Over-yielding in temperate silvopastures: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Over-yielding in an intercropping system occurs when the productivity of the intercrop exceeds the overall productivity of the systems managed in segregation. The objective of this systematic review was to calculate the over-yielding of silvopastures compared to open pastures and forests, timber plantations, or orchards managed separately. A literature search was completed for comparisons of the productivity of these practices in temperate regions. Data collected from these studies included mean yields of timber or non-timber forest products, forages, and livestock, as well as the characteristics of the study site. Silvopasture practices improve the productivity of land typically managed separately for pasture or trees by 42–55%, depending on whether the productivity of the pastures is measured by livestock or forage output, respectively. In most cases, over-yielding occurred despite a reduction in individual forage, livestock, or tree productivity in the silvopastures. Calculating confidence intervals around these means was not feasible because standard errors were largely not reported or available. Some assumptions were made about the actual productivity of timber or non-timber forest products. This work illustrates the significant level of over-yielding that may be achieved by integrating trees, forages, and livestock into a single production system.

Grazing in silvopastoral systems: multiple solutions for diversified benefits

“…Silvopastoral systems produce a number of positive outcomes when compared with open pastures, including production benefits [e.g. land productivity (Pent 2020a); animal welfare (Broom et al 2013)], environmental benefits [e.g., increased biodiversity (Mosquera-Losada et al 2009)] and climatic benefits (e.g. carbon sequestration (Lorenz and Lal 2014); methane emissions reduction (Thornton and Herrero 2010)].…”

Silvopasture systems for restoration of degraded lands in a semiarid region of India

“…This system uses the resources more efficiently because different components compete at different space and time (Jose & Dollinger, 2019; Pent, 2020). As deep root systems of trees bind the soil, they reduce soil erosion and extract moisture from the deeper strata of the soil profile (Ghosh et al, 2020; Kumar et al, 2019).…”

Impact of silvopastoral system on the soil physicochemical properties in China: A meta-analysis

“…Given the integrative effect of alley cropping, windbreaks and shelterbelts, scattered trees in pastures, and intensive management and rotational grazing, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of silvopastoral system can maximize resource use e ciency (Cubbage et al 2012;Jose et al 2019). Numerous studies have shown that silvopastoral systems have multiple ecosystem service functions such as microclimate regulation (Karki and Goodman, 2013;Pezzopane et al, 2015), nutrient promotion (Barros et al, 2018;Lira et al, 2020), soil conservation (Bosi et al, 2020;De Abreu et al, 2020;Gyenge et al, 2002), productivity promotion (Pent, 2020;Sun et al, 2021) and biodiversity conservation (Roehrig et al, 2020;Mupepele et al, 2021). Meanwhile, the complementary rooting system in the silvopastoral system can make more e cient use of water (Pollock et al 2009).…”

“…Which indicate that construction of silvopastoral system is bene cial for restoring soil physical quality of degraded pastures (Polania-Hincapie et al 2021). While neutral and negative interactions have been also reported for forages and trees will compete directly for available resource (Gyenge et al 2002;Pent, 2020). For example, soil water contents at deeper soil layers were decreased by introduced fodder crop in semiarid Loess Plateau (Ling et al, 2020); some studies have also shown noneffect or even a signi cant decrease in soil nutrient content after the construction of silvopastoral system (Qin et Under silvopastoral systems, naturally available resources (such as soil water and nutrients) have to be used e ciently to avoid competition among vegetation layers and maintain productions (Lopez-Diaz et al 2020).…”