Supporting Agricultural Ecosystem Services through the Integration of Perennial Polycultures into Crop Rotations

Peter Weißhuhn, Moritz Reckling, Ulrich Stachow and Hubert Wiggering
Additional contact information
Peter Weißhuhn: Institute of Land Use Systems, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Eberswalder Straße 84, D-15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Moritz Reckling: Institute of Land Use Systems, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Eberswalder Straße 84, D-15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Ulrich Stachow: Institute of Land Use Systems, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Eberswalder Straße 84, D-15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Hubert Wiggering: Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24/25, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-20

Abstract: This review analyzes the potential role and long-term effects of field perennial polycultures (mixtures) in agricultural systems, with the aim of reducing the trade-offs between provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. First, crop rotations are identified as a suitable tool for the assessment of the long-term effects of perennial polycultures on ecosystem services, which are not visible at the single-crop level. Second, the ability of perennial polycultures to support ecosystem services when used in crop rotations is quantified through eight agricultural ecosystem services. Legume–grass mixtures and wildflower mixtures are used as examples of perennial polycultures, and compared with silage maize as a typical crop for biomass production. Perennial polycultures enhance soil fertility, soil protection, climate regulation, pollination, pest and weed control, and landscape aesthetics compared with maize. They also score lower for biomass production compared with maize, which confirms the trade-off between provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. However, the additional positive factors provided by perennial polycultures, such as reduced costs for mineral fertilizer, pesticides, and soil tillage, and a significant preceding crop effect that increases the yields of subsequent crops, should be taken into account. However, a full assessment of agricultural ecosystem services requires a more holistic analysis that is beyond the capabilities of current frameworks.

Keywords: agroecosystem; assessment; legume–grass mixture; wildflower mixture; perennial crop; mixed cropping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/12/2267/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/12/2267/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:12:p:2267-:d:122034

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().