The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.

The development of sustainable agricultural systems in drylands is currently a crucial issue in the context of mitigating the outcomes of population growth under the conditions of climatic changes. The need to meet the growing demand for food, fodder, and fuel, together with the hazards due to clima...

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Main Authors: Omer Tzuk, Hannes Uecker, Ehud Meron
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236325
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spelling doaj-1c5d6c248e564d3994f1bccbecc71f4e2021-03-03T21:57:22ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01157e023632510.1371/journal.pone.0236325The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.Omer TzukHannes UeckerEhud MeronThe development of sustainable agricultural systems in drylands is currently a crucial issue in the context of mitigating the outcomes of population growth under the conditions of climatic changes. The need to meet the growing demand for food, fodder, and fuel, together with the hazards due to climate change, requires cross-disciplinary studies of ways to increase livelihood while minimizing the impact on the environment. Practices of agroforestry systems, in which herbaceous species are intercropped between rows of woody species plantations, have been shown to mitigate several of the predicaments of climatic changes. Focusing on agroforestry in drylands, we address the question of how we can improve the performance of agroforestry systems in those areas. As vegetation in drylands tends to self-organize in various patterns, it seems essential to explore the various patterns that agroforestry systems tend to form and their impact on the performance of these systems in terms of biomass production, resilience to droughts, and water use efficiency. We use a two-soil-layers vegetation model to study the relationship between deep-rooted woody vegetation and shallow herbaceous vegetation, and explore how self-organization in different spatial patterns influences the performance of agroforestry systems. We focus on three generic classes of patterns, spots, gaps, and stripes, assess these patterns using common metrics for agroforestry systems, and examine their resilience to droughts. We show that in contrast to the widespread practice of planting the woody and herbaceous species in alternating rows, that is, in a stripe pattern, planting the woody species in hexagonal spot patterns may increase the system's resilience to droughts. Furthermore, hexagonal spot patterns reduce the suppression of herbs growth by the woody vegetation, therefore maintaining higher crop yields. We conclude by discussing some limitations of this study and their significance.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236325
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Omer Tzuk
Hannes Uecker
Ehud Meron
spellingShingle Omer Tzuk
Hannes Uecker
Ehud Meron
The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Omer Tzuk
Hannes Uecker
Ehud Meron
author_sort Omer Tzuk
title The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.
title_short The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.
title_full The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.
title_fullStr The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.
title_full_unstemmed The role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.
title_sort role of spatial self-organization in the design of agroforestry systems.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2020-01-01
description The development of sustainable agricultural systems in drylands is currently a crucial issue in the context of mitigating the outcomes of population growth under the conditions of climatic changes. The need to meet the growing demand for food, fodder, and fuel, together with the hazards due to climate change, requires cross-disciplinary studies of ways to increase livelihood while minimizing the impact on the environment. Practices of agroforestry systems, in which herbaceous species are intercropped between rows of woody species plantations, have been shown to mitigate several of the predicaments of climatic changes. Focusing on agroforestry in drylands, we address the question of how we can improve the performance of agroforestry systems in those areas. As vegetation in drylands tends to self-organize in various patterns, it seems essential to explore the various patterns that agroforestry systems tend to form and their impact on the performance of these systems in terms of biomass production, resilience to droughts, and water use efficiency. We use a two-soil-layers vegetation model to study the relationship between deep-rooted woody vegetation and shallow herbaceous vegetation, and explore how self-organization in different spatial patterns influences the performance of agroforestry systems. We focus on three generic classes of patterns, spots, gaps, and stripes, assess these patterns using common metrics for agroforestry systems, and examine their resilience to droughts. We show that in contrast to the widespread practice of planting the woody and herbaceous species in alternating rows, that is, in a stripe pattern, planting the woody species in hexagonal spot patterns may increase the system's resilience to droughts. Furthermore, hexagonal spot patterns reduce the suppression of herbs growth by the woody vegetation, therefore maintaining higher crop yields. We conclude by discussing some limitations of this study and their significance.
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236325
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