Combining field experiments and predictive models to assess potential for increased plant diversity to climate-proof intensive agriculture.

ABSTRACT: Agricultural production systems face increasing threats from more frequent and extreme weather fluctuations associated with global climate change. While there is mounting evidence that increased plant community diversity can reduce the variability of ecosystem functions (such as primary productivity) in the face of environmental fluctuation, there has been little work testing whether this is true for intensively managed agricultural systems. Using statistical modeling techniques to fit environment-productivity relationships offers an efficient means of leveraging hard-won experimental data to compare the potential variability of different mixtures across a wide range of environmental contexts. We used data from two multiyear field experiments to fit climate-soil-productivity models for two

SUBMITTER: Mason NWH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5496536 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature