CONTEXT

Crop diversification has been proposed as a promising strategy for transitioning towards sustainable agricultural systems by leveraging biological processes and controls present in naturally biodiverse ecosystems. Strip cropping, a form of intercropping where two or more crops are grown adjacent to one another in long and narrow multi-row strips, has been shown to deliver a greater range of ecosystem services compared to sole crop references due to increased interspecific crop interactions, spatio-temporal niche differentiation, and higher in-field habitat diversity. The possibility to adjust the strip width to the working width of farmers' existing machines gives strip cropping of cash crops an important implementation advantage over other intercropping practices. Systematic exploration and evaluation of spatial plans for strip cropping systems, however, is constrained by the lack of spatially-explicit design approaches.

OBJECTIVE

Here we present a framework to support systematic exploration of spatio-temporal strip cropping configurations for a given farm context and set of objectives.

METHODS

The framework comprises six steps: 1) Diagnosis of the current farm situation; 2) Specification of strip cropping system attributes; 3) Temporal strip cropping planning; 4) Spatio-temporal strip cropping planning; 5) Spatio-temporal strip cropping configuration assessment; 6) Strip cropping configuration selection and visualization. We combine two software applications: ROTAT to generate crop rotations and the novel RotaStrip to systematically explore spatio-temporal configurations based on the rotations generated by ROTAT. We illustrate the framework with a case study from the Netherlands using gross margin, habitat score, and spatial crop compatibility score as indicators.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

150 crop rotations were generated. When 6 additional crops were included this was increased to 51,371, and the maximum values of the three indicator scores were also improved. Using the thirteen candidate crops to generate spatio-temporal configurations, we identified 16 Pareto-optimal and 78 anti-optimal configurations, from which the highest and lowest performing configurations were selected. The two contrasting configurations scored 7254 and 6658 €.ha⁻¹.yr⁻¹ for gross margin, 0.88 and 0.75 for habitat score, and 98 and− 58 for crop compatibility score, respectively, illustrating the value of consideration of the spatial aspects. Bridging the current knowledge gaps regarding what constitute good crop combinations, and strengthening the evidence underpinning the evaluation of ecosystem service delivery on the basis of spatial configuration, would further improve the quality of the generated strip cropping plans.

SIGNIFICANCE

The framework presented and illustrated in this study provides a basis for systematic spatio-temporal strip cropping systems design and implementation.

中文翻译：

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条带种植系统的时空设计

语境

作物多样化已被提议作为通过利用自然生物多样性生态系统中存在的生物过程和控制向可持续农业系统过渡的有前景的战略。带状种植是一种间作形式，其中两种或多种作物以长而窄的多行带状相邻种植，由于种间作物相互作用增加，与单一作物参考相比，已显示提供更大范围的生态系统服务，时空生态位分化和更高的田间栖息地多样性。将条带宽度调整到农民现有机器的工作宽度的可能性使经济作物条带种植相对于其他间作实践具有重要的实施优势。

客观的

在这里，我们提出了一个框架，以支持系统探索给定农场环境和一组目标的时空条带种植配置。

方法

该框架包括六个步骤： 1）当前农场状况的诊断；2) 条带种植系统属性规范；3) 分期种植计划；4）时空带状种植规划；5）时空条带种植配置评估；6) 条带裁剪配置选择和可视化。我们结合了两个软件应用程序：生成作物轮作的 ROTAT 和基于 ROTAT 生成的轮作系统地探索时空配置的新型 RotaStrip。我们使用来自荷兰的案例研究来说明该框架，使用毛利率、栖息地得分和空间作物相容性得分作为指标。

结果和结论

产生了 150 次轮作。当增加 6 种作物时，这一数字增加到 51,371，并且三个指标得分的最大值也有所提高。使用 13 种候选作物生成时空配置，我们确定了 16 个帕累托最优配置和 78 个反最优配置，从中选择了性能最高和最低的配置。两种对比配置得分 7254 和 6658 €.ha ^-1 .yr ^-1对于毛利率，栖息地得分分别为 0.88 和 0.75，作物相容性得分分别为 98 和 - 58，说明了考虑空间方面的价值。弥合目前关于什么构成良好作物组合的知识差距，并加强支持基于空间配置评估生态系统服务提供的证据，将进一步提高生成的带状种植计划的质量。

意义

本研究中提出和说明的框架为系统的时空条状种植系统设计和实施提供了基础。