Dataset on biodiversity and agronomic performance of lentil and chickpea field trials in the Mediterranean Region.

Pulse crops have become more important in food production and consumption systems for the transition towards sustainability. We present an agroecological dataset from 304 samples from 12 legume field trials in five locations across three countries in the Mediterranean. The field trials were established in the seasons 2021/22 and 2022/23 and tested different lentil or chickpea cultivars, inoculants, intercropping and weeding regimes. The dataset encompasses detailed information on wild flora diversity, grain yield, associated management practices, soil texture and weather during the growing period. Wild flora diversity was recorded by conducting a vegetation survey in 1 × 2 m sample plots. Grain yield was determined at the crop maturity stage, with full plots harvested in Spain, while samples were taken in Croatia and Tunisia. Environmental variables were via laboratory analysis or bottle testing of soil samples and analysis of local weather data. The comprehensiveness of the dataset, including all relevant agroecological information, enables other researchers to employ the dataset for various statistical analyses of agroecosystem processes, such as plant-environment interactions or biodiversity-yield trade-off analysis.

Agri-ecological dataset from vegetation surveys on organic legume fields in Tuscany, Italy.

Legumes are becoming increasingly important regarding the transformation of food consumption and production systems towards more sustainability. Apart from supporting and production services, legumes can also enhance biodiversity in agroecosystems. In this dataset, we present results from vegetation surveys of 244 samplings on 32 lentil and chickpea fields of five organic farms in Tuscany, Italy. Centre and edge zones of the fields were surveyed separately. Additionally, the dataset provides a comprehensive summary of the associated management practices applied to the respective fields as well as a characterisation of the site conditions through soil texture, organic matter, local weather data during the legume growing period and the diversity of the field's landscape contexts. This additional extensive characterisation of the management system and environment allows the data to be used for a variety of multivariate analysis on biodiversity and agroecosystems.