Enhancing functional biodiversity through increased crop diversification in a strip cropping field

Summary

Agricultural production is predominantly conducted in simplified cropping systems with monocultural crop cultivation, with consequences for biodiversity and resulting ecosystem services. Agroecosystem crop diversification, such as strip cropping or intercropping, can increase the functional biodiversity and thus the ecosystem services, such as pest regulation and pollination, provided by arthropod predators and pollinators. The underlying mechanisms of the potential benefits of crop diversification are likely manyfold and includes the availability of food resources for higher trophic level organisms and improved structural and diverse habitats potentially supporting the natural pest regulation. The present study aims to investigate the potential benefits of organic strip cropping under Danish conditions, in a strip cropping field established at Nordic Beet Research, in Denmark. The field design was based on two levels of crop diversification within the field area, representing different number of crop species and strip widths.