Summary
This common garden experiment disentangled evolutionary adaptation from coevolutionary coadaptation in intercropping systems, demonstrating that crop species pairs with shared evolutionary history exhibit higher productivity and trait convergence than modern monoculture-bred cultivars. Whilst the study provides evidence that coevolution among randomly interacting plants promotes ecosystem functioning through increased productivity, the measured functional traits accounted for only part of the observed benefits, suggesting additional physiological or ecological mechanisms underlie the coadaptation effect. The findings support the potential of artificial selection for crop varieties suited to intercropping communities as a sustainable productivity strategy.
UK applicability
The findings are potentially applicable to UK agriculture's transition toward more diversified cropping systems, particularly in supporting breeding programmes for intercropping. However, the study's specific crop species and environmental conditions are not identified in the abstract, making direct applicability to UK growing conditions uncertain until the full paper is reviewed.
Key measures
Crop productivity, species-level and community-level productivity metrics, functional trait convergence, effects of evolutionary adaptation versus coevolutionary coadaptation
Outcomes reported
The study measured productivity and functional trait changes in coadapted versus non-coadapted crop species pairs grown in intercropping systems. Species that had coevolved together showed higher productivity and greater trait convergence compared to modern monoculture-bred cultivars, although measured functional traits did not fully explain the productivity gains.
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