A global dataset of experimental intercropping and agroforestry studies in horticulture.

Intercropping and agroforestry systems have been increasingly well studied and documented. Yet, so far, no dataset has provided a systematic synthesis of existing data on intercropping experiments in the specific field of horticulture. A systematic literature search was carried using search terms and applied to Web of Science. The resulting dataset includes data from field experiments published in 191 articles covering experiments worldwide, between 1982 and 2022. The selected experiments cover five continents and involved 118 different crop species. Through manual extraction of information from publications, the dataset includes (i) general information on the articles; (ii) experimental site soil and climate conditions; (iii) descriptions of intercropping designs; (iv) crop management practices; (v) measurements of sole crop and intercrop yields and (v) Land Equivalent Ratios. The dataset is arranged in an easily reusable spreadsheet with columns as variables (n = 45) and rows as treatment (n = 1544). The dataset is freely reusable and updateable. We expect that it will provide valuable information for statistical analysis, modeling and innovative farming system design based on intercropping.

How ecological research on human-dominated ecosystems incorporates agricultural and forestry practices: A literature analysis.

Understanding the nexus between practices and ecosystems is a critical challenge for sustainability, but it is unclear how ecological sciences have explored the question. To bring clarification, we conducted an analysis of ecology literature dealing with agricultural and forestry practices (AF practices), scanning a total of 27 556 references. Scientometric analyses showed that AF practices were addressed by 5.5% of ecology literature, and that this proportion increased from 2.5 to 8.1% between 1956 and 2017. Content analyses showed that research has mainly focused on monospecific systems in the Global North, predominantly using plot-level experimental approaches. Temporal monitoring, real-world practices and their social context were poorly investigated. This analysis stresses the need to reinforce research in complex agroecosystems, in particular in non-Western countries. Multilevel and spatio-temporal approaches, as well as participatory research, should also be encouraged to build a social-ecological understanding and formulate more grounded, relevant policy recommendations for sustainability.

Production and robustness of a Cacao agroecosystem: effects of two contrasting types of management strategies.

Ecological intensification, i.e. relying on ecological processes to replace chemical inputs, is often presented as the ideal alternative to conventional farming based on an intensive use of chemicals. It is said to both maintain high yield and provide more robustness to the agroecosystem. However few studies compared the two types of management with respect to their consequences for production and robustness toward perturbation. In this study our aim is to assess productive performance and robustness toward diverse perturbations of a Cacao agroecosystem managed with two contrasting groups of strategies: one group of strategies relying on a high level of pesticides and a second relying on low levels of pesticides. We conducted this study using a dynamical model of a Cacao agroecosystem that includes Cacao production dynamics, and dynamics of three insects: a pest (the Cacao Pod Borer, Conopomorpha cramerella) and two characteristic but unspecified beneficial insects (a pollinator of Cacao and a parasitoid of the Cacao Pod Borer). Our results showed two opposite behaviors of the Cacao agroecosystem depending on its management, i.e. an agroecosystem relying on a high input of pesticides and showing low ecosystem functioning and an agroecosystem with low inputs, relying on a high functioning of the ecosystem. From the production point of view, no type of management clearly outclassed the other and their ranking depended on the type of pesticide used. From the robustness point of view, the two types of managements performed differently when subjected to different types of perturbations. Ecologically intensive systems were more robust to pest outbreaks and perturbations related to pesticide characteristics while chemically intensive systems were more robust to Cacao production and management-related perturbation.

Action versus result-oriented schemes in a grassland agroecosystem: a dynamic modelling approach.

Effects of agri-environment schemes (AES) on biodiversity remain controversial. While most AES are action-oriented, result-oriented and habitat-oriented schemes have recently been proposed as a solution to improve AES efficiency. The objective of this study was to compare action-oriented, habitat-oriented and result-oriented schemes in terms of ecological and productive performance as well as in terms of management flexibility. We developed a dynamic modelling approach based on the viable control framework to carry out a long term assessment of the three schemes in a grassland agroecosystem. The model explicitly links grazed grassland dynamics to bird population dynamics. It is applied to lapwing conservation in wet grasslands in France. We ran the model to assess the three AES scenarios. The model revealed the grazing strategies respecting ecological and productive constraints specific to each scheme. Grazing strategies were assessed by both their ecological and productive performance. The viable control approach made it possible to obtain the whole set of viable grazing strategies and therefore to quantify the management flexibility of the grassland agroecosystem. Our results showed that habitat and result-oriented scenarios led to much higher ecological performance than the action-oriented one. Differences in both ecological and productive performance between the habitat and result-oriented scenarios were limited. Flexibility of the grassland agroecosystem in the result-oriented scenario was much higher than in that of habitat-oriented scenario. Our model confirms the higher flexibility as well as the better ecological and productive performance of result-oriented schemes. A larger use of result-oriented schemes in conservation may also allow farmers to adapt their management to local conditions and to climatic variations.