Agroforestry and biodiversity in temperate silvoarable systems

International audience

English. Silvoarable systems (SAS) are agroforestry systems where trees are closely linked to arable cropping, often in alleys (alley cropping systems). They have the potential to provide many agricultural and environmental benefits, are innovative and expanding. As diversified farming systems, they have the potential to influence biodiversity and related ecosystem services (ES). This presentation reviews the scientific knowledge on the link between temperate SAS and biodiversity at all taxonomical levels (plants, microorganisms, invertebrates and vertebrates). This concerns both the potential interest of these systems for biodiversity conservation, as well as their impact on ES or disservices provided by the diversity of organisms present. This work is a summary of a systematic review where 45 articles corresponding to the issue were identified among 3458 references from the Web of Sciences database. SAS have a positive impact on biodiversity conservation for the different taxonomic groups. Regarding ES, the few papers that studied the effect on pollinators or pollination also showed a positive effect. The majority of studies on natural predators and biocontrol, as well as those on soil organisms and related supporting services, showed a positive effect of SAS. However, some studies failed to show this or showed the opposite effect depending on specific conditions. For weeds, pests and damages, data are limited and results are contrasted according to studies. Different parameters that can influence this biodiversity and the resulting services have been listed: influence of the location, crop and agroforestry management. The influence of the experimental design was also reported, for example control and comparison used or sampling methods. Moreover, the link with other ES (mainly provisioning but also cultural services) is discussed. Finally, a prospect for future research is made and advices are proposed in line with the issues discussed in this work.