Data from: Engineering a plant community to deliver multiple ecosystem services

The sustainable delivery of multiple ecosystem services requires the management of functionally diverse biological communities. In an agricultural context, an emphasis on food production has often led to a loss of biodiversity to the detriment of other ecosystem services such as the maintenance of soil health and pest regulation. In scenarios where multiple species can be grown together, it may be possible to better balance environmental and agronomic services through the targeted selection of companion species. We used the case study of legume-based cover crops to engineer a plant community that delivered the optimal balance of six ecosystem services: early productivity, regrowth following mowing, weed suppression, support of invertebrates, soil fertility building (measured as yield of following crop), and conservation of nutrients in the soil. An experimental species pool of 12 cultivated legume species was screened for a range of functional traits and ecosystem services at five sites across a geographical gradient in the United Kingdom. All possible species combinations were then analyzed, using a process-based model of plant competition, to identify the community that delivered the best balance of services at each site. In our system, low to intermediate levels of species richness (one to four species) that exploited functional contrasts in growth habit and phenology were identified as being optimal. The optimal solution was determined largely by the number of species and functional diversity represented by the starting species pool, emphasizing the importance of the initial selection of species for the screening experiments. The approach of using relationships between functional traits and ecosystem services to design multifunctional biological communities has the potential to inform the design of agricultural systems that better balance agronomic and environmental services and meet the current objective of European agricultural policy to maintain viable food production in the context of the sustainable management of natural resources.多项生态系统服务（ecosystem services）的可持续供给，亟需对功能多样的生物群落开展科学管理。在农业生产场景中，过度侧重粮食生产往往会造成生物多样性丧失，进而损害土壤健康维持、害虫调控等其他生态系统服务。在可开展多物种混播的场景下，可通过针对性筛选伴生物种，更好地平衡环境服务与农艺服务间的关系。本研究以豆科覆盖作物（legume-based cover crops）为案例对象，构建了可实现六项生态系统服务最优平衡的植物群落，这六项服务分别为：早期生产力、刈割后再生能力、杂草抑制效应、无脊椎动物支撑能力、土壤肥力提升效果（以后续作物产量为衡量指标）以及土壤养分留存能力。研究依托英国境内沿地理梯度分布的5个试验站点，对包含12个栽培豆科物种的试验物种库开展筛选，测定其一系列功能性状（functional traits）与生态系统服务表现。随后，借助基于过程的植物竞争模型（process-based model of plant competition），对所有可能的物种组合开展分析，以识别各站点下服务平衡最优的植物群落。在本研究体系中，利用生长习性与物候期（phenology）功能差异的低至中等物种丰富度（species richness，1至4个物种）的群落被认定为最优群落。最优群落方案在很大程度上由初始物种库所涵盖的物种数量与功能多样性决定，这凸显了筛选试验中初始物种选择的核心重要性。通过挖掘功能性状与生态系统服务间的关联来设计多功能生物群落的研究思路，可为农业系统设计提供科学参考，助力更好地平衡农艺服务与环境服务，同时契合欧盟农业政策当前的核心目标：在可持续管理自然资源的前提下维持可持续的粮食生产能力。