Agronomy for Sustainable Development最新文献

{"title":"Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania","authors":"Cristiana Necula,&nbsp;Walter A. H. Rossing,&nbsp;Marcos H. Easdale","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Effects of climate change and especially the associated climate variability require farmers to adjust to increasing frequencies of extreme events. In the agriculturally highly productive Romanian Plain, the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves and drought have increased over the past 20 years. Although recent surveys revealed farmers’ awareness of climate change and enumerated a number of farm adaptation measures in the Romanian context, a systems approach to adaptation that allows conclusions on farm vulnerability and adaptive capacity is missing. Here, we use archetypal analysis to elucidate and characterize for the first time the types of adaptation responses of arable farmers in southern Romania. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 farmers managing 51,500 ha located across the southern lowlands of Romania, selected for their diversity of management approaches. Farmers were asked about experienced climatic disturbances, crop production losses during the most extreme events over the past 5–10 years, and the adaptation measures they implemented over that period of time. In addition, structural characteristics of the farm were recorded. The adaptation measures were classified and mapped on the efficiency, substitution, and redesign gradient used to classify sustainability stages. Results revealed three archetypes of adaptation, consisting of measures at field and farm level ranging from predominantly efficiency-enhancing ones (e.g., crop choice and management and risk insurance) to complete farm redesign involving agrotechnical and financial management changes. Structural farm characteristics did not explain differences between farms in their association with one of the archetypes. Our approach and results show for the first time both the need for strengthening farmer-level support in one of Europe’s key food production areas and the lessons that can be drawn from the outlier adaptation examples. Current European and national policies offer opportunities for farmer organizations in Romania to make these conclusions actionable.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141561570","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":"Low legume-grass seeding ratio combined with phosphorus fertilization promotes forage yield and soil quality in managed grasslands","authors":"Yixian Bi,&nbsp;Gaowen Yang,&nbsp;Yuqi Wei,&nbsp;Gail W. T. Wilson,&nbsp;Bin Wei,&nbsp;Yujuan He,&nbsp;Hongqian Yu,&nbsp;Nan Liu,&nbsp;Yingjun Zhang","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00973-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00973-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Legume-grass mixtures are often used to increase forage yield and soil fertility in managed grasslands, but it remains unclear whether these benefits could be further improved by utilizing optimal legume-grass seeding ratios and phosphorus (P) fertilization. Here, we conducted a 5-year field experiment across 3 sites to investigate the effects of legume-grass seeding ratio and P fertilization on forage yield and soil quality. This experiment included mixtures comprised of two legume species and two grass species at five legume-grass ratios (3:7, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4, and 7:3), and monoculture of each species. P fertilizer was applied at the rate of 0, 9, 18, or 27 kg P ha^-1 year^-1. Plant diversity effects, e.g., complementarity and selection effects, were assessed by comparing yield of mixtures with monocultures. Our results show that a legume-grass mixture with a seeding ratio of 3:7 under moderate P fertilization resulted in the highest forage yield among all monocultures and mixtures, for each of the three sites, with persistent and consistent transgressive overyielding. Notably, greater soil organic matter, total nitrogen, enzymatic activity, and microbial biomass were observed with the legume-grass ratio of 3:7, compared to monocultures or other seeding ratios. Structural equation modeling indicated that the legume-grass ratio of 3:7 achieved highest yield through directly improving complementarity effect, and indirectly promoting selection effects because of increased fungal biomass. P fertilization directly enhanced soil nutrient and enzymatic activities, and further improved complementarity effect, resulting in high forage yield and soil quality. These results indicate that forage diversification practices with low legume-grass seeding ratios and moderate P fertilization can simultaneously benefit forage production and soil quality in managed grasslands. Overall, our study suggests that low legume seeding proportion in legume-grass mixtures combined with moderate nutrient management is a useful strategy for sustainable and highly productive managed grasslands.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141461877","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":"Positive effects of intercrop yields in farms from across Europe depend on rainfall, crop composition, and management","authors":"Rob W. Brooker,&nbsp;Robin J. Pakeman,&nbsp;Eveline Adam,&nbsp;Jennifer A. Banfield-Zanin,&nbsp;Inger Bertelsen,&nbsp;Charlotte Bickler,&nbsp;Jesper Fog-Petersen,&nbsp;David George,&nbsp;Adrian C. Newton,&nbsp;Diego Rubiales,&nbsp;Stefano Tavoletti,&nbsp;Ángel Ma Villegas-Fernández,&nbsp;Alison J. Karley","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00968-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00968-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Modern “intensive” agriculture drives the biodiversity-climate crisis but is also central to global food security. Future farming needs management approaches that maintain (or even enhance) food production while reducing negative climate and biodiversity impacts. Intercrops could provide part of the solution, increasing biodiversity and boosting production with fewer inputs. However, barriers remain to their wide-scale uptake, in particular tailoring intercrops to local equipment, management practice, and environment. We analyze data from multiple trials of cereal-legume intercrops conducted on farms across Europe between 