Agronomy for Sustainable Development最新文献

{"title":"Drivers of arable flora diversity in productive Mediterranean pulse cropping systems","authors":"Anna-Lena Vollheyde,&nbsp;Frank Schaarschmidt,&nbsp;Christina von Haaren","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01102-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01102-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>To address major environmental challenges, meat-focused agri-food systems should shift to more sustainable plant-based alternatives, mainly centered around food legumes. However, not enough is known about the impact of pulse cultivation on nonmarket services, such as biodiversity conservation. Especially knowledge of the exact effect of management on endangered arable flora is limited. Understanding nonmarket services is essential for communicating the benefits of pulses to consumers, for adapting management practices, and for calculating potential remuneration. This study investigates how management practices, environmental (soil and weather), and landscape contextual factors influence biodiversity and provisioning services in pulse fields, and how these two services interact. Vegetation data from lentil and chickpea experimental plots and organic fields in the Mediterranean region were mapped and analyzed using primary data meta-analysis and ordination methods. We found that management practices are critical for biodiversity conservation in pulse systems. Omitting weed control increases arable flora species richness but not necessarily the Shannon index and monocropping outperforms intercropping in terms of arable flora diversity. Biodiversity in organic fields was significantly higher in field edges than in centers, highlighting the need for zone-specific management. Furthermore, landscape diversity and field size emerged as important drivers of biodiversity, particularly in the edges, where they explained over 20% of the variance. No negative relationship was found between arable flora diversity and grain yield, and biodiversity positively correlated with crop cover, showing that pulse cultivation can support both biodiversity conservation and production in organic systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-026-01102-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147708589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Co-design of diversified sorghum-based cropping systems with smallholder farmers in North-Sudanian Burkina Faso","authors":"Abdoul Rasmane Bagagnan,&nbsp;David Berre,&nbsp;Louis-Marie Raboin,&nbsp;Hamado Sawadogo,&nbsp;Heidi Webber,&nbsp;Katrien Descheemaeker","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01099-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01099-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Farmers in the North-Sudanian zone of Burkina Faso face significant soil fertility challenges, which hinder crop productivity. Co-design approaches are increasingly employed to address cropping system performance by involving farmers in adapting their cropping systems. However, farmers’ usual cropping systems are often overlooked, despite their potential for improvement. This study addressed this shortcoming by integrating a quantitative agronomic assessment with farmers’ qualitative evaluation in a co-design process. To our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically compare farmers’ usual systems, research team-proposed systems, and re-designed systems incorporating farmers’ adaptations. Using the Describe, Explain, Explore, Design approach, farmers participated in the co-design of sorghum-based cropping systems from 2021 to 2023. Three annual cycles of the co-design process were conducted, each involving a demonstration, evaluation, and re-design phase. On-farm trials tested research-proposed, farmers’ usual, and re-designed systems. Farmers evaluated the systems performance through ranking and multicriteria scoring. Results revealed that research team–proposed systems did not consistently outperform farmers’ usual cropping systems in terms of average grain yield. However, re-designed systems achieved significant yield increases for sorghum and cowpea in 2023. Farmers’ ranking of the systems did not always align with yield performance, as they also considered other factors, such as labor requirements and adaptability. The row intercropping systems proposed by the research team was evaluated more favorably than farmers’ usual intercropping system as the latter is more labor demanding. Conversely, the farmers’ usual rotational system was preferred over the rotation systems proposed by the research team as the latter integrated legumes that are not used for human consumption. The study underscores the importance of labor demand for farmers. We conclude that incorporating farmers’ usual cropping systems into co-design, while considering farmers’ context, effectively addresses constraints and supports transformation toward sustainability, resilience, and improved livelihoods.