Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Native plants for greening Mediterranean agroecosystems

Nature Plants volume 6, pages 209–214 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

In the upcoming United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global challenge for scientists and practitioners will be to develop a well-functioning seed production sector on the basis of a sound species-selection process1. To balance crop production with biodiversity functions in Mediterranean woody crops, agroecological practices2 suggest the need to move towards the establishment of herbaceous ground covers3,4,5. However, establishing such plants requires a supply of suitable native seeds, which is currently unavailable. Here, we present a comprehensive process for selecting regionally adapted species that also emphasizes considerations for seed production6. Using olive groves as a target system, we found that research on ground covers for regenerative agriculture has largely overlooked native species at the expense of commercial and ill-suited varieties. Our assessment of native annuals showed that 85% of the grasses and forbs evaluated exhibit a suite of ecological and production traits that can be tailored to meet the requirements of farmers, seed producers and environmental agencies. These findings suggest that many native species are neglected in agronomic research, despite being potentially suitable for ground covers and for supporting a nature-based solution7 in restoration practice. The framework used here may be applied in other agroecosystems to follow global greening initiatives and to support native seed production to scale up restoration8,9,10.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A comprehensive process for native plant prioritization in agroecosystem restoration.
Fig. 2: An overview of agroecological research conducted on ground covers in Mediterranean olive groves during the period 1985–2015.
Fig. 3: Phenological development of selected grasses and forbs in agronomic fields for seed farming.

Data availability

The data for species pools, production traits (numerical) and species assessments and a copy of the DEXi evaluation file are archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3460431.

References

  1. Gibson-Roy, P. Restoring grassy ecosystems—feasible or fiction? An inquisitive Australian’s experience in the USA. Ecol. Manage. Restor. 19, 11–25 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Agroecology to Reverse Soil Degradation and Achieve Food Security (FAO, 2015); http://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/c75d121d-375a-4342-9163-83b905a2ca51

  3. Gómez, J. et al. Olive cultivation, its impact on soil erosion and its progression into yield impacts in southern Spain in the past as a key to a future of increasing climate uncertainty. Agriculture 4, 170–198 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Gómez, J. A. et al. The effects of cover crops and conventional tillage on soil and runoff loss in vineyards and olive groves in several Mediterranean countries. Soil Use Manage. 27, 502–514 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Rey, P. J. Preserving frugivorous birds in agro-ecosystems: lessons from Spanish olive orchards. J. Appl. Ecol. 48, 228–237 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Merritt, D. J. & Dixon, K. W. Restoration seed banks—a matter of scale. Science 332, 424–425 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Cohen-Shacham, E., Walters, G., Janzen, C. & Maginnis, S. Nature-Based Solutions to Address Global Societal Challenges (IUCN, 2016); https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.ch.2016.13.en

    Google Scholar 

  8. Tischew, S., Youtie, B., Kirmer, A. & Shaw, N. Farming for restoration: building bridges for native seeds. Ecol. Restor. 29, 219–222 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Nevill, P. G. et al. Seed production areas for the global restoration challenge. Ecol. Evol. 6, 7490–7497 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Broadhurst, L. M., Jones, T. A., Smith, F. S., North, T. & Guja, L. Maximizing seed resources for restoration in an uncertain future. Bioscience 66, 73–79 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Nieto-Romero, M., Oteros-Rozas, E., González, J. A. & Martín-López, B. Exploring the knowledge landscape of ecosystem services assessments in Mediterranean agroecosystems: insights for future research. Environ. Sci. Policy 37, 121–133 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Simoes, M. P., Belo, A. F., Pinto-Cruz, C. & Pinheiro, A. C. Natural vegetation management to conserve biodiversity and soil water in olive orchards. Span. J. Agric. Res. 12, 633–643 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Gómez, J. A. Sustainability using cover crops in Mediterranean tree crops, olives and vines—challenges and current knowledge. Hungarian Geogr. Bull. 66, 13–28 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Vicente-Vicente, J. L., García-Ruiz, R., Francaviglia, R., Aguilera, E. & Smith, P. Soil carbon sequestration rates under Mediterranean woody crops using recommended management practices: a meta-analysis. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 235, 204–214 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Power, A. G. Ecosystem services and agriculture: tradeoffs and synergies. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365, 2959–2971 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Nunes, A. et al. Ecological restoration across the Mediterranean Basin as viewed by practitioners. Sci. Total Environ. 566–567, 722–732 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Ladouceur, E. et al. Native seed supply and the restoration species pool. Conserv. Lett. 11, e12381 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Estudio del Sector del Aceite de Oliva de Andalucía (Agencia Andaluza de Promoción Exterior, 2017).

  19. Pujadas Salvá, A. Flora Arvense y Ruderal de la Provincia de Cordoba. PhD, Univ. de Cordoba (1986).

  20. Paredes, D., Karp, D. S., Chaplin-Kramer, R., Benítez, E. & Campos, M. Natural habitat increases natural pest control in olive groves: economic implications. J. Pest Sci. 92, 1111–1121 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Marshall, E. J. P. et al. The role of weeds in supporting biological diversity within crop fields. Weed Res. 43, 77–89 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Sokos, C. K., Mamolos, A. P., Kalburtji, K. L. & Birtsas, P. K. Farming and wildlife in Mediterranean agroecosystems. J. Nat. Conserv. 21, 81–92 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Frischie, S., Abbandonato, H., Hernández-González, M. & Gálvez-Ramírez, C. in Native Seed Ecology, Production and Policy—Advancing Knowledge and Technology in Europe (eds De Vitis, M. et al.) 104–107 (MUSE, 2018).

