Grass and Flower Strips

The overall objective of EcoStack is to develop and support ecologically, economically and socially sustainable crop production through stacking and protection of functional biodiversity.

Differents farmers' practices favour different types of biodiversity on their fields and farms.

As part of the Ecostack project, Dr Helen Metcalfe is collecting yield-monitor data. The aim is to help assess whether the benefits of landscape features such as wildflower margins and hedgerows translate to visible improvements in crop yield.

Vegetated strips in permanent crops - an ecological and farmer's perspective; partly in Portuguese with English subtitles

Complexity of landscape enhances natural pest control and decreases insecticide use in olive groves

Enhancing ecosystem services in Oilseed rape; Serbian with English subtitle

Five EcoStack measures for promoting biodiversity and reducing pests were summarized and evaluated economically. Some of the measures may be economically attractive, depending on the farm structure and support.

Six EcoStack measures for promoting biodiversity and reducing pests were summarized and evaluated economically. Some of the measures may be economically attractive, depending on the farm structure and support.

Six EcoStack measures for promoting biodiversity and reducing pests were summarized and evaluated economically. Some of the measures may be economically attractive, depending on the farm structure and support.

"a series of workshops with farmers and farm advisors from different European countries were conducted to facilitate knowledge exchange Gathering their opinions enhances the effectiveness and legitimacy of agricultural transition with taking into account the diversity of viewpoints. The goal of this newsletter is show the breadth of knowledge and perceptions about the agroecological practices from the perspective of different stakeholders"

"Vegetated strips are in the focus of many stakeholders of agroecosystems and are part of several agri-environmental schemes in Germany. Stakeholders have different expectations and demands on the functionality and services of vegetated strips. In our review, we focused on biodiversity and the ecosystem services pollination, conservation biocontrol, landscape aesthetics, buffer function, and biomass production and their associated functions. We assessed factors that are crucial to support service provision and reviewed trade-offs between the ecosystem (dis)services. We identified five characteristics that are important for the provision of the assessed ecosystem services: age of vegetated strips, flower cover, size or width of the strip, management, and type of adjacent habitat. We conclude that adjusting the target of subsidies with respect to the analyzed factors for biodiversity can help to promote the multifunctionality of vegetated strips in arable farming."

Insect pest management in oilseed rape (OSR) is challenging for farmers due to the lack of effective insecticides, so conservation biocontrol—reliance on natural pest control and management methods to support populations of the natural enemies of crop pests—is part of the solution for a greener future. Sown wildflower field margins are known to benefit many natural enemies of crop pests. However, the most effective natural enemies of OSR pests are parasitoids, which specialise in attacking these pests, which in turn specialise on Brassica host plants (including OSR), but few field margin mixtures contain brassicas. We screened six different species in the field to find the plants with the best potential as ‘banker plants’ to support parasitoid populations whilst not exacerbating the pests. Forage rape was the best ‘all-rounder’; supporting good numbers of pollen beetle parasitoids and also supporting parasitoids of weevil and brassica pod midge pests. Careful consideration of the brassica component of field margin mixtures could extend functionality towards enhanced biocontrol of specialist pests.