecosystems. The use of cover crops (i.e., non-harvested crops) is a key strategy for increasing plant functional trait diversity in crop rotations. Variation in functional traits can be assessed in multiple ways-within a species (intraspecific), across species (interspecific), and across communities (community trait metrics). Recent evidence from the field of trait-based research suggests that the role of intraspecific trait variation (ITV) in explaining ecological dynamics deserves greater attention. We conducted a systematic literature review to determine whether this also applies to cover crops. While fewer than one-third of the 30 studies we reviewed explicitly tested intraspecific trait questions, together they demonstrated that significant ITV occurs across populations and in response to environmental and management conditions. ITV is thus an understudied yet important aspect of cover crop performance. To address research gaps identified by the literature review, we conducted a complementary field experiment to evaluate cover crop functional trait variation and assess relationships between traits and ecosystem services. Significant ITV occurred among three cover crop species (buckwheat, cowpea, and sorghum sudangrass) planted alone and in mixtures, indicating that interactions between functionally diverse species in mixtures induced trait plasticity. We expected that traits such as plant height, root:shoot ratio, shoot C:N ratio, and specific leaf area (SLA) would be positively related to cover crop nitrogen (N) assimilation. Using community-weighted means per common practice, our hypothesis was supported for the former three traits, while SLA was unexpectedly negatively associated with N assimilation. However, ITV revealed that this unexpected relationship was driven by higher SLA and lower N assimilation values of the broadleaf compared with the grass species. Across treatments, SLA for the grass species was positively related to N assimilation, as expected. In sum, we demonstrate that assessing ITV is critical for refining understanding and management of cover crop outcomes.

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Section: Intraspecific Trait Variation Explains Species Interactions In Mixturessupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific trait variation improves understanding and management of cover crop outcomes

Herrick

Blesh

2021

Ecosphere

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“…Also, it is useful as a cover crop or an erosion-preventing crop; it helps in suppressing weeds; and also aids in the retention of moisture (Das et al, 2018). Another key advantage of cowpea production is that when used as an inter-crop with other crops, it induces the growth of beneficial soil microorganisms and reduces the use of synthetic agrochemicals (Bukovsky-Reyes et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2019). In terms of importance, cowpea production contributes significantly to economic productivity and environmental sustainability in Africa (Martins et al, 2003;Olajide and Ilori, 2017;Ovalesha et al, 2017;Cardona-Ayala et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints and Prospects of Improving Cowpea Productivity to Ensure Food, Nutritional Security and Environmental Sustainability

Omomowo

Babalola

2021

Front. Plant Sci.

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Providing safe and secure food for an increasing number of people globally is challenging. Coping with such a human population by merely applying the conventional agricultural production system has not proved to be agro-ecologically friendly; nor is it sustainable. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp) is a multi-purpose legume. It consists of high-quality protein for human consumption, and it is rich in protein for livestock fodder. It enriches the soil in that it recycles nutrients through the fixation of nitrogen in association with nodulating bacteria. However, the productivity of this multi-functional, indigenous legume that is of great value to African smallholder farmers and the rural populace, and also to urban consumers and entrepreneurs, is limited. Because cowpea is of strategic importance in Africa, there is a need to improve on its productivity. Such endeavors in Africa are wrought with challenges that include drought, salinity, the excessive demand among farmers for synthetic chemicals, the repercussions of climate change, declining soil nutrients, microbial infestations, pest issues, and so forth. Nevertheless, giant strides have already been made and there have already been improvements in adopting sustainable and smart biotechnological approaches that are favorably influencing the production costs of cowpea and its availability. As such, the prospects for a leap in cowpea productivity in Africa and in the enhancement of its genetic gain are good. Potential and viable means for overcoming some of the above-mentioned production constraints would be to focus on the key cowpea producer nations in Africa and to encourage them to embrace biotechnological techniques in an integrated approach to enhance for sustainable productivity. This review highlights the spectrum of constraints that limit the cowpea yield, but looks ahead of the constraints and seeks a way forward to improve cowpea productivity in Africa. More importantly, this review investigates applications and insights concerning mechanisms of action for implementing eco-friendly biotechnological techniques, such as the deployment of bio inoculants, applying climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices, agricultural conservation techniques, and multi-omics smart technology in the spheres of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, for improving cowpea yields and productivity to achieve sustainable agro-ecosystems, and ensuring their stability.

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“…The benefits of cover crops could be enhanced further by using species mixes to improve resource use efficiency based on niche differentiation, complementarity and facilitation [51]. These ecological interactions result in more biomass production, better weed suppression and more N uptake [204,205]. Stability is also achieved through the insurance provided by trait complementarity in mixed crops [92,191,206,207].…”

Section: Crop Diversificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agroecological practices for whole-system sustainability

2021

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Current food production systems are major contributors to the environmental degradation that leads to climate change and biodiversity loss. Levels of production required for future food security cannot be met by further increases in inputs of non-renewable resources. The world's food crops must therefore be managed in a sustainable way that maintains long-term ecological functioning, including nutrient, carbon and water cycles, soil quality, primary productivity, microbe-plant associations, pest and pathogen regulation, pollination and arable food web resilience. All of these are determined by agronomic practices at local and regional scales, and all are sustained by the abundance, diversity and functional composition of plants, microbes and invertebrates in the farmed ecosystem. Presence of viable populations and communities of these organisms is therefore essential for system resilience. Long-term sustainability must rely more heavily on the internal generation of products and regulatory ecosystem services than on external inputs. Fully closed systems are impossible to achieve in agriculture as the product is removed for human consumption. There is ample evidence, however, that semi-closed, regenerative, systems can harness the ecosystem services provided by functional biodiversity to enhance crop production whilst simultaneously improving environmental quality. Here, agroecological alternatives to intensive farming practices are reviewed, focusing on key functional indicators and whole-system integration of practical management options designed to achieve multiple beneficial outcomes at field and farm scales.

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Effects of intercropping and soil properties on root functional traits of cover crops

Cited by 36 publications

References 66 publications

Intraspecific trait variation improves understanding and management of cover crop outcomes

Intraspecific trait variation improves understanding and management of cover crop outcomes

Constraints and Prospects of Improving Cowpea Productivity to Ensure Food, Nutritional Security and Environmental Sustainability

Agroecological practices for whole-system sustainability

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