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Polyculture

About: Polyculture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1287 publications have been published within this topic receiving 14789 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the removal efficiency of fecal bacteria, biological oxygen demand (BOD), and total suspended solids (TSS) in 12 constructed wetlands treating secondary effluent from single household domestic wastewater in Kentucky.

288 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A positive relationship between production in monoculture and dominance in mixtures as predicted by the Sampling Effect Hypothesis is found and a new general framework for overyielding analysis is presented where every monocculture provides a potential comparison and from which the most relevant tests can be selected.
Abstract: We derive and test some assumptions and predictions of the Sampling Effect Hypothesis (SEH) by examining the relationship between the traits of species in monoculture and their relative abundance in mixture, and by comparing polyculture performance with single-species plots. Although we found a positive relationship between production in monoculture and dominance in mixtures as predicted by the SEH, the relationship had low explanatory power. Counter to predictions, the species with the highest monoculture biomass were not able to strongly dominate all mixtures; instead the dominance of these species decreased with increasing species richness. On average, polycultures did not achieve greater biomass than (transgressively overyield) the species in each mixture, or at each site, that was most productive in monoculture. However, mixture yields did transgressively overyield both the monoculture biomass of the dominant species in the mixtures, and the weighted average of all monocultures (non-transgressive overyielding), both of which were positively related to increasing species richness. The varying responses of different overyielding tests resulted because resource partitioning and positive interactions were often counter-balanced by selection for species with lower biomass than the highest-yielding monocultures. Judging whether or not mixtures overyield therefore depends in part upon which species is the basis for comparison. We present a new general framework for overyielding analysis where every monoculture provides a potential comparison and from which the most relevant tests can be selected.

261 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors experimentally planted annual crop species in monoculture and polyculture, and found that the species compo- sition of weeds was similar among treatments, but the species richness of weeds were significantly higher in the polycultures than in the monoccultures.
Abstract: The ecological literature is ambiguous as to whether the initial diversity of a plant community facilitates or deters the diversity of colonizing species. We experimentally planted annual crop species in monoculture and polyculture, and ex- amined the resulting weed communities. The species compo- sition of weeds was similar among treatments, but the species richness of weeds was significantly higher in the polycultures than in the monocultures. This supports the 'diversity begets diversity' hypothesis. Environmental microheterogeneity, di- versity promoters, and ecological equivalency do not seem able to explain the observed patterns.

184 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article reviews tilapia polyculture around the world and discusses its benefits, strategies and practices, and addressed that polyculture in semi-intensive systems was a way of improving sustainability fortilapia aquaculture.
Abstract: Tilapia are the second most farmed fish worldwide and their production has quadrupled over the past decade due to ease of aquaculture, marketability and stable market prices. Tilapia aquaculture must adopt sustainable practices (such as polyculture) for continuing increased production and improved sustainability. This article reviews tilapia polyculture around the world and discusses its benefits, strategies and practices. Tilapia polyculture improves feed utilization, enhances water quality, increases total yield and profit. Further investment will increase these gains. Research on tilapia polyculture in China was also summarized and addressed that polyculture in semi-intensive systems was a way of improving sustainability for tilapia aquaculture.

179 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that well-designed polycultures can produce win-win outcomes between per-plant, and potentially per-unit area, primary crop yield and biocontrol and polyculture management that focuses on yield optimization is likely to be the best strategy for maximizing both services.
Abstract: Summary Agriculture comprises the largest global land use, makes it a leading cause of habitat loss. It is therefore critical to identify how to best construct agricultural systems that can simultaneously provide food and other ecosystem services. This challenge requires that we determine how to maximize win-win relationships and minimize trade-offs between services. Through meta-analysis, we tested whether within-field crop diversification (polyculture) can lead to win-win relationships between two ecosystem services: yield of a focal crop species and biocontrol of crop pests. We selected only studies that recorded both services (N = 26 studies; 301 observations), allowing us to better determine the underlying mechanisms of our principal findings. We calculated log-response ratios for both ecosystem services in mono- and polycultures. We found win-win relationships between per-plant yield of the primary crop and biocontrol in polyculture systems that minimized intraspecific competition via substitutive planting. Additionally, we found beneficial effects on biocontrol with no difference in per-unit area yield of the primary crop in polyculture fields at high cropping densities (additive planting) where legumes were used as the secondary crop. These results suggest that there is a strong potential for win-win relationships between biocontrol and per-unit area yield under certain scenarios. Our findings were consistent across geographical regions and by type of primary crop. We did not find evidence that biocontrol had an effect on yield, but rather, both were independently affected by polycultural cropping. Synthesis and applications. We show that well-designed polycultures can produce win-win outcomes between per-plant, and potentially per-unit area, primary crop yield and biocontrol. Biocontrol services are consistently enhanced in polycultures, so polyculture management that focuses on yield optimization is likely to be the best strategy for maximizing both services. In doing so, we suggest that practitioners utilize polycultures that decrease plant–plant competition through a substitution of relatively large quantities of the primary crop for compatibly harvestable secondary crops. Additionally, if planting at high cropping densities, it is important that legumes be the secondary crop.

159 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202374
2022153
202151
202076
201967
201877