Perennial Grain and Oilseed Crops

Kantar, Michael B.; Tyl, Catrin; Dorn, Kevin M.; Zhang, Xiaofei; Jungers, Jacob M.; Kaser, Joe M.; Schendel, Rachel R.; Eckberg, James O.; Runck, Bryan C.; Bunzel, Mirko; Jordan, Nicholas R.; Stupar, Robert M.; Marks, M. David; Anderson, James A.; Johnson, Gregg A.; Sheaffer, Craig C.; Schoenfuss, Tonya C.; Ismail, Baraem; Heimpel, George E.; Wyse, Donald L.

doi:10.1146/annurev-arplant-043015-112311

Cited by 67 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 149 publications

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“…Sustainability 2017, 9, 578 9 of 17 agriculture (e.g., Figure 3) [36,[79][80][81]. Improvements in carbon balance, nutrient retention, soil water uptake efficiency, soil microbiome functions, and weed suppression are predicted as agriculture based on high soil disturbance is replaced by ecosystems that require minimal disturbance [36,82].…”

Section: Perennials Address the Root Of The Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Agriculture Can Learn from Native Ecosystems in Building Soil Organic Matter: A Review

2017

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Over the last century, researchers and practitioners with diverse backgrounds have articulated the importance of improving soil organic matter (SOM) contents in agricultural soils. More recently, climate change scientists interested in CO 2 sinks, and agroecologists interested in ecological intensification have converged on the goal of building SOM stocks in croplands. The challenge is that agriculture itself is responsible for dramatic losses of SOM. When grassland or forest ecosystems are first converted to agriculture, multiple mechanisms result in SOM declines of between 20% and 70%. Two of the most important mechanisms are the reduction in organic matter inputs from roots following the replacement of perennial vegetation with annual crop species, and increases in microbial respiration when tillage breaks open soil aggregates exposing previously protected organic matter. Many agricultural practices such as conservation tillage and integration of cover crops have been shown to achieve some degree of SOM improvement, but in general adoption of these practices falls short of accumulating the SOM stocks maintained by grasslands, forests or other native ecosystems that agriculture replaced. Two of the overarching reasons why native terrestrial ecosystems have achieved greater soil organic matter levels than human agroecosystems are because they direct a greater percentage of productivity belowground in perennial roots, and they do not require frequent soil disturbance. A growing body of research including that presented in this review suggests that developing perennial grain agroecosystems may hold the greatest promise for agriculture to approach the SOM levels that accumulate in native ecosystems. We present calculations that estimate potential soil organic carbon accumulation rates in fields converted from annual to perennial grains of between 0.13 and 1.70 t ha −1 year −1 .

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Section: Perennials Address the Root Of The Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Agriculture Can Learn from Native Ecosystems in Building Soil Organic Matter: A Review

2017

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“…Other papers have addressed questions of why humans originally domesticated annual grain crops and what strategies make sense for domesticating new perennial grain crop species [8][9][10][11]. Relatively few papers, however, have been published that provide current overviews of progress in breeding specific perennial crops.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies, Advances, and Challenges in Breeding Perennial Grain Crops

Crews

Cattani

2018

Sustainability

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Abstract:The development of new perennial crop species is gaining momentum as a promising approach to change the fundamental nature of ecosystem processes in agriculture. The ecological argument for perennial crops grown in polycultures is strong, but until recently, perennial herbaceous grain crops have been absent from agricultural landscape. This is not because perennial herbaceous species do not exist in nature-there are thousands of perennial grasses, legumes, and other broad leaf plants. Rather, for a variety of reasons, early farmers focused on cultivating and domesticating annuals, and the perennial herbs were largely ignored. Today, we have a tremendous opportunity to explore another agricultural path. Building on contemporary knowledge of plant biology and genetics that early farmers lacked, and using a rapidly expanding toolbox that includes sophisticated genomic and analytical approaches, we can develop viable perennial grain crops. These crops can then be used to assemble diverse agroecosystems that regenerate soils and capture other important ecosystem functions.

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“…Szarvasi-1) [13] have been adopted for biogas production. Regarding yield and ES, many promising perennial grains are under development [14,15,137], and research on perennial staple crops is increasing [138]. Plant breeding efforts aim to integrate a perennial habit into many important annual crops, such as rice, wheat, rye, sorghum, soybean, and several oil crops [139].…”

Section: Potentials and Limitations Of Perennial Polyculturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting Agricultural Ecosystem Services through the Integration of Perennial Polycultures into Crop Rotations

et al. 2017

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This review analyzes the potential role and long-term effects of field perennial polycultures (mixtures) in agricultural systems, with the aim of reducing the trade-offs between provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. First, crop rotations are identified as a suitable tool for the assessment of the long-term effects of perennial polycultures on ecosystem services, which are not visible at the single-crop level. Second, the ability of perennial polycultures to support ecosystem services when used in crop rotations is quantified through eight agricultural ecosystem services. Legume-grass mixtures and wildflower mixtures are used as examples of perennial polycultures, and compared with silage maize as a typical crop for biomass production. Perennial polycultures enhance soil fertility, soil protection, climate regulation, pollination, pest and weed control, and landscape aesthetics compared with maize. They also score lower for biomass production compared with maize, which confirms the trade-off between provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. However, the additional positive factors provided by perennial polycultures, such as reduced costs for mineral fertilizer, pesticides, and soil tillage, and a significant preceding crop effect that increases the yields of subsequent crops, should be taken into account. However, a full assessment of agricultural ecosystem services requires a more holistic analysis that is beyond the capabilities of current frameworks.

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Perennial Grain and Oilseed Crops

Cited by 67 publications

References 149 publications

What Agriculture Can Learn from Native Ecosystems in Building Soil Organic Matter: A Review

What Agriculture Can Learn from Native Ecosystems in Building Soil Organic Matter: A Review

Strategies, Advances, and Challenges in Breeding Perennial Grain Crops

Supporting Agricultural Ecosystem Services through the Integration of Perennial Polycultures into Crop Rotations

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