  24. Abbandonato, H., Pedrini, S., Pritchard, H. W., De Vitis, M. & Bonomi, C. Native seed trade of herbaceous species for restoration: a European policy perspective with global implications. Restor. Ecol. 26, 820–826 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Saatkamp, A. et al. A research agenda for seed-trait functional ecology. New Phytol. 221, 1764–1775 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Nieto, O. M., Castro, J. & Fernández-Ondoño, E. Sustainable agricultural practices for Mediterranean olive grove: effect of soil management on soil properties. Span. J. Soil Sci. 2, 70–77 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Gómez, J. A., Sobrinho, T. A., Giráldez, J. V. & Fereres, E. Soil management effects on runoff, erosion and soil properties in an olive grove of southern Spain. Soil Tillage Res. 102, 5–13 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. De Baets, S., Poesen, J., Knapen, A., Barberá, G. G. & Navarro, J. A. Root characteristics of representative Mediterranean plant species and their erosion-reducing potential during concentrated runoff. Plant Soil 294, 169–183 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Gonzalez-Sanchez, E. J., Veroz-Gonzalez, O., Blanco-Roldan, G. L., Marquez-Garcia, F. & Carbonell-Bojollo, R. A renewed view of conservation agriculture and its evolution over the last decade in Spain. Soil Tillage Res. 146, 204–212 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Carpio, A. J., Castro, J., Mingo, V. & Tortosa, F. S. Herbaceous cover enhances the squamate reptile community in woody crops. J. Nat. Conserv. 37, 31–38 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Bochet, E. & García-Fayos, P. Identifying plant traits: a key aspect for species selection in restoration of eroded roadsides in semiarid environments. Ecol. Eng. 83, 444–451 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Aguado Martín, L. Ó., Fereres Castiel, A. & Viñuela Sandoval, E. Guía de Campo de los Polinizadores de España (Mundi-Prensa, 2015).

  33. ENSCONET Seed Collecting Manual for Wild Species (2009) Available at www.publicgardens.org/resources/ensconet-seed-collecting-manual-wild-species

  34. Jiménez-Alfaro, B. et al. Germination ecology of winter annual grasses in Mediterranean climates: applications for soil cover in olive groves. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 262, 29–35 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Frischie, S. et al. Hydrothermal thresholds for seed germination in winter annual forbs from old-field Mediterranean landscapes. Plant Biol. 21, 449–457 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Meier, U. et al. The BBCH system to coding the phenological growth stages of plants—history and publications. J. Kulturpflanzen 61, 41–52 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Seed Information Database (SID) Version 7.1 (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 2019); http://data.kew.org/sid

  38. Rantala-Sykes, B. & Campbell, D. Should I pick that? A scoring tool to prioritize and valuate native wild seed for restoration. Restor. Ecol. 27, 9–14 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Bohanec, M. DEXi: Program for Multi-attribute Decision Making, User’s Manual, Version 5.00 Report DP-11897 (IJS, 2015).

  40. Craheix, D. et al. Guidelines to design models assessing agricultural sustainability, based upon feedbacks from the DEXi decision support system. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 35, 1431–1447 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank M. Hernández González for his support on the review of ground cover species and on lab and field work. This research was funded by the PEOPLE/Marie Curie Actions of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under REA grant agreement number 607785 through the ITN project NASSTEC (www.nasstec.eu). B.J.-A. was further supported by the Marie Curie Clarín-COFUND programme of the Principality of Asturias and the European Union (ACB17-26) and the Asturias regional grant number FC-GRUPIN-IDI/2018/000151.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit of Biodiversity (CSIC/UO/PA), Oviedo University, Campus de Mieres, Mieres, Spain

    Borja Jiménez-Alfaro

  2. Semillas Silvestres S.L., Córdoba, Spain

    Stephanie Frischie, Juliane Stolz & Cándido Gálvez-Ramírez

  3. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Stephanie Frischie

  4. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, OR, USA

    Stephanie Frischie

  5. Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Forest Growth and Forest Computer Sciences, Tharandt, Germany

    Juliane Stolz

Authors
  1. Borja Jiménez-Alfaro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stephanie Frischie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Juliane Stolz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Cándido Gálvez-Ramírez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

B.J.-A. and C.G.-R. designed the conceptual framework, focusing on the scientific and agronomic aspects of the study, respectively. S.F. compiled the species data, conducted the agronomic experiments and created the utility functions. J.S. synthesized all experimental data and calculated the suitability indexes for all species. B.J.-A. wrote the manuscript with the support of S.F. and J.S.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Borja Jiménez-Alfaro.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

C.G.-R. is the head of a private company producing native seeds for ecological restoration.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Plants thanks Michael Perring and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2, and Tables 1 and 2.

Reporting Summary

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Frischie, S., Stolz, J. et al. Native plants for greening Mediterranean agroecosystems. Nat. Plants 6, 209–214 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0617-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0617-3

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing