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Functional agrobiodiversity and agroecosystem services in sustainable wheat production. A review

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Abstract

Agrobiodiversity can improve the sustainability of cropping systems in a context of low external inputs and unpredictable climate change. Agrobiodiversity strategies to grow wheat are breeding ad hoc cultivars for organic and low-input systems, wheat–legume intercrops and living mulches, cultivar mixtures, and the use of genetically heterogeneous populations. However, applying those strategies can fail due the lack of a well-focused framework. Therefore, we need a better integration between breeding and management and a clear focus on crop traits related to key agroecosystem services. Here, we review the use of agrobiodiversity in wheat production, focusing on breeding and management. We discuss five agroecosystem services: (1) weed reduction, (2) nitrogen use efficiency, (3) abiotic stress tolerance, (4) disease and pest reduction and (5) yield and yield stability. We categorise agrobiodiversity into functional identity, functional composition, and functional diversity, in order to link crop traits to agroecosystem services. Linking crop traits to agroecosystem services could in turn lead to concrete options for farmers and policy. We discuss the relations between crop identity and crop heterogeneity. We also discuss the partitioning of crop heterogeneity between functional composition and functional diversity.

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Acknowledgments

Part of this work has been carried out with the support of the EU-funded Projects SOLIBAM (Grant agreement no. FP7-KBBE 245058) and OSCAR (Grant agreement no. FP7-KBBE 289277) and of the ERA-NET Core Organic II Project TILMAN-ORG.

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  1. Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, 56127, Pisa, PI, Italy

    Ambrogio Costanzo & Paolo Bàrberi

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  1. Ambrogio Costanzo
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Correspondence to Paolo Bàrberi.

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Costanzo, A., Bàrberi, P. Functional agrobiodiversity and agroecosystem services in sustainable wheat production. A review. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 34, 327–348 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-013-0178-1

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