Multifunctional crop production systems
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Short summary
To position agriculture within planetary boundaries requires a redesign of crop production systems for multifunctionality, i.e., managing for production of food and feed, as well as for environmental protection, fertility, climate mitigation and adaptation and farm economy.
To identify and minimize potential trade-offs among these, we collaborate to develop sustainable and multifunctional cropping systems.
We test effects on multifunctionality of main ecological gradients managed by the farmer such as crop diversity, soil tillage and perennial cropping. We draw data from agricultural long term experiments in which these are manipulated. We combine this information with short term mesocosm experiments. Drawing from ecosystem and community ecology we establish a multifunctional framework on how ecosystem funcitons are coupled above and below ground in the agroecosystem. We build theory on how crop diversity, disturbance and perenniality drive stocks and flows of carbon, nutrients, water, energy and crop primary production. We identify principles for the design of sustainable cropping systems.