Sheltered by trees: long-term yield dynamics in temperate alley cropping agroforestry with changing water availability

作者：Olef Koch, Jennifer Moore, Jakob Hörl, Michael Cormann, Sebastian Gayler, Iris Lewandowski, Sven Marhan, Sebastian Münz, Markus Pflugfelder, Hans‐Peter Piepho, Julia M. Schneider, Moritz von Cossel, Tanja Weinand, Bastian Winkler, Andreas Schweiger · 发表于：Agronomy for Sustainable Development · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1007/s13593-025-01022-5 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Tree Root and Stability Studies

Abstract As warm season droughts increase in frequency due to climate change, causing severe yield losses especially among cereal crops, European agriculture is in dire need of adaptation. While agroforestry is widely regarded as a key adaptation measure, little is known on how yield performance is influenced by changing water availability in temperate regions. Therefore, we assessed the yield dynamics of five winter crops (winter wheat, triticale, winter barley, winter pea, and rapeseed) during seven growing seasons (2012 to 2023) in a well-established (since 2007) alley cropping agroforestry trial site in Southwestern Germany. The trial integrated three different agroforestry practices in a randomized block design: (i) willow short-rotation coppice, (ii) walnut trees for nut production, and (iii) diverse hedgerows. The relationship between crop yield and climatic water balance was analyzed using a linear mixed-model. In this unique long-term comparison, we demonstrate that individual alley cropping practices exhibited distinct yield patterns with increased distance to tree rows. In contrast to the willow short rotation coppice, walnut and hedgerows did not evoke significant winter crop yield declines at proximity. While in the walnut plots yields did not significantly vary with distance to tree rows, yields adjacent to hedge rows declined significantly towards the alley center. Moreover, tree rows contributed to stable crop yields under fluctuating water availability in the...