2018/01/31 by Tribouillois, Hélène, Bedoussac, Laurent, Couëdel, Antoine +1
#0 #Association d’espèce #Azote #Catch crop #Competition #Complementarity #Complémentarité #Compétition #Couvert #Facilitation #Interaction #Intercropping #Mixture #Mélange #Nitrogen
paper · doi:10.15454/1.5174020133461763e12
Cover crops are used to produce ecosystem services, particularly for nitrogen management, such as “nitrate catching” and "green manure" effects. Sowing cover crop mixtures including legumes and nonlegumes have the advantage of combining the production of both services thanks to phenomena of niche complementarity and / or facilitation in the capture of abiotic resources. When complementarities are optimized, these mixtures can achieve both effects similarly to those produced by the average of monospecific cover crops. The best performances are mainly obtained when the availability of mineral nitrogen at sowing is low, which is in agreement with the conclusions from the literature on arable crops. In addition, the complementarity for the access to light thanks to species having different aerial architectures and contrasted temporal complementarities enable to obtain effective mixtures producing "relay" services, in particular in the case of long fallow periods. However, in order to achieve the desired effects, care should be taken to limit competition between species.