Belowground interactions in intraspecific intercrops

Plant competition has long been regarded as a central mediator of ecosystem dynamics._ In nature, it has been observed that the outcomes of competitive forces among different species play a large role in determining community structure as species assemblage._ As such, competition becomes an important component of ecosystem level processes, such as by linking plants to nutrient and carbon cycles.In agricultural systems root competition is no less important. Intercropping of more than one crop species is known to sometimes increase stand level performance by several measures, which has also been linked to differences in rooting behavior, i.e., architecture, exudation, and symbiotic relationships._ It is supposed these differences allow niche segregation which lowers competition between plant roots while increasing the volume of soil explored._ The diversity of root traits within crop species also points to the possibility of optimal niche segregation playing a role in optimizing stand level performance of monocultures._ This topic is explored in field experiments with both maize and soybean root architectural multilines - intraspecific intercropping.

Contact

  Dan Grear
  ecologyservice@psu.edu