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-026-01099-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147708590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating tactics for weed seed management provides sustainable weed control in organic rice production","authors":"Xiang Qu,&nbsp;Jiayue Qian,&nbsp;Pinglei Gao,&nbsp;Zheng Zhang,&nbsp;Aimei Hong,&nbsp;Yunhui Duan,&nbsp;Guojun Sun,&nbsp;Sheng Qiang","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01100-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01100-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Overdependence on manual weeding has limited the expansion of organic rice systems. Although various weed control methods are available for organic rice, they tend to be labor-intensive, costly, and time-consuming. This underscores the importance of identifying cost-effective, labor-saving, and sustainable weed control strategies for organic rice farming systems. Accordingly, a comparative study spanning 10 years was carried out, investigating five weed control treatments in a field trial. These treatments included irrigation water filtration and the removal of floating seeds using a net during irrigation (IR), combined with vinegar sludge (IRV), or a bioherbicide (<i>Sclerotium rolfsii</i>) (IRF), or both V and F (IRVF), as well as conventional triple chemical control (H3) before and after rice transplanting (IRH3). For comparison, H3 alone was used as a control. Compared to H3, the IR-based treatments achieved an average reduction of 90.32%, 91.63%, and 72.32% in seedling weed density, mature weed density, and seedbank density, respectively, over the 10-year study period. Excluding IRH3, the organic weed control treatments (IRV, IRF, and IRVF) reduced seedling weeds, mature weeds, and seedbank density by an average of 91.22%, 93.97%, and 71.96%, respectively, while increasing rice yields by 16.59% compared to H3. During the initial 4 years, the high weed density rendered the three organic treatments ineffective, necessitating an average of 39 h of manual weeding per hectare per year to ensure economic viability. Using exponential model fittings, weed densities of 30 plants·m⁻² and seedbank densities of 65,000 seeds·m⁻² were established as theoretical intervention thresholds for additional manual weeding, below which all the aforementioned organic methods could effectively control weeds without further manual weeding. Therefore, we propose that these IR-based treatments can be integrated as primary methods into weed control programs for organic rice production, while complementing other weed control approaches.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147709122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Precision planting of cereal rye cover crop improves sweet corn yield and farm benefits","authors":"Gulcin Sener Guzel,&nbsp;Osman Guzel,&nbsp;Mustafa Guzel,&nbsp;Eric C. Brevik,&nbsp;Oluwaseun Ola,&nbsp;Amir Sadeghpour","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01095-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01095-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Including cereal rye (<i>Secale cereale</i> L.) in sweet corn (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) production systems provides environmental and soil benefits. However, cereal rye often decreases sweet corn yield and thus farm profit. A novel approach to reduce this negative effect is precision planting of cereal rye, which skips the sweet corn row to minimize crop interactions, potentially increasing nitrogen (N) availability, and reducing negative effects of cereal rye on sweet corn. A four-site-yr trial was conducted during the 2022-2024 growing seasons, the first known evaluation of precision-planted cereal rye compared to a no-cover crop control and solid-planted cereal rye. The study evaluated (i) cereal rye morphology, biomass production and its quality, (ii) sweet corn plant population, morphology, and marketable yield, (iii) sweet corn quality traits, and (iv) soil nitrate-N (NO₃-N) dynamics and leaching potential. Our results indicated that precision planting had similar morphology, biomass yield (2735 kg ha^-1 for precision planting vs. 3011 kg ha^-1 for solid planting), and C:N ratio (48.2 for precision planting vs. 53.4 for solid planting) to the solid planting of cereal rye. Sweet corn plant population was similar among all treatments. Sweet corn marketable yield was significantly higher in precision planting (16841 kg ha^-1) compared to no-cover crop control (13914 kg ha^-1), while solid planting (14721 kg ha^-1) showed no significant difference from either of the two other treatments. Higher marketable yield was mainly due to moisture conservation by precision planting with limited impact on N immobilization during sweet corn growth. There were no differences among treatments for Brix %. Including both cereal rye treatments reduced N availability during and especially at the end of the season, minimizing NO₃-N loss potential. We recommend growers utilize precision planting as a novel alternative to solid planting to ensure sweet corn production while minimizing the NO₃-N loss potential.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-026-01095-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147560090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"FarmSTEPS, a model for spatial-temporal exploration of diversified and sustainable crop sequence plans for crop farms","authors":"Zhengyuan Liang,&nbsp;Zhan Xu,&nbsp;Jiali Cheng,&nbsp;Wen-Feng Cong,&nbsp;Chaochun Zhang,&nbsp;Fusuo Zhang,&nbsp;Wopke van der Werf,&nbsp;Jeroen C. J. Groot","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01097-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01097-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Crop diversification could enhance economic and environmental sustainability of crop farming, but achieving this requires careful planning that accounts for crop interrelationships in a rotation or spatial layout. Several models have been devised to design diversified crop rotations or crop spatial layouts, but they often fail to capture farm settings, production constraints, and sustainability objectives specific to a farm at both temporal and spatial scales. To fill this gap, we developed a novel rule-based whole-farm planning model, FarmSTEPS, for systematically exploring diversified and sustainable farm crop sequence plans in a spatial-temporally explicit manner. FarmSTEPS comprises multiple farm characterization modules, an algorithm for generating farm crop sequence plans, and a multi-attribute decision-aid tool. Users first characterize farm configurations and plot properties, and parameterize candidate crops according to the actual situation of farms. Subsequently the algorithm generates and evaluates all feasible crop sequence plans for each plot from the first planning period until the end of the planning window, subject to user-defined sequence- and farm-level constraints. Eventually, the model suggests a set of superior farm plans using the multi-attribute decision-aid tool. We illustrate the model with a Chinese wheat-maize farm to explore future three-year cropping plans targeting five sustainability objectives: maximizing gross margin and minimizing four environmental impacts (groundwater depletion, pesticide input, aquatic eutrophication, GHG emission). The model generated 213,679 feasible plans, with 128 being Pareto-optimal in terms of the five objectives. Overall, relative to the wheat-maize baseline, these optimal plans increased gross margin by 3-50% while mitigating environmental impacts by 10-56%, largely through the inclusion of tuber and oil crops, though trade-offs existed between economic and environmental benefits. The case study demonstrates that FarmSTEPS is an effective tool for designing diversified and sustainable crop sequence plans tailored to farm-specific conditions while informing stakeholders on potential benefits and trade-offs among sustainability objectives.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147560091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A conceptual framework for simultaneous optimization of integrated climate scenario data and phenology models","authors":"Flavian Tschurr,&nbsp;Sven Kotlarski,&nbsp;Pierre Martre,&nbsp;Achim Walter,&nbsp;Lukas Roth","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01091-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01091-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate-resilient crop varieties are exceedingly important for global food security. High-accuracy predictions of crop phenology in future climate scenarios require a more precise description of putative crop-environment interactions. While the accuracy of these predictions is affected by three primary sources of uncertainty — the phenology model, the climate scenario data, and their interaction — commonly used approaches consider only the phenology model as a source of uncertainty, while uncertainties arising from climate scenario data and their interaction with the model are commonly neglected. To address this gap, we developed a novel dynamic crop phenology model framework that simultaneously integrates uncertainties arising from all three sources. This model framework was developed using a large dataset of winter wheat phenology ratings and environmental covariate observations, encompassing more than 2500 locations spanning more than 80 years. It incorporates and combines up to seven environmental covariates in an additive manner, resulting in a large set of possible models from which to select. For each model, the phenological development follows a defined response curve per environmental covariate. Using climate scenario projections in Switzerland, our proposed effective model selection process helps to find the best model that reduces uncertainties in predicting future crop phenology. In addition to predictions, the model can pinpoint the driving environmental covariates for different phenological phases. Four major phenological stages are predicted for an independent subset of the large dataset and future climate scenario projections. Predictions for future climate scenario projections indicate a 22-day earlier heading for 2070–2099 compared to the reference period (1981–2010). Ignoring uncertainties arising from climate data results in contradictory predictions. These findings underscore the importance of considering all three uncertainty sources — phenology model, climate scenario data, and their interaction — in accurately predicting phenology under future climates.