Plant diversity alleviates the effects of flooding on crops
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - 22:32
in Earth & Climate
In grasslands, growing plants in higher diversity fields may help alleviate the negative impacts of flooding. This finding may extend to how we grow important food crops. In a long-term biodiversity experiment in central Germany, researchers found that single plant species (monocultures) were less able to cope with flooding compared with species grown in mixtures totalling 16 species.