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

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Sabatier R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3846552 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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

Sabatier Rodolphe R Wiegand Kerstin K Meyer Katrin K

PloS one 20131202 12

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 robus ...[more]

PMID: 24312469

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Project description:Background: Drought stress is the major environmental stress that affects plant growth and productivity. It triggers in plants a wide range of responses detectable at different scales: molecular, biochemical and physiological levels. At the molecular level the response to drought stress results in the differential expression of several metabolic pathways. For this reason, explore the subtle differences existing in gene expression of drought sensitive and drought tolerant genotypes allows to identify drought-related genes that could be used for selection of drought tolerance traits. Genome-wide RNA-Seq technology was used to compare the drought response of two sorghum genotypes characterized by contrasting water use efficiency. Results: the physiological measurements carried out confirmed the drought sensitivity of IS20351 and the drought tolerance of IS22330 previously studied. The expression of drought-related genes was more abundant in the sensitive genotype IS20351 compared to the tolerant IS22330. The Gene Ontology enrichment highlighted a massive increase in transcript abundance in “response to stress” and “abiotic stimulus”, “oxidation-reduction reaction” in the sensitive genotype IS20351 under drought stress. “Antioxidant” and “secondary metabolism”, “photosynthesis and carbon fixation process”, “lipids” and “carbon metabolism” were the pathways most affected by drought in the sensitive genotype IS20351. The sensitive genotype IS20351 showed under well-watered conditions a lower constitutive expression level of “secondary metabolic process” (GO:0019748) and “glutathione transferase activity” (GO:000004364). Conclusions: RNA-Seq analysis revealed to be a very useful tool to explore differences between sensitive and tolerant sorghum genotypes. The transcriptomic results supported all the physiological measurements and were crucial to clarify the tolerance of the two genotypes studied. The connection between the differential gene expression and the physiological response to drought states unequivocally the drought tolerance of the genotype IS22330 and the strategy adopted to cope with drought stress.

Dataset Information

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

Publications

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

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