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-026-01091-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147441518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimizing straw return management to suppress plant disease and promote plant growth. A meta-analysis","authors":"Dezhi Chen,&nbsp;Yanzhong Yao,&nbsp;Daiwei Liu,&nbsp;Wenbao Wang,&nbsp;Binnian Tian,&nbsp;Anfei Fang,&nbsp;Yang Yu,&nbsp;Chaowei Bi,&nbsp;Ran Xiao,&nbsp;Zhaolei Li,&nbsp;Yuheng Yang","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01094-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01094-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Straw return improves soil and nutrient cycling but may aggravate diseases if mismanaged. However, the comprehensive impact of different straw return methods on plant diseases remains unclear. This study aims to clarify the effects of straw return on plant diseases and explore appropriate straw return methods. This study evaluated the effect of straw return on the reduction of plant diseases by summarizing 1352 pairs of observations from 165 peer-reviewed publications. It further analyzed the effects of straw return conditions, disease types, and plant species on plant diseases. Overall, the study’s findings showed that, with significant variation among return treatments, straw return reduced plant disease severity by 40.55% and increased plant biomass by 29.05%. Direct straw return of different crops, along with the application of biochar and compost, reduce plant disease severity by 21.89%, 43.67%, and 53.09%, while increasing plant growth by 14.91%, 21.05%, and 66.20%, respectively. The fact that the direct straw return of same crops significantly reduced plant growth by 5.73% and increased plant disease severity by 34.31% is concerning. Research indicates that the most significant suppression of economic crop diseases occurs when the direct straw return of different crops application rate was 0–25%, the return depth was 0–20 cm, and the application duration was within 1 year. Straw biochar produced at temperatures below 350 °C exhibits the strongest suppression of cereal crop diseases when applied at a rate of 1–3%. Moreover, when the application rate of straw compost exceeds 20%, it can effectively suppress diseases in trees and cash crops. Applying straw after pretreatment can reduce crop diseases. This study provides a basis for integrated application of direct straw return with biochar and compost, facilitating sustainable agriculture and global utilization of organic agricultural waste.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147336670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Co-designing a research agenda for UK agroforestry using a multi-actor approach","authors":"Amelia S. C. Hood,&nbsp;Rosy E. Scholes,&nbsp;Erika Degani,&nbsp;Tom Staton,&nbsp;Alexa Varah,&nbsp;Kate Beauchamp,&nbsp;Alice Broome,&nbsp;Paul Burgess,&nbsp;Helen Chesshire,&nbsp;Edward P. Colbert,&nbsp;Emma Loder-Symonds,&nbsp;James Ramskir-Gardiner,&nbsp;Ann C. Rayner,&nbsp;Colin Tosh,&nbsp;Alice L. Mauchline,&nbsp;Rosemary Venn","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01089-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01089-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>There is growing recognition of agroforestry’s potential to help mitigate and provide resilience to the climate and biodiversity crises. Beyond its environmental benefits, agroforestry can also enhance production and profits, making it a sustainable farming solution that is scalable. Despite this, uptake within Europe is low, and many knowledge gaps remain that need to be addressed to promote adoption and optimize the management and implementation of agroforestry systems. We co-developed a research agenda for agroforestry using a multi-actor approach and a modified Delphi method in 2023. 156 UK-based stakeholders contributed to this process, including farmers, advisors, policy makers, NGOs, and researchers. An initial list of 238 research priorities (high-priority research questions) was submitted via a survey and a workshop. This was shortened during a second workshop with 48 participants. The final list included 40 research priorities across the themes “environment and production,” “human livelihoods, knowledge, and perceptions,” and “policy, financing, and markets.” There was high agreement about which priorities to include, with questions on policy incentives, knowledge-exchange, agroforestry design (e.g., tree/crop selection), biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, well-being, markets, and food security. We identified a need for landscape-scale and longer-term research. Our agenda is a rare example of a research-prioritization process that includes farmers and other agricultural stakeholders throughout the research process. The value of this approach can be seen in the inclusion of research priorities that are grounded in the real world and relevant to different actors. Our agenda goes beyond existing evidence syntheses in scope, and should be used alongside them to identify stakeholder-relevant gaps for future primary research and evidence synthesis. By guiding researchers and funding bodies to impactful areas of enquiry, it can promote evidence-based agroforestry practice and policy. Addressing this research agenda requires better support for long-term, transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder research, and funded demonstration sites or living labs.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-026-01089-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147342391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Implementation of practices shapes the effectiveness of agricultural diversification for arthropod related ecosystem services: a meta-analysis","authors":"Gaëtan Seimandi-Corda,&nbsp;Chloe MacLaren,&nbsp;Kevin Tougeron,&nbsp;Johannes Forkman,&nbsp;Jess Hood,&nbsp;Andrew Mead,&nbsp;Amelia Dixon,&nbsp;Samantha M. Cook","doi":"10.1007/s13593-025-01082-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-025-01082-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Agricultural intensification has increased food production but has also caused significant environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Diversification practices can mitigate these impacts while sustaining yields. While previous meta-analyses have examined their effects on arthropod populations and associated ecosystem services, focusing on individual practices or treating them as a whole, this is the first study to compare a wide range of diversification strategies across specific arthropod groups and assess how management factors, such as plant diversity, spatial configuration, and sowing time, modulate their outcome. Clarifying these mechanisms is crucial for optimizing diversification practices and enhancing their adoption by farmers. We conducted the most up-to-date and comprehensive meta-analysis to evaluate the effects of four diversification practices (agroforestry, intercropping, flower resource addition, and maintaining semi-natural habitats) on arthropods (parasitoids, predators, pollinators, and herbivores), their associated ecosystem services (predation, parasitism, pollination), and disservices (herbivory), using 19,421 data points from 449 publications. On average, all diversification practices increased beneficial arthropod populations and their services by 41%, compared to a non-diverse control, and reduced herbivore abundance and plant damage by 33%. Intercropping was particularly effective, reducing herbivore abundance and damage by 39% and 30%, respectively, while increasing predator and parasitoid populations by 48% and 56%. Other practices showed no consistent effects, likely due to high variability across studies. For the first time, we tested the influence of management factors and found complex effects on parasitoid abundance and parasitism, highlighting the need for context-specific approaches. These results highlight the importance of tailored policies and targeted research to support the adoption of diversification practices. Effective implementation can reduce reliance on insecticides while simultaneously promoting ecosystem services and supporting the transition to sustainable agricultural systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-025-01082-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147287164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sustainable agricultural practices shape the weed seed bank. A meta-analysis","authors":"Shanheng Shi,&nbsp;Wen Yin,&nbsp;Furong Niu,&nbsp;Xiaogang Yin,&nbsp;Yafei Shi","doi":"10.1007/s13593-026-01090-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-026-01090-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The seed bank is a crucial component of weed populations and a key factor in determining future weed infestations in arable fields. Sustainable agricultural practices have been widely promoted as environmentally friendly cultivation methods and have significant impacts on the seed bank. But the effects of sustainable agricultural practices on the seed bank remain inconclusive, posing challenges to the development of effective and precise weed management strategies. To address this uncertainty, we collected 1,604 experimental records from 146 publications and carried out a meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the effects of five sustainable agricultural practices on weed seed banks. Results showed that the average impacts of cover cropping, intercropping, reduced tillage, residue return and rotation on the seed bank density were -49%, -44%, 33%, -22%, and -18%, respectively. And the average impacts of these five practices on the seed bank species richness were -5%, -12%, 14%, 3%, and -11%, respectively. Cover cropping and intercropping reduced the density proportion of dominant weed seeds compared to the control group. The impact of sustainable agricultural practices on the seed bank varied across agricultural systems (e.g., paddy vs non-paddy fields) and management practices (e.g., residue return rates). Further analysis suggested that combining reduced tillage with other practices could mitigate its associated increase in seed bank density, with potential additive effects when multiple practices are simultaneously applied. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the impacts of common sustainable agricultural practices on weed seed density and species richness of the weed seed bank, and provides a reference for sustainable weed management strategies at the farm scale from the perspective of the seed bank.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"46 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147287163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}