1. Resource acquisition and ecosystem services provided by bi-specific cover crop mixtures
- Author
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Hélène Tribouillois, Laurent Bedoussac, Antoine Couëdel, Eric Justes, Diego Rubiales, Carlota, M., Vaz Patto, Svetlana Vujic, Vuk Đorđević, Bernadette Julier, Kevin Mcphee, Fred Muehlbauer, Tom Warkentin, Ana Planchuelo-Ravelo, Petr Smýkal, Frederick Stoddard, AGroécologie, Innovations, teRritoires (AGIR), Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), École Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole de Toulouse-Auzeville (ENSFEA), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad), Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible - Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (IAS CSIC), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Unité de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire Prairies et Plantes Fourragères (P3F), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Dep Plant Sci, North Dakota State University (NDSU), Washington State University (WSU), University of Saskatchewan, and Raynaud, Christelle
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[SDV.SA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences ,[SDV.SA] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences ,Catch crop ,green manure ,intercropping ,competition ,nitrogen ,complementarity ,facilitation - Abstract
International audience; Multi-service cover crops are used to provide ecosystem services, particularly for nitrogen management, such as “nitrate catching” and "green manuring" effects. Sowing cover crop mixtures including legumes and non-legumes have the advantage of combining the provision of both services related to N management thanks to phenomena of niche complementarity and/or facilitation in the capture of abiotic resources. When complementarities are optimized, these species mixtures can achieve both effects similarly to those provided by the average of mono specific cover crops, especially for nitrate catching. In addition, the complementarity for the access to light thanks to species having different aerial architectures and contrasted temporal complementarities enable them to obtain services in relay, in particular in the case of the longest fallow periods over mid-Spring. However, in order to achieve the targeted services, attention must be paid to limit competition between species in particular during early stages.