Intercropping Allows for Insect Conservation Without Yield Loss

Arthropods play a particularly important role in ecosystems. Until now, there has been a lack of strategic experiments on how arthropods develop in diverse crop environments and how they respond to the use of agrochemicals. Experiments in arable farming have now shown that higher plant biodiversity has a positive effect on the species-rich group of organisms that includes insects, millipedes, crustaceans and arachnids.

In the study, researchers from the LIB, the University of Münster and the University of Bonn investigated how crop diversity and species, as well as the use of agrochemicals—each in different combinations and with different factors—affect arthropod biodiversity. In addition, weeds and crop biomass were measured.

The results show that higher crop diversity in intercropping had a positive effect on arthropod abundance and diversity, irrespective of land use intensity. Mixed crops with faba bean, seed flax or spring rape showed a particularly high arthropod biodiversity. This also shows that mass flowering crops were more attractive to arthropods than legumes or cereals.