2018 and 2021. Our study is the first attempt, to our knowledge, to quantify the yield benefits of cereal-legume intercropping undertaken at commercially relevant scales for farms across Europe. We used crop performance ratio (CPR)—the ratio of the observed intercrop yield compared to the expected yield based on monoculture yields—as our metric of intercrop performance. Using CPR, we found a roughly 30% yield gain across all sites. However, CPR was modulated by a number of factors. CPR was not strongly affected by management except for the negative effects of direct drilling and the positive effects of organic fertilizer addition. CPR also depended on intercrop composition (number and identity of components), background yields (being highest where yields were lower), and rainfall (being higher with higher rainfall). Our findings allow us to reduce uncertainty about how intercrops will perform in realistic local farm conditions, give guidance for tailoring intercrops to local farming conditions, and provide key goals for further work to integrate intercrops into sustainable farming systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-024-00968-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141448207","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":"Temporal behaviour of cacao clone production over 18 years","authors":"Dominique Dessauw,&nbsp;Wilbert Phillips-Mora,&nbsp;Allan Mata-Quirós,&nbsp;Philippe Bastide,&nbsp;Vincent Johnson,&nbsp;José Castillo-Fernández,&nbsp;Fabienne Ribeyre,&nbsp;Christian Cilas","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00967-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00967-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study aimed to evaluate the stability of cacao clone production by analyzing the dynamics of pod production over time. It investigates correlations in multi-year production levels and explores how genetics influence both intra-annual and inter-annual temporal production dynamics of total and healthy pods. To address these questions, data were analysed from a clonal cacao trial conducted over a period of 18 years in Costa Rica. Longitudinal data analysis provided a clearer understanding of the link between yields over successive years. The best-fit model proved to be the ante-dependence model. This model indicated that the correlation between two successive years was relatively stable, and the correlation between years decreased as the interval between years increased. These correlations are also higher as the age of the trees increases. The clones differ more in terms of their production of healthy pods than total pod production. Four dynamic patterns, considering both intra- and inter-annual production, were identified, revealing differences in production timing and distinct peaks for each class. Inter-annual variability analysis revealed differences in healthy pod production among classes, with some displaying more sustainable production dynamics over 18 years. Intra-annual variability analysis showed significant variation in production periods among clones, with different production distributions throughout the year allowing selection of escape and or resistant clones. The study emphasized the importance of genetics in sustainable cacao production, with potential implications for clonal selection. It was suggested to combine clones of different classes to mitigate risks and spread harvests, emphasizing that resilience is a crucial criterion in cacao breeding programs to effectively meet new challenges. Further research is recommended to explore the influence of various environmental factors and facilitate more efficient selection in perennial crops, with the aim of selecting more resilient clones, a particularly important objective in the context of climate change.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140942835","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":"Optimal fertilization strategy promotes the sustainability of rice–crayfish farming systems by improving productivity and decreasing carbon footprint","authors":"Wanyang Zhang,&nbsp;Mingshuang Xu,&nbsp;Tianqiao Ma,&nbsp;Jianwei Lu,&nbsp;Jun Zhu,&nbsp;Xiaokun Li","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00952-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00952-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Rice–crayfish farming systems (RCs), a novel rice cropping system, have gained rapid popularity in many countries due to their economic advantages. Fertilizers tend to be applied in large quantities for higher profits, but has high burden on resources and environment, especially in terms of the carbon emissions. It is crucial to explore an optimal fertilization strategy with high productivity and low carbon emissions for the sustainable development of RCs. However, information about C emissions is incomplete, regarding the indirect C emissions during the rice growing season as well as C emissions during the crayfish culture period. We conducted field experiments to investigate the effects of five fertilization strategies including no fertilization (CK), farmer’s practices (FP), optimized fertilization (OPT), organic fertilization only (OF), and organic fertilizer substitution (OPTOF) on the productivity, economic benefits, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon footprint, and sustainability index of RCs. Results showed that OPT reduced direct (by 6.7%) and indirect (by 37.0%) GHG emissions during the rice growing season while maintaining rice (95%) and crayfish (104%) yields compared with that of FP. Additionally, the soil organic carbon storage and annual economic benefit of the OPT increased by 20.1% and 4.7%, respectively, whereas the carbon footprints of unit area, unit grain yield, unit energy yield, and unit of economic output decreased by 29.5%, 27.2%, 24.5%, and 32.7%, compared to the FP, respectively. The sustainability index (0.78) of the OPT treatment was significantly higher than that of other treatments due to its higher productivity and lower the carbon footprint. In conclusion, optimal fertilization strategy in RCs could achieve to increase productivity while reducing carbon footprint. This is conducive to the sustainability of RCs. Future attention in RCs should be focused on the development and promotion of such