Root competition in a Swiss agroforestry system · · 2015-08-12Macintosh...
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Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER Agroscope Institute for Sustainability Sciences ISS Macintosh HD:Users:tamburif:Desktop:Agroforestry_BScMsc.docx Proposition for a BSc/MSc thesis Root competition in a Swiss agroforestry system Several pioneer farmers in Switzerland have started to com- bine trees (for fruit, nut or wood production) with arable crops (Sereke et al. 2014). They aim at increasing the productivity on their land and to take advantage of synergies between trees and understory crops. Not much is known about the interaction between trees and crops in the root zone. The general expectation is that tree roots would grow deeper than crop roots and that therefore there would be only limited competition. Recent findings indi- cate that this might not always be the case. Objective Investigate the root growing zones in a mature agroforestry system in northeastern Switzerland. It consists of fully devel- oped fruit trees, which are intercropped with a typical arable rotation. Soil cores are taken along a transect from the tree row to the center of the intercrop and roots are isolated. Densities and biomass of tree and crop roots are then compared. Context The research is conducted in collaboration with Agroscope in the context of the Eu- ropean research project AgForward (www.agforward.eu). Contact Dr. Felix Herzog, Agroscope INH, Reckenholzstr. 191, CH-8046 Zurich [email protected] Sereke F., Graves A., Dux D., Palma J., Herzog F. (2015) Innovative agroecosystem goods and ser- vices: key profitability drivers in Swiss agroforestry. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 35(2), 759 – 770.
Transcript of Root competition in a Swiss agroforestry system · · 2015-08-12Macintosh...
Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER
Agroscope Institute for Sustainability Sciences ISS
Macintosh HD:Users:tamburif:Desktop:Agroforestry_BScMsc.docx
Proposition for a BSc/MSc thesis Root competition in a Swiss agroforestry system
Several pioneer farmers in Switzerland have started to com-bine trees (for fruit, nut or wood production) with arable crops (Sereke et al. 2014). They aim at increasing the productivity on their land and to take advantage of synergies between trees and understory crops. Not much is known about the interaction between trees and crops in the root zone. The general expectation is that tree roots would grow deeper than crop roots and that therefore there would be only limited competition. Recent findings indi-cate that this might not always be the case. Objective Investigate the root growing zones in a mature agroforestry system in northeastern Switzerland. It consists of fully devel-
oped fruit trees, which are intercropped with a typical arable rotation. Soil cores are taken along a transect from the tree row to the center of the intercrop and roots are isolated. Densities and biomass of tree and crop roots are then compared. Context The research is conducted in collaboration with Agroscope in the context of the Eu-ropean research project AgForward (www.agforward.eu).
Contact Dr. Felix Herzog, Agroscope INH, Reckenholzstr. 191, CH-8046 Zurich [email protected] Sereke F., Graves A., Dux D., Palma J., Herzog F. (2015) Innovative agroecosystem goods and ser-vices: key profitability drivers in Swiss agroforestry. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 35(2), 759 – 770.
