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Microsegregation in Maize Cropping—a Chance to Improve Farmland Biodiversity

Mikrosegregation im Maisanbau – eine Chance zur Verbesserung der Biodiversität auf landwirtschaftlichen Nutzflächen

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Abstract

The need to preserve and enhance biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is widely accepted. In the case of maize, there is a chance to combine production and biodiversity in the same field by microsegregation: wildflowers are sown between the future maize rows after harvest of the last main crop. These wildflower strips provide flowers and vegetation structure within fields and favour biodiversity without losing production area. The system is based on reliable cropping techniques such as strip-till, underground fertilization and band spraying, allowing the poor habitat quality of conventional maize caused by late soil tillage and lack of vegetation structure to be overcome. Field trials at two sites in Germany were conducted, testing the agricultural feasibility, ecological efficiency and yield impacts. The results show the successful establishment of the wildflower strips between the maize rows. Flowering diversity was up to eight times higher than in conventional maize crop stands. Positive implications for pollinators and ground beetles could be proved. The habitat quality for the skylark could be improved by a factor of 2–3, to nearly normal reproduction of the population. A yield reduction of at least 30% was observed. Further investigations will address this yield gap. Furthermore, the management of spontaneous weeds needs further improvement.

Zusammenfassung

Biodiversität in Agrarlandschaften zu schützen und zu fördern, ist ein weithin akzeptiertes Ziel. Hier wird eine Möglichkeit vorgestellt, im Maisanbau hohe Produktionsleistung mit hoher Biodiversität auf derselben Fläche zu kombinieren. Dazu werden zwischen die Maisreihen Wildpflanzen gesät, bereits nach der Ernte der letzten Hauptfrucht. Diese Blühstreifen stellen Blüten und Vegetationsstruktur innerhalb des Maisfelds bereit und fördern so viele Bereiche der Biodiversität ohne Flächenverlust für die Produktion. Das Anbausystem gründet sich auf gut eingeführte Anbautechniken wie Strip-Till, Unterflurdüngung und Bandspritzung. Diese Techniken werden so kombiniert, dass die schlechte Habitatqualität von konventionell angebautem Mais, bedingt durch die späte Bodenbearbeitung und das Fehlen von Vegetationsstruktur, deutlich aufgewertet wird. Es wurden an 2 Versuchsstandorten in Deutschland Feldversuche durchgeführt, um die landwirtschaftliche Machbarkeit, ökologische Effizienz und Auswirkungen auf die Erträge zu prüfen. Die Ergebnisse der Feldversuche zeigen, dass die Blühstreifen zwischen den Maisreihen erfolgreich etabliert werden konnten. Das Blütenangebot war mit dem neuen System bis zu 8‑mal höher als im konventionellen Maisanbau und stand die ganze Anbausaison zur Verfügung. Positive Wirkungen wurden für Bestäuber und Laufkäfer festgestellt. Die Habitatqualität für die Feldlerche erhöhte sich um den Faktor 2–3 und führte damit zu einer beinahe normalen Reproduktion der Population. Es wurde eine Ertragslücke von mindestens 30 % gemessen, die in weiteren Versuchen verringert werden soll. Auch das Management von Unkräutern in den Blühstreifen muss weiter verbessert werden.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Katrin Lück, Sigrid Ehlert, Cornelia Fischer, Edelgunde Jerusel, Petra Rischewski, Udo Wittchen and Cora Ksinzyk for their great help with the field work and data processing. This research was partly funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the project “Energiemaisanbau für hohen Ertrag und Biologische Vielfalt (Vorstudie)” (grant 22011914).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374, Müncheberg, Germany

    Christoph von Redwitz, Michael Glemnitz, Ruth Brose, Gernot Verch, Dietmar Barkusky, Gert Berger & Sonoko Bellingrath-Kimura

  2. Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants JKI, Institute for Plant Protection in Field Crops and Grassland, Julius Kühn-Institut, Stahnsdorfer Damm 81, 14532, Kleinmachnow, Germany

    Christoph von Redwitz

  3. Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants JKI, Institute for Strategies and Technology Assessment, Julius Kühn-Institut, Stahnsdorfer Damm 81, 14532, Kleinmachnow, Germany

    Jörg Hoffmann

  4. Laboratory for Animal-Ecological Studies, Lindenthaler Allee 32, 14163, Berlin, Germany

    Christoph Saure

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  1. Christoph von Redwitz
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  2. Michael Glemnitz
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Correspondence to Michael Glemnitz.

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Conflict of interest

C. von Redwitz, M. Glemnitz, J. Hoffmann, R. Brose, G. Verch, D. Barkusky, C. Saure, G. Berger and S. Bellingrath-Kimura declare that they have no competing interests.

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C. von Redwitz and M. Glemnitz contributed equally.

Appendices

Appendix A

 

Table 7 Detailed list of management measures as applied during the plot experiments at the Dedelow site
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Appendix B

 

Table 8 Detail list of management measures as applied during the plot experiments at the site Müncheberg
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von Redwitz, C., Glemnitz, M., Hoffmann, J. et al. Microsegregation in Maize Cropping—a Chance to Improve Farmland Biodiversity. Gesunde Pflanzen 71, 87–102 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-019-00457-7

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