Rapid transgenerational adaptation in response to intercropping reduces competition.

ABSTRACT: By capitalising on positive biodiversity-productivity relationships, intercropping provides opportunities to improve agricultural sustainability. Intercropping is generally implemented using commercial seeds that were bred for maximal productivity in monocultures, thereby ignoring the ability of plants to adapt over generations to the surrounding neighbourhood, notably through increased complementarity, that is reduced competition or increased facilitation. This is why using monoculture-adapted seeds for intercropping might limit the benefits of crop diversity on yield. However, the adaptation potential of crops and the corresponding changes in complementarity have not been explored in annual crop systems. Here we show that plant-plant interactions among annual crops shifted

SUBMITTER: Stefan L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9553216 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature