Professional Documents
Culture Documents
in
crop communities
Toto Himawan
EKOLOGI PERTANIAN
Fakultas Pertanian, Universitas Brawijaya
COMMUNITY:
3 Types:
Inhabitational - one mutualist lives wholly or partly inside the other
(eg. Rhizobium bacteria and leguminous plants)
Exhabitational - organisms are relatively independent physically,
but interact directly (eg. flowering plant and its insect pollinator)
Indirect - interactions among a set of species modify the
environment in which they all live to the benefit of the mixture;
involve more than 2 species (eg. polyculture agroecosystem)
Mutualism :
Mutually
Mutually Beneficial
Beneficial Interferences
Interferences
at
at Work
Work in
in Agroecosystems
Agroecosystems
Cover crop = plant species (usually grasses or legumes)
grown in pure or mixed stands to cover the soil of the crop
community for part or all of the year
Green manure = cover crop tilled into the soil to add OM
Living mulch = cover crop grown directly with other crops
Reduce soil erosion; improve soil structure; enhance soil
fertility; suppress weeds, insects, and pathogens (see Table
15.1 for more benefits)
May be beneficial at some times while detrimental at others
(see CASE STUDY rye/bellbeans)
With proper management, weeds can serve role of
cover crop