Organic Farming and Cover-Crop Management Reduce Pest Predation in Austrian Vineyards.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Reiff JM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7999927 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Coffee agroforestry systems could reconcile agricultural and environmental objectives. While pests and diseases can reduce yield, their interactions with shade and nutrition have been rarely researched, and are particularly lacking in perennial systems. We hypothesized that intermediate shade levels could reduce coffee pests while excess shade could favor fungal diseases. We hypothesized that organic rather than mineral fertilization would better synchronize with nutrient uptake and higher nutrient inputs would be associated with reduced pest and disease damage due to higher plant vigor, yet effects would be less obvious in shaded plots as coffee growth would be light-limited. Using three-year-old trees of Coffea canephora var. Robusta (robusta coffee) in the Ecuadorian Amazon, we compared a full-sun system with four shading methods creating different shade levels: (1) Myroxylon balsamum; (2) Inga edulis; (3) Erythrina spp.; or, (4) Erythrina spp. plus Myroxylon balsamum. Conventional farming at either (1) moderate or (2) intensified input and organic farming at (3) low or (4) intensified input were compared in a split-plot design with shade as the main plot factor and farming practice as the sub-plot factor. The infestation of the following pests and disease incidences were evaluated monthly during the dry season: brown twig beetle (Xylosandrus morigerus), coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffeella), coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), anthracnose disease (Colletotrichum spp.), thread blight (Pellicularia koleroga), and cercospora leaf spot (Cercospora coffeicola). Coffee berry borer and brown twig beetle infestation were both reduced by 7% in intensified organic treatments compared to intensified conventional treatments. Colonization of coffee berry borer holes in coffee berries by the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana was also assessed. Brown twig beetle infestation was significantly higher under full sun than under Inga edulis, yet no other shade effects were detected. We demonstrate for the first time how intensified input use might promote pest populations and thus ultimately lead to robusta coffee yield losses.
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Project description:Understanding the response of biodiversity to organic farming is crucial to design more sustainable agriculture. While it is known that organic farming benefits biodiversity on average, large variability in the effects of this farming system exists. Moreover, it is not clear how different practices modulate the performance of organic farming for biodiversity conservation. In this study, we investigated how the abundance and taxonomic richness of multiple species groups responds to certified organic farming and conventional farming in vineyards. Our analyses revealed that farming practices at the field scale are more important drivers of community abundance than landscape context. Organic farming enhanced the abundances of springtails (+ 31.6%) and spiders (+ 84%), had detrimental effects on pollinator abundance (- 11.6%) and soil microbial biomass (- 9.1%), and did not affect the abundance of ground beetles, mites or microarthropods. Farming practices like tillage regime, insecticide use and soil copper content drove most of the detected effects of farming system on biodiversity. Our study revealed varying effects of organic farming on biodiversity and clearly indicates the need to consider farming practices to understand the effects of farming systems on farmland biodiversity.
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Project description:Cropland use activities are major drivers of global environmental changes and of farming system resilience. Rotating crops is a critical land-use driver, and a farmers' key strategy to control environmental stresses and crop performances. Evidence has accumulated that crop rotations have been dramatically simplified over the last 50 years. In contrast, organic farming stands as an alternative production way that promotes crop diversification. However, our understanding of crop rotations is surprisingly limited. In order to understand if organic farming would result in more diversified and multifunctional landscapes, we provide here a novel, systematic comparison of organic-to-conventional crop rotations at the global scale based on a meta-analysis of the scientific literature, paired with an independent analysis of organic-to-conventional land-use. We show that organic farming leads to differences in land-use compared to conventional: overall, crop rotations are 15% longer and result in higher diversity and evener crop species distribution. These changes are driven by a higher abundance of temporary fodders, catch and cover-crops, mostly to the detriment of cereals. We also highlighted differences in organic rotations between Europe and North-America, two leading regions for organic production. This increased complexity of organic crop rotations is likely to enhance ecosystem service provisioning to agroecosystems.
