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.多种生态系统服务（ecosystem services）的可持续供给，有赖于对功能多样的生物群落（biological communities）的科学管理。在农业场景（agricultural context）中，对粮食生产的过度侧重往往会造成生物多样性（biodiversity）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。在可开展多物种种植的情境下，通过针对性筛选伴生物种（companion species），或可更好地平衡环境与农艺服务。 本研究以豆科覆盖作物（legume-based cover crops）为案例，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、杂草抑制效果、无脊椎动物（invertebrates）支撑能力、土壤肥力提升效果（以其后茬作物（following crop）产量衡量）以及土壤养分留存能力。 研究团队在英国境内沿地理梯度设置的5个试验站点，对涵盖12个栽培豆科物种的实验物种库开展了一系列功能性状（functional traits）与生态系统服务的测定。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进行分析，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，物种丰富度（species richness）处于低至中等水平（1~4种）、且利用了生长型（growth habit）与物候（phenology）方面功能差异的群落被认定为最优方案。最优解的选择很大程度上取决于初始物种库所包含的物种数量与功能多样性，这凸显了筛选实验中初始物种选择的重要性。 本研究提出的基于功能性状与生态系统服务间关联来设计多功能生物群落的方法，可为农业系统的设计提供决策参考，助力其更好地平衡农艺与环境服务，契合欧盟农业政策当前的目标——在自然资源可持续管理的框架下维持可行的粮食生产能力。