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Agroecology: Agroecosystem diversification

Nature Plants volume 1, Article number: 15041 (2015) Cite this article

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The diversity of agricultural systems has been minimized in order to maximize yields under favourable conditions. Diversification of agroecosystems may be required to maintain and stabilize yields in an increasingly unpredictable climate.

Highly diverse grasslands, forests and aquatic ecosystems are more productive and stable than the sum of their constituent species, due to the complementary traits and interactions of different species. Ecologists have primarily focused on the negative implications of this phenomenon: plant species loss will lead to a reduction in the function and stability of natural ecosystems. Writing in Nature Plants, Prieto and colleagues1 illustrate the positive implications of this relationship for agricultural systems, by showing that the addition of complementary plant species can promote forage crop yields in managed grasslands, and that further addition of genotypes within species can promote the stability of forage yield across harvests.

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Figure 1: A diverse hay meadow.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest Isbell is at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve and in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA.,

    Forest Isbell

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  1. Forest Isbell
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Correspondence to Forest Isbell.

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Isbell, F. Agroecology: Agroecosystem diversification. Nature Plants 1, 15041 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.41

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.41

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