Abstract
Arthropod diversity of different taxonomic groups and ecosystem services are declining, yet current measures to counteract losses are often restricted to small areas of land or field margins, particularly in agricultural systems. At the same time, large areas of land will be required to feed a growing global population. Intercropping has been proposed as a potential solution to maximize both biodiversity and yield at large scale, but experimental evidence is scarce. In a three-year field experiment, we manipulated crop diversity and management intensity in a cereal-legume intercropping experiment in Germany, where 50% of wheat was replaced by faba beans. We measured arthropod abundance and diversity of different functional groups (pollinators, natural enemies, herbivores) and crop yield. We found that increasing crop diversity increased abundance and diversity of arthropods. Notably, pollinator and natural enemy abundances increased in intercropped systems. Low management intensity generally had positive effects on arthropod abundance and especially on pollinator diversity, indicating benefits of reduced inputs of fertilizers and herbicides. While wheat yield was higher in monocultures and for high management intensity, total grain yield of the intercrop (indicated by land equivalent ratio) was higher in mixtures. We found that trade-offs were stronger between arthropod diversity and wheat yield than between arthropod abundance and wheat yield. Specialist wheat herbivores and generalist herbivores were more abundant at higher wheat yields. Conversely, pollinator and natural enemy diversity were negatively associated with wheat yield. Our results show that diversification can promote both higher yields and greater diversity of arthropods. Intercropping can thus be an opportunity to support biodiversity without risking significant yield losses.
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Claims 12
Claim · model-written summary
Increasing crop diversity increased arthropod abundance and diversity.
- Taxon
- Intercropping in high input agriculturet0
- Treatment
- increasing crop diversitye0
- Outcome
- abundance and diversity of arthropodse0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“increasing crop diversity increased abundance and diversity of arthropods”
t0“Intercropping in high input agriculture”
Claim · model-written summary
Pollinator abundance increased in intercropped systems.
- Taxon
- wheat
Triticum aestivume1 - Treatment
- intercropped systemse0
- Interactor
- pollinatore0pollinator
- Outcome
- pollinatore0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pollinator and natural enemy abundances increased in intercropped systems”
e1“wheat was replaced by faba beans”
Claim · model-written summary
Natural enemy abundance increased in intercropped systems.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume1
- Treatment
- intercropped systemse0
- Outcome
- natural enemy abundancese0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pollinator and natural enemy abundances increased in intercropped systems”
e1“wheat was replaced by faba beans”
Claim · model-written summary
Low management intensity increased arthropod abundance and pollinator diversity.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume1
- Treatment
- Low management intensitye0
- Outcome
- arthropod abundance and especially on pollinator diversitye0
- Direction
- positive effectse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Low management intensity generally had positive effects on arthropod abundance and especially on pollinator diversity”
e1“wheat was replaced by faba beans”
Claim · model-written summary
Wheat yield was higher in monocultures.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- monoculturese0
- Outcome
- wheat yielde0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“wheat yield was higher in monocultures”
Claim · model-written summary
Wheat yield was higher at high management intensity.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- high management intensitye0
- Outcome
- wheat yielde0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“wheat yield was higher in monocultures and for high management intensity”
Claim · model-written summary
Total grain yield by land equivalent ratio was higher in mixtures.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume1
- Treatment
- mixturese0
- Outcome
- total grain yield of the intercrope0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“total grain yield of the intercrop (indicated by land equivalent ratio) was higher in mixtures”
e1“wheat was replaced by faba beans”
Claim · model-written summary
Arthropod diversity had a stronger trade-off with wheat yield than arthropod abundance did.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Outcome
- wheat yielde0
- Direction
- strongere0
- Comparator
- arthropod abundancee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“trade-offs were stronger between arthropod diversity and wheat yield than between arthropod abundance and wheat yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Specialist wheat herbivores were more abundant at higher wheat yields.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Interactor
- Specialist wheat herbivorese0herbivore
- Outcome
- Specialist wheat herbivorese0
- Direction
- more abundante0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Specialist wheat herbivores and generalist herbivores were more abundant at higher wheat yields”
Claim · model-written summary
Generalist herbivores were more abundant at higher wheat yields.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Interactor
- generalist herbivorese0herbivore
- Outcome
- generalist herbivorese0
- Direction
- more abundante0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Specialist wheat herbivores and generalist herbivores were more abundant at higher wheat yields”
Claim · model-written summary
Pollinator diversity was negatively associated with wheat yield.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Interactor
- pollinatore0pollinator
- Outcome
- pollinatore0
- Direction
- negativelye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pollinator and natural enemy diversity were negatively associated with wheat yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Natural enemy diversity was negatively associated with wheat yield.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume0
- Outcome
- natural enemy diversitye0
- Direction
- negativelye0
- Comparator
- wheat yielde0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pollinator and natural enemy diversity were negatively associated with wheat yield”
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rotation · yield · Triticum aestivum (wheat)Positive and negative results
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See all 8 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.