Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services.
Cover crops provide a variety of important agroecological services within cropping systems. Typically these crops are grown as monocultures or simple graminoid-legume bicultures; however, ecological theory and empirical evidence suggest that agroecosystem services could be enhanced by growing cover...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4029995?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818058298977419264 |
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| author | Richard G Smith Lesley W Atwood Nicholas D Warren |
| author_facet | Richard G Smith Lesley W Atwood Nicholas D Warren |
| author_sort | Richard G Smith |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cover crops provide a variety of important agroecological services within cropping systems. Typically these crops are grown as monocultures or simple graminoid-legume bicultures; however, ecological theory and empirical evidence suggest that agroecosystem services could be enhanced by growing cover crops in species-rich mixtures. We examined cover crop productivity, weed suppression, stability, and carryover effects to a subsequent cash crop in an experiment involving a five-species annual cover crop mixture and the component species grown as monocultures in SE New Hampshire, USA in 2011 and 2012. The mean land equivalent ratio (LER) for the mixture exceeded 1.0 in both years, indicating that the mixture over-yielded relative to the monocultures. Despite the apparent over-yielding in the mixture, we observed no enhancement in weed suppression, biomass stability, or productivity of a subsequent oat (Avena sativa L.) cash crop when compared to the best monoculture component crop. These data are some of the first to include application of the LER to an analysis of a cover crop mixture and contribute to the growing literature on the agroecological effects of cover crop diversity in cropping systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T12:58:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-82d493f6e8c849b9bac1d78d48262cd0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T12:58:25Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-82d493f6e8c849b9bac1d78d48262cd02022-12-22T01:48:01ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0195e9735110.1371/journal.pone.0097351Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services.Richard G SmithLesley W AtwoodNicholas D WarrenCover crops provide a variety of important agroecological services within cropping systems. Typically these crops are grown as monocultures or simple graminoid-legume bicultures; however, ecological theory and empirical evidence suggest that agroecosystem services could be enhanced by growing cover crops in species-rich mixtures. We examined cover crop productivity, weed suppression, stability, and carryover effects to a subsequent cash crop in an experiment involving a five-species annual cover crop mixture and the component species grown as monocultures in SE New Hampshire, USA in 2011 and 2012. The mean land equivalent ratio (LER) for the mixture exceeded 1.0 in both years, indicating that the mixture over-yielded relative to the monocultures. Despite the apparent over-yielding in the mixture, we observed no enhancement in weed suppression, biomass stability, or productivity of a subsequent oat (Avena sativa L.) cash crop when compared to the best monoculture component crop. These data are some of the first to include application of the LER to an analysis of a cover crop mixture and contribute to the growing literature on the agroecological effects of cover crop diversity in cropping systems.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4029995?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Richard G Smith Lesley W Atwood Nicholas D Warren Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services. PLoS ONE |
| title | Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services. |
| title_full | Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services. |
| title_fullStr | Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services. |
| title_short | Increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services. |
| title_sort | increased productivity of a cover crop mixture is not associated with enhanced agroecosystem services |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4029995?pdf=render |
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