ALPHA AND BETA PLANT DIVERSITY IN MULTISPECIES AGROECOSYSTEMS OF CENTRAL GREECE

Intercropping encourages biodiversity, by providing a habitat for a variety of plants, which benefit the population of insects and soil organisms that would not be present in a single-crop environment. The literature about this issue is scarce. Hence, the study of plant species density, alpha (species richness, Shannon, Simpson and Evenness index) and beta diversity (Jaccard similarity index) were held in the University of Thessaly facilities on May 2014, with the use of sample plot (50 x 50 cm). The experimental plots were constituted of the following types of intercropping: Pea-Oats (P-O), Pea-Barley (P-B), Winter Vetch-Oats (WV-O), Winter Vetch-Barley (WV-B), Grass Pea-Oats (GP-O) and Grass Pea-Barley (GP-B). A total number of eight species of herbaceous plants were recorded in all types of intercropping. The average density of herbaceous plants was found significantly higher in the Pea-Barley (21.80 ± 13.68, p <0.05) than the Pea-Oats (10.00 ± 7.61, p <0.05), Winter Vetch-Oats (10.60 ± 17.79, p<0.05), Winter Vetch-Barley (6.80 ± 9.47, p <0.05), Grass Pea-Oats (13.00 ± 12.20, p <0.05) and Grass Pea-Barley (5.00 ± 5.91, p <0.05). The Shannon diversity index was higher in the Pea-Barley (1.33) and lower in Winter VetchOats (0.00), Winter Vetch-Barley (0.00) and Grass Pea-Barley (0.00) (p <0.05). The results also showed that the type of intercropping Pea-Barley (1.00-0.85) favoured the evenness and similarity of plant species in relation to other types of intercropping (p<0.05). Conclusively, intercropping systems clearly have the potential to increase the long-term sustainability of food production under low inputs. Specifically, the type of intercropping Pea-Barley favours alpha and beta plant diversity making this type of intercropping important, favouring parameters of biodiversity both in Greek and in the wider Mediterranean areas. We conclude, also, on the need to enhance agricultural research on these multispecies systems, combining both agronomic and ecological concepts and tools.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  The Journal "Agriculture and Forestry

• Publication date

  2016-12-15

• Fields of study

  Agricultural and Food Sciences, Biology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.17707/AGRICULTFOREST.62.4.03
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Biodiversity and Pest Management in Agroecosystems

  2018cited by this paper
• Improving intercropping: a synthesis of research in agronomy, plant physiology and ecology.

  2015cited by this paper
• Evaluation of Plant Diversity and Nutrient Resource on Weed Diversity and Soil Microbial Respiration

  2015cited by this paper
• Advantage of intercropping maize [i](Zea mays[/i] L.) and common bean ([i]Phaseolus vulgaris[/i] L.) on yield and nitrogen uptake in Northeast Algeria

  2014cited by this paper
• Crop Mixtures and the Mechanisms of Overyielding

  2013cited by this paper
• On-farm evaluation of yield and economic benefit of short term maize legume intercropping systems under conservation agriculture in Malawi

  2012cited by this paper
• Yield potential and land-use efficiency of wheat and faba bean mixed intercropping

  2008cited by this paper
• Conceptos y medidas de la diversidad beta

  2005cited by this paper
• Measuring beta diversity for presence–absence data

  2003cited by this paper
• The role of weeds in supporting biological diversity within crop fields

  2003cited by this paper
• Beta diversity in tropical forests: respons.

  2002cited by this paper
• Beta-diversity in tropical forests.

  2002cited by this paper
• Soil taxonomy—a basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys: Second edition, by Soil Survey Staff, 1999, USDA–NRCS, Agriculture Handbook number 436, Hardbound

  2001cited by this paper
• Influence of nitrate and ammonium nutrition on the growth of giant foxtail (Setaria faberi)

  1997cited by this paper
• The impact of agricultural practices on biodiversity

  1995cited by this paper
• A simple test for change in community structure

  1993cited by this paper
• Partialling out the spatial component of ecological variation

  1992cited by this paper
• Species interactions, local and regional processes, and limits to the richness of ecological communities : a theoretical perspective

  1992cited by this paper
• Structural changes of weed communities and populations

  1984cited by this paper
• Statistical package for the social sciences (spss)

  1981cited by this paper
• Evolution and measurement of species diversity

  1972cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.