Fields for diversity
2010
Eggenschwiler, L. | Jacot, K. | Richner, N. | Boerlin, K., Forschungsanstalt Agroscope Reckenholz-Taenikon ART, Zuerich (Switzerland)
In Switzerland 8,000 years ago man began to break up the ground for arable farming, thus creating a completely new habitat. Although the fallow land was intended for varieties of cereal such as emmer wheat and buckwheat, there were many other plants which could not pass up the opportunity offered by such attractive conditions. At the time they were still thought of as weeds, but nowadays they are rather more flatteringly referred to collectively as wild arable flora. They include cornflowers, forked larkspur, summer adonis and corn cockles. Until well into the 19th century they enjoyed a relatively carefree life on Swiss arable land. With the intensification of agriculture, however, they came under pressure. The invention and application of herbicides killed them off, with the result that today wild arable flora is seriously endangered. ART is therefore researching methods of encouraging this special group of plants to spread. One possibility is to seed conservation headlands. These are strips at field edges which are left for at least two years and cannot be treated with nitrogen fertiliser or herbicides. ART conducted a study of 28 conservation headlands to investigate the success of this measure. Altogether 185 flowering plant species were found, 26 species of which had been sown. At an average of 36 ± 3 species, plant diversity on the conservation headlands was significantly greater than in the adjacent normally cultivated arable crops, where an average of 18 ± 2 species were growing. This means that conservation headlands are suitable as a system for conserving and promoting wild arable flora. Seed mixtures are continually being optimised, however, so increasing attention should be paid to distribution in the region where the seeds originated.
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