Unveiling the effects of diversified prairies on wheat nutrition, phenology and growth in strip intercropping
Abstract
Crop diversification and perennialization (i.e., transition from single-season crops to longer-term plant covers) are promising strategies for sustaining agroecosystems productivity while reducing inputs (mineral fertilizers, pesticides). However, their implementation remains limited under current practices, and requires a better understanding of plant-plant interactions that can either boost or hinder crop development. To advance crop diversification and perennialization, we propose associating perennial, multispecies covers of native prairie species with annual crops in fine-scale strip intercropping systems termed "agroprairies". In a field experiment, we cultivated four varieties of wheat in monoculture or associated with four functional types of prairies that differed in the resource-use strategy of their species and in legume proportion. These treatments were crossed with the use or not of mineral nitrogen (N) fertilization. Our results show significant positive or negative effects of prairie strips on wheat nutrition, phenology, growth and biomass production, depending on prairie type, wheat variety and N fertilization. We suggest that resource-acquisitive trait syndrome and higher proportion of legumes in the prairie strips can significantly enhance wheat response to prairie (logRR, i.e., the logarithm of the ratio of wheat outcome in agroprairie to that in monoculture, increases from -0.10 to 0.02 for leaf N, and from -0.22 to 0.04 for maximal height).
Conversely, N fertilization tends to make the effects of prairies on wheat development more negative (logRR decreases from 0.01 to -0.11 for leaf N). Overall, this study opens up promising avenues for further developing trait-based approaches to design low-input, perennial and diversified cropping systems.
Related
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- The partitioning of yield gain among component species in intercropping: A global meta-analysis
BibTeX
@article{becu2026unveiling,
title = {{Unveiling the effects of diversified prairies on wheat nutrition, phenology and growth in strip intercropping}},
author = {Thomas Bécu and Nicolas Gross and Audrey Niboyet and Gael Alvarez and Olivier Duchene and Sébastien Barot and Lisa Besson and Elodie Pascon and Marilyn Roncoroni and Magali Joannin and Sébastien Fontaine},
journal = {Agriculture, Ecosystems \& Environment},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.agee.2026.110742},
url = {https://isara.hal.science/hal-05749887v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Unveiling the effects of diversified prairies on wheat nutrition, phenology and growth in strip intercropping
AU - Thomas Bécu
AU - Nicolas Gross
AU - Audrey Niboyet
AU - Gael Alvarez
AU - Olivier Duchene
AU - Sébastien Barot
AU - Lisa Besson
AU - Elodie Pascon
AU - Marilyn Roncoroni
AU - Magali Joannin
AU - Sébastien Fontaine
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
JO - Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
DO - 10.1016/j.agee.2026.110742
UR - https://isara.hal.science/hal-05749887v1
AB - Crop diversification and perennialization (i.e., transition from single-season crops to longer-term plant covers) are promising strategies for sustaining agroecosystems productivity while reducing inputs (mineral fertilizers, pesticides). However, their implementation remains limited under current practices, and requires a better understanding of plant-plant interactions that can either boost or hinder crop development. To advance crop diversification and perennialization, we propose associating perennial, multispecies covers of native prairie species with annual crops in fine-scale strip intercropping systems termed "agroprairies". In a field experiment, we cultivated four varieties of wheat in monoculture or associated with four functional types of prairies that differed in the resource-use strategy of their species and in legume proportion. These treatments were crossed with the use or not of mineral nitrogen (N) fertilization. Our results show significant positive or negative effects of prairie strips on wheat nutrition, phenology, growth and biomass production, depending on prairie type, wheat variety and N fertilization. We suggest that resource-acquisitive trait syndrome and higher proportion of legumes in the prairie strips can significantly enhance wheat response to prairie (logRR, i.e., the logarithm of the ratio of wheat outcome in agroprairie to that in monoculture, increases from -0.10 to 0.02 for leaf N, and from -0.22 to 0.04 for maximal height). Conversely, N fertilization tends to make the effects of prairies on wheat development more negative (logRR decreases from 0.01 to -0.11 for leaf N). Overall, this study opens up promising avenues for further developing trait-based approaches to design low-input, perennial and diversified cropping systems.
SN - 0167-8809
ER -