Data from: Intercropping generates trait plasticity, which corresponds with year-to-year stability in productivity

Environmentally friendly approaches to increasing food production include
using the positive effects of plant biodiversity, such as in
intercropping. Functional traits are key drivers of these positive
effects, in part because variation in functional traits can increase niche
partitioning. However, we know little about how variation in functional
traits affects the long-term stability of yield in
agroecosystems. We conducted a five-year field experiment with
five different cropping systems; maize/peanut, maize/soybean, and maize,
peanut and soybean monocultures. We compared the productivity of
monocultures to intercrops and then compared plasticity in functional
traits at different rates of nitrogen supply between the cropping
systems. Intercropping generated plasticity, measured here as the
inverse of the coefficient of variation, in three functional traits of
maize (height, stem diameter, ear height), which probably increases
aboveground spatial niche differentiation, and decreases the intraspecific
competition of maize. Intercropping also increased the stability
of grain yield and aboveground biomass. Plasticity in functional traits of
maize correlated positively with year-to-year temporal stability (CV-1) of
grain yield and biomass of maize and with the total productivity of the
agroecosystem. Synthesis and applications. Our study provides evidence of
the greater productivity and temporal stability of species-diverse
intercropping systems. Interspecific interaction-induced plasticity
suggests a unique mechanism for biodiversity effects on ecosystem
function, which adds to our understanding of fixed, or inherent, variation
in traits among genotypes or species. Theoretically, our findings provide
novel insights into how interspecific interactions contribute to ecosystem
service, especially in yield temporal stability, by increased trait
plasticity of the dominant crop, maize. The results also had implications
for applying intercropping in the sustainable management of
food-production systems with the use of more crop species. Greater
stability in production has the potential to provide a stable income for
farmers.