Project

Above and belowground competition in intercropping

We quantify architectural traits of Faba bean and Pumpkin during plant development at different locations within the strips, to identify different degrees of competition. We hope to understand how competition affects plant growth and leads to crop performance in strips versus monoculture settings.

Project description

Within the interdisciplinary national research team of Cropmix (Cropmix.nl) we study how strip intercropping can lead to improved sustainable arable farming. On WUR campus we have a large strip cropping experiment in which different cropping pairs are growing. Within CSA we try to decipher how plant-plant interactions for resources such as light and nitrogen affect plant growth and crop performance in strip vs monoculture settings. We look at details of plant development, architectural traits, biomass accumulation and fruit development.

In this specific project we quantify architectural traits of Faba bean and Pumpkin during plant development and identify if plants show plastic responses towards their local environment. We focus specifically on the different degrees of above and belowground competition of Faba on Pumpkin, by comparing pumpkin plants from different locations within the strip, i.e. different distances from the faba bean.

Objectives and methods

Quantify plant development and growth during the season;
Quantify biomass and nitrogen uptake;
Quantify yield (fruit production);
Determine if plants show plasticity towards their environment.

Expectations

We expect the student to have clear research questions that drives the data collection in the field. We expect enthusiasm for field work, think data collection for around 8-10 weeks to follow the growing season.