Paper

Strip cropping designed for maintaining productivity increases ground beetle biodiversity

Croijmans, Luuk, Van Apeldoorn, Dirk F, Walter Ah Rossing, Cuperus, Fogelina, Bianchi, Felix Jja, Poelman, Erik

2024

Overview

Global biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, with agriculture as a major driver. There is mounting evidence that intercropping can increase insect biodiversity while maintaining or increasing yield. Yet, intercropping is often considered impractical for mechanized farming systems. Strip cropping is pioneered by Dutch farmers as it is compatible with standard farm machinery. Here, we use ground beetle data from four experimental locations across four years of measurements because these are good agrobiodiversity indicators and hold keystone positions in agroecosystem foodwebs. We show that strip cropping systems that are designed for retaining productivity can also enhance ground beetle biodiversity, without incurring major yield loss. Strip cropped fields had on average 15% more ground beetle species and 30% more individuals than monocultural fields. The increase in field-level beetle species richness in organic agriculture through strip cropping approached increases found for other readily deployed biodiversity conservation methods, like shifting from conventional to organic agriculture (+19% - +23%). This makes strip cropping a useful tool for bending the curve of biodiversity loss without compromising food production.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
• Subject: Agriculture / Biodiversity / Crop production systems / Intercropping / Species richness