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Project description:Cover cropping plays a key role in the maintenance of arable soil health and the enhancement of agroecosystem services. However, our understanding of how cover crop management impacts soil microbial communities and how these interactions might affect soil nutrient cycling is still limited. Here, we studied the impact of four cover crop mixtures varying in species richness and functional diversity, three cover crop termination strategies (i.e., frost, rolling, and glyphosate) and two levels of irrigation at the cover crop sowing on soil nitrogen and carbon dynamics, soil microbial diversity, and structure as well as the abundance of total bacteria, archaea, and N-cycling microbial guilds. We found that total nitrogen and soil organic carbon were higher when cover crops were killed by frost compared to rolling and glyphosate termination treatments, while cover crop biomass was positively correlated to soil carbon and C:N ratio. Modifications of soil properties due to cover crop management rather than the composition of cover crop mixtures were related to changes in the abundance of ammonia oxidizers and denitrifiers, while there was no effect on the total bacterial abundance. Unraveling the underlying processes by which cover crop management shapes soil physico-chemical properties and bacterial communities is of importance to help selecting optimized agricultural practices for sustainable farming systems.
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Project description:The effectiveness of organic farming for promoting biodiversity has been widely documented, yet most studies have been undertaken in temperate agroecosystems with a focus on birds, insects and plants. Despite the Mediterranean basin being a biodiversity hotspot for conservation priorities, the potential benefits of organic farming for biodiversity there has received little attention. Here, we assessed the effect of farming system, landscape characteristics and habitat structure on biodiversity in Mediterranean vineyards using two taxa with different functional traits (in terms of mobility, dispersal ability and home range size): bats and arachnids. We also tested the "intermediate landscape-complexity" hypothesis, which predicts that local conservation measures have greatest success in landscapes of intermediate complexity. Our study design involved pairs of matched organic and conventional vineyard plots in the south of France situated along a landscape complexity gradient. Abundance of arachnids were higher in organic vineyards, although arachnid species richness was positively associated with the amount of ground vegetation cover. Organic farming was ineffective on its own to enhance bat activity and species richness regardless of the landscape context. Rather, our results suggested that landscape features were more important for bats than vineyard management, with significantly higher bat activity recorded on vineyard plots located at close proximity to hedgerows and rivers. When designing conservation strategies in Mediterranean farmlands, we strongly recommend the implementation of a multi-scale approach to assure benefits for a wide range of species.
| S-EPMC5614100 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Organic farming (OF) has been believed to be capable of curtailing some hazardous effects associated with chemical farming (CF). However, debates also exist on whether OF can feed a world with increasing human population. We hypothesized that some improvements on OF may produce adequate crops and reduce environmental pollutions from CF. This paper makes comparative analysis of crop yield, soil organic matter and economic benefits within the practice on Biodiversity Management of Organic Farming (BMOF) at Hongyi Organic Farm (HOF) over eight years and between BMOF and CF. Linking crop production with livestock to maximal uses of by-products from each production and avoid xenobiotic chemicals, we have achieved beneficial improvement in soil properties, effective pest and weed control, and increased crop yields. After eight years experiment, we have obtained a gradual but stable increase in crop yields with a 9.6-fold increase of net income. The net income of HOF was 258,827 dollars and 24,423 dollars in 2014 and 2007 respectively. Thus, BMOF can not only feed more population, but also increase adaptive capacity of agriculture ecosystems and gain much higher economic benefits.
| S-EPMC4817119 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cover crop benefits include nitrogen accumulation and retention, weed suppression, organic matter maintenance, and reduced erosion. Organic farmers need region-specific information on winter cover crop performance to effectively integrate cover crops into their crop rotations. Our research objective was to compare cover crop seeding mixtures, planting dates, and termination dates on performance of rye (Secale cereale L.) and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) monocultures and mixtures in the maritime Pacific Northwest USA. The study included four seed mixtures (100% hairy vetch, 25% rye-75% hairy vetch, 50% rye-50% hairy vetch, and 100% rye by seed weight), two planting dates, and two termination dates, using a split-split plot design with four replications over six years. Measurements included winter ground cover; stand composition; cover crop biomass, N concentration, and N uptake; and June soil NO3(-)-N. Rye planted in mid-September and terminated in late April averaged 5.1 Mg ha(-1) biomass, whereas mixtures averaged 4.1 Mg ha(-1) and hairy vetch 2.3 Mg ha(-1). Delaying planting by 2.5 weeks reduced average winter ground cover by 65%, biomass by 50%, and cover crop N accumulation by 40%. Similar reductions in biomass and N accumulation occurred for late March termination, compared with late April termination. Mixtures had less annual biomass variability than rye. Mixtures accumulated 103 kg ha(-1) N and had mean C:N ratio <17:1 when planted in mid-September and terminated in late April. June soil NO3(-)-N (0 to 30 cm depth) averaged 62 kg ha(-1) for rye, 97 kg ha(-1) for the mixtures, and 119 kg ha(-1) for hairy vetch. Weeds comprised less of the mixtures biomass (20% weeds by weight at termination) compared with the monocultures (29%). Cover crop mixtures provided a balance between biomass accumulation and N concentration, more consistent biomass over the six-year study, and were more effective at reducing winter weeds compared with monocultures.
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Project description:A key aspect in cover crop management is termination before the cash crop is planted. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of termination methods on ground-dwelling arthropods. The conventional mechanical termination method-i.e., green manuring by means of a disc harrow-was compared to flattening using a roller crimper. Two different crop systems were investigated for two growing seasons; cauliflower was grown in autumn after the termination of a mixture of cowpea, pearl millet, and radish, and tomato was cropped in spring and summer after the termination of a mixture of barley and vetch. Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), and spiders (Araneae) were sampled by means of standard pitfall traps throughout the growing season of both cash crops. The roller crimper increased the overall abundance of ground beetles in the first growing season of both cash crops, whereas in the second year, no significant effect could be detected. Rove beetles were more abundant in plots where the cover crops were terminated by the roller crimper. Finally, green manuring increased the abundance of spiders, especially on the first sampling date after cover crop termination. Albeit different taxa showed different responses, the termination of cover crops by a roller crimper generally increased the abundance of ground dwelling arthropods. Given that most of the sampled species were generalist predators, their increased abundance could possibly improve biological control.
| S-EPMC7412336 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cover Crop Fungal Assemblages Metagenome
| PRJNA481943 | ENA
Project description:Organic farming is one of the most successful agri-environmental schemes, as humans benefit from high quality food, farmers from higher prices for their products and it often successfully protects biodiversity. However there is little knowledge if organic farming also increases ecosystem services like pest control. We assessed 30 triticale fields (15 organic vs. 15 conventional) and recorded vascular plants, pollinators, aphids and their predators. Further, five conventional fields which were treated with insecticides were compared with 10 non-treated conventional fields. Organic fields had five times higher plant species richness and about twenty times higher pollinator species richness compared to conventional fields. Abundance of pollinators was even more than one-hundred times higher on organic fields. In contrast, the abundance of cereal aphids was five times lower in organic fields, while predator abundances were three times higher and predator-prey ratios twenty times higher in organic fields, indicating a significantly higher potential for biological pest control in organic fields. Insecticide treatment in conventional fields had only a short-term effect on aphid densities while later in the season aphid abundances were even higher and predator abundances lower in treated compared to untreated conventional fields. Our data indicate that insecticide treatment kept aphid predators at low abundances throughout the season, thereby significantly reducing top-down control of aphid populations. Plant and pollinator species richness as well as predator abundances and predator-prey ratios were higher at field edges compared to field centres, highlighting the importance of field edges for ecosystem services. In conclusion organic farming increases biodiversity, including important functional groups like plants, pollinators and predators which enhance natural pest control. Preventative insecticide application in conventional fields has only short-term effects on aphid densities but long-term negative effects on biological pest control. Therefore conventional farmers should restrict insecticide applications to situations where thresholds for pest densities are reached.
| S-EPMC3097189 | biostudies-literature