strategies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140895398","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":"Deep genotyping reveals specific adaptation footprints of conventional and organic farming in barley populations—an evolutionary plant breeding approach","authors":"Michael Schneider,&nbsp;Agim Ballvora,&nbsp;Jens Léon","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00962-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00962-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Sustainable food production for a growing world population will pose a central challenge in the coming decades. Organic farming is among the feasible approaches to achieving this goal if the yield gap to conventional farming can be decreased. However, uncertainties exist to which extend—and for which phenotypes in particular—organic and conventional agro-ecosystems require differentiated breeding strategies. To answer this question, a heterogeneous spring barley population was established between a wild barley and an elite cultivar to examine this question. This initial population was divided into two sets and sown one in organic and the other in conventional managed agro-ecosystems, without any artificial selection for two decades. A fraction of seeds harvested each year was sown the following year. Various generations, up to the 23th were whole-genome pool-sequenced to identify adaptation patterns towards ecosystem and climate conditions in the allele frequency shifts. Additionally, a meta-data analysis was conducted to link genomic regions’ increased fitness to agronomically related traits. This long-term experiment highlights for the first time that allele frequency pattern difference between the conventional and organic populations grew with subsequent generations. Further, the organic-adapted population showed a higher genetic heterogeneity. The data indicate that adaptations towards new environments happen in few generations. Drastic interannual changes in climate are manifested in significant allele frequency changes. Particular wild form alleles were positively selected in both environments. Clustering these revealed an increased fitness associated with biotic stress resistance, yield physiology, and yield components in both systems. Additionally, the introduced wild alleles showed increased fitness related to root morphology, developmental processes, and abiotic stress responses in the organic agro-ecosystem. Concluding the genetic analysis, we demonstrate that breeding of organically adapted varieties should be conducted in an organically managed agro-ecosystem, focusing on root-related traits, to close the yield gap towards conventional farming.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-024-00962-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140895407","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":"Considering farming management at the landscape scale: descriptors and trends on biodiversity. A review","authors":"Théo Brusse,&nbsp;Kévin Tougeron,&nbsp;Aude Barbottin,&nbsp;Laura Henckel,&nbsp;Frédéric Dubois,&nbsp;Ronan Marrec,&nbsp;Gaël Caro","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00966-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00966-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Farming management and alterations in land cover play crucial roles in driving changes in biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the provision of ecosystem services. Whereas land cover corresponds to the identity of cultivated/non-cultivated ecosystems in the landscape, farming management describes all the components of farming activities within crops and grassland (i.e., farming practices, crop successions, and farming systems). Despite extensive research on the relationship between land cover and biodiversity at the landscape scale, there is a surprising scarcity of studies examining the impacts of farming management on biodiversity at the same scale. This is unexpected given the already recognized field-scale impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the fact that most species move or supplement their resources in multiple patches across agricultural landscapes. We conducted a comprehensive literature review aimed at answering two fundamental questions: (1) What components of farming management are considered at the landscape scale? (2) Does farming management at the landscape scale impact biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions and services? We retrieved 133 studies through a query on the Web of Science, published from January 2005 to December 2021 addressing the broad notion of farming management at the landscape scale. The key findings are as follows: (1) The effect of farming management components at the landscape scale on biodiversity was tackled in only 41 studies that highlighted that its response was highly taxon-dependent. They reported positive effects of organic farming on pollinators, weeds, and birds, as well as positive effects of extensification of farming practices on natural enemies. (2) Most studies focused on the effect of organic farming on natural enemies and associated pests, and reported contrasting effects on these taxa. Our study underscores the challenges in quantifying farming management at the landscape scale, and yet its importance in comprehending the dynamics of biodiversity and related ecosystem services.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140845228","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 method to account for diversity of practices in Conservation Agriculture","authors":"Manon S. Ferdinand,&nbsp;Philippe V. Baret","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00961-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00961-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Conservation Agriculture (CA) is actively promoted as an alternative farming system that combines environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Three pillars define CA: (i) minimum mechanical soil disturbance, (ii) permanent soil organic cover, and (iii) species diversification. The local context, constraints, and needs of the farmers influence the translation of the pillars into practices. Currently, there is no method for categorizing this diversity of CA practices, which hampers impact assessment, understanding of farmer choices and pathways, stakeholder communication, and policymaking. This paper