Within-field crop diversification reduces disease propagation and increases natural enemy abundance in temperate arable systems

A focus on control in industrialized arable cropping has resulted in low-diversity production systems and replacement of ecological processes with non-renewable inputs. These systems are productive, but generate externalities that contribute substantially to undesirable global change. A fundamental redesign of industrial agriculture is now needed to facilitate a paradigm shift away from minimizing damages caused by agriculture and towards maximizing its potential benefits (Tittonell, 2014). We posit that through spatial, temporal, and genetic diversification, cropping systems can be designed to leverage the ecological processes that make biodiverse natural ecosystems productive and resilient. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of increased withinfield spatial and genetic crop diversity on processes of ecological control in temperate arable cropping systems. Through the example of strip cropping (the practice of growing two or more species in alternate, multi-row strips wide enough to allow independent cultivation), we examine the effect of multi-dimensional diversification on disease spread (Phytophthora infestans) in potato and potential for biocontrol of aphids in wheat.