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Study of the Effects of the Age of the Trees on the Agro-Ecosystem in SRC Agro-Silvopastoral System

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Study of the Effects of the Age of the Trees on the Agro-Ecosystem in SRC Agro-Silvopastoral System DUT Génie Biologique Option Agronomie Effects of Agroforestry on the agro-ecosystem: a study of the crops-soil-climate-biodiversity system in Short Rotation Coppice temperate agro-silvopastoral system Effects de l’Agrofrestery sur l’agro-écosystème : étude du système sol-climat-plante-biodiversité en agro-sylvipastoralisme en taillis à courte rotation Report of internship The Organic Research Centre 3rd April – 16th June 2017 Deremetz Valentin [email protected] Dr Jo Smith, Principal Researcher in Aroecology Année 2016 - 2017 2017 Study of the effects of the age of the trees on the agro-ecosystem in SRC agro-silvopastoral system VALENTIN DEREMETZ (1, 2) TUTOR OF INTERNSHIP: DR JO SMITH (1) TUTOR OF IUT: MR DAIGNY (2) THE ORGANIC RESEARCH CENTRE |IUT D’AMIENS (1) The Organic Research Centre (2) IUT Amiens Elm Farm Lieu-dit Le Bailly Hamstead Marshall Avenue des Facultés Newbury RG20 0HR 80 025 Amiens United Kingdom France Abstract I carried out my internship at the Organic Research Centre in the agroforestry department. I studied the effects of the SRC trees and their age on the agro-ecosystem in the agro- silvopastoral field of the Elm farm. I carried out the assessments of the oats, the weeds, the earthworms, the ground beetles and the soil. I found no significant effects on the oats concerning its cover, the timing of the growth stage. In this study, we have also shown an effect of the trees and the tree row covered by weed, woodchip, dead litter on the population and the richness of earthworms and on the activity, the diversity and the richness of the ground beetles. The study of the community of weeds showed any contamination from the tree row, an effect of the perennial weeds and the interest of the weeds of the tree row for Wildlife. The soil organic matter has been studied in aim to show or not an increase of this level by the tree. In this report, we present the state of the art about Agroforestry where we will focus on the interactions between the trees, the agro-ecosystem and the climate. We will try to give some tools and way of management of these interactions. Keys Word: Agro-silvopastoral, SRC, agroforestry, agro-ecosystem, age of the tree. Résumé J’ai réalisé mon stage de fin d’étude à The Organic Research Centre dans le département agroforestier. J’étais chargé d’étudier les effets des arbres et leur âge sur l’agro-système sur le champ expérimental de l’Elm Farm en agro-silvopastoralisme. L’étude s’est concentrée sur le suivi de l’avoine, la flore adventive, les lombrics, les carabes et le sol. J’ai montré aucun effet significatif des arbres sur l’avoine et notamment l’apparition des stades phénologiques et sa couverture. L’intérêt et l’effet de la couverture de la rangée d’arbres, par la végétation spontanée, du BRF et des résidus morts sur les populations de lombrics et de carabes, ont aussi été étudiés. Concernant la flore adventive, aucune contamination issue de la rangée des arbres n’a été prouvée. L’intérêt de cette flore a aussi démontré et particulièrement pour la biodiversité de la parcelle. Dans ce rapport, une partie est consacrée à l’établissement de l’état de l’art de l’agroforesterie en se concentrant sur l’interaction sol-climat-culture-arbres-biodiversité. Nous essaierons aussi de donner les outils les plus adaptés afin de manager ces interactions. Mots clés : Agro-silvopastoralisme, Taillis à courte rotation, Agroforesterie, agro-écosystème, âge des arbres Acknowledgement First, I would like to thank Dr Jo Smith and Dr Ambrogio Costanzo for their welcoming, trust and advises. Dr Jo Smith was always available to help me and advise me in aim to obtain successful assessments. I would like also to thank her for her objective lecture of this report. Dr Ambrogio Costanzo advised and accompanied me during the statistical analysis of my data and the crop assessments. I would like to thank him for this. Secondly, I would like to thank Prof. Nic Lamphill, Dr Bruce Pearce and the agroforestry team who welcome me in The Organic Research Centre and specifically in this team. I really enjoyed this three months at The Organic Research Centre and in the agroforestry team. They gave me the opportunity to carry out this study and I thank them for this. I would like to thank the ORC staff and the other interns for their welcoming and for all moments which I can spend with them during this internship. I will never forget this internship. Indeed, I would like to thank Rémi Cardinael for the sharing of knowledge. It was very useful in the constitution of important parts of my state of the art of Agroforestry. Then, I thank also my family who supported me during these three months. Specifically, my brother who advised me in the redaction of this report. Finally, I would like to thank Mrs Goullieux, Mr Maignez and Mr Daigny for their help and their support before and during this internship. Table of contents List of figures .......................................................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 I. The Organic Research Centre: a Progressive Farming Trust Ltd for organic farming development 1 1. General presentation .................................................................................................................... 1 2. ORC’s visions, missions and aims .............................................................................................. 2 3. Research at ORC ......................................................................................................................... 3 II. The state of the agroforestry’s art: Why agroforestry could be the future of Farming? .................. 4 1. What is agroforestry: definition of this traditional production system ........................................ 4 2. Agroforestry products and environmental benefits ..................................................................... 5 3. Diversity of agroforestry designs ................................................................................................ 6 4. Silvoarable system and productivity ........................................................................................... 7 5. Silvoarable: an association of trees and crops ............................................................................. 8 6. Silvoarable and microclimate: tree’s protection ........................................................................ 13 7. How to manage the competition in agroforestry system? ......................................................... 15 8. Silvoarable: when trees and microclimate modification change the global climate.................. 17 9. Silvoarable: trees-soil relationship ............................................................................................ 18 III. Study of effects of trees and their ages on the agro-ecosystem ................................................. 19 1. Materials and methods ............................................................................................................... 19 2. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 22 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 30 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Glossary-Glossaire .................................................................................................................................. 3 Annexe 1: Photos of different kinds of agroforestry in Europe .............................................................. 4 Annexe 2: Scheme products from an agroforestry agro-ecosystem. (from Smith, J., 2011). .................. 5 Annexe 3: Impact of different species of trees on the corn’s NA (Reynolds, P.E. et al, 2006). ............. 6 Annexe 4: Evolution of the tree’s root system and the water storage in an agroforestry soil (Dupraz, C., et al, 2011) ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Annexe 5: Impacts of trees species on predator’s populations ................................................................ 8 Annexes 6: Effect of tree on the microclimate and smal water’