presents a systematic method to identify and categorize the diversity of CA practices at the regional level, anchored in the three pillars and based on practices implemented by CA farmers. The classification method is grounded on the intersection of an archetypal analysis and a hierarchical clustering analysis. This method was used to study CA practices in Wallonia, Belgium, based on a survey of practices in a sample of 48 farmers. Combining the two clustering methods increases the proportion of classified farmers while allowing for the distinction between three CA-types with extreme and salient practices, and two intermediate CA-types comprising farmers whose practices fall between these references. The study reveals that three explanatory factors influence the implementation of CA practices in Wallonia: (i) the proportion of tillage-intensive crops and (ii) temporary grasslands in the crop sequence, and (iii) the organic certification. These factors lead to trade-offs that hinder the three pillars of CA from being fully implemented simultaneously. This new classification method can be replicated in other regions where CA is practiced, by adapting input variables according to context and local knowledge.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-024-00961-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140845077","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":"Cultivar mixtures increase crop yields and temporal yield stability globally. A meta-analysis","authors":"Tiantian Huang,&nbsp;Thomas F. Döring,&nbsp;Xiaoru Zhao,&nbsp;Jacob Weiner,&nbsp;Pengfei Dang,&nbsp;Maoxue Zhang,&nbsp;Miaomiao Zhang,&nbsp;Kadambot H. M. Siddique,&nbsp;Bernhard Schmid,&nbsp;Xiaoliang Qin","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00964-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00964-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Cultivar mixtures have been proposed as a way to increase diversity and thereby improve plant production, but our understanding of the effects of mixing cultivars on crop diseases and resource-use efficiency remains fragmentary. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the effects of cultivar mixtures on crop yield, yield stability, resource-use efficiency, and disease severity compared with monocultures of twelve major crops. We found that, overall, mixing of cultivars increased crop yield by 3.82%. Yield gains from mixing cultivars were highest in rice (+16.1%), followed by maize (+8.5%), and were lowest in barley (+0.9%) and sorghum (no increase). Temporal yield stability increased with the number of cultivars in the mixtures. Overall, mixing cultivars increased crop biomass, leaf area index, photosynthetic rate, and Water-use efficiency by 5.1, 7.2, 8.5 and 4.3%, respectively, and decreased disease incidence by 24.1%. Cultivar mixtures were more effective in mitigating diseases and increasing yields in studies performed at lower latitudes, higher mean annual temperatures, and higher mean annual precipitation. Our study complements and adds to previous research, indicating that cultivar mixtures reduce crop losses to disease and enhance resource-use efficiency compared with monocultures globally. We conclude that the targeted use of cultivar mixtures with appropriate management practices can reduce resource and pesticide inputs while maintaining high yields, thereby promoting sustainable and productive agriculture.</p><h3>Graphical abstract</h3>\u0000<div><figure><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></figure></div></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140637565","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":"Thresholds and prediction models to support the sustainable management of herbivorous insects in wheat. A review","authors":"Daniel J. Leybourne,&nbsp;Kate E. Storer,&nbsp;Abigail Marshall,&nbsp;Nasamu Musa,&nbsp;Samuel Telling,&nbsp;Laurie Abel,&nbsp;Sacha White,&nbsp;Steve Ellis,&nbsp;Po Yang,&nbsp;Pete M. Berry","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00965-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-024-00965-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Wheat is one of the most important arable crops grown worldwide, providing a significant proportion of the daily calorific intake for countries across the globe. Wheat crops are attacked by a diverse range of herbivorous invertebrates, pests, that cause significant yield loss. It is anticipated that yield loss caused by pests will increase in response to a changing climate. Currently, these pests are primarily controlled using pesticides; however, there is an increased need for more sustainable pest management solutions. Economic thresholds represent one avenue that can support the sustainable management of pests. Briefly, thresholds are the number of pests above which there is sufficient risk of yield loss. Here, we review the economic thresholds and prediction methods available for sustainable pest management in wheat. We focus on five economically damaging pests affecting wheat crops in the UK and Europe. For each, we highlight the key period of crop risk to pest attack, identify economic thresholds, and provide an overview of current decision support models that can help estimate crop risk and advise sustainable pest management; we end by proposing areas for future improvement for each pest. Furthermore, we take a novel approach by discussing economic thresholds and their applications to sustainable pest management within the context of crop physiology and the capacity for crops to tolerate pest damage, a consideration that is often overlooked when developing pest management strategies. We use the stem-boring pest, the gout fly, as a case study and use the economic injury level equation to conduct a theoretical assessment of the appropriateness of the current gout fly threshold. This theoretical assessment indicates that wheat crops can tolerate greater gout fly damage than currently considered, and shows that by incorporating crop physiology into sustainable pest tolerance schemes we can work towards developing more appropriate physiological-based pest thresholds.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"44 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-024-00965-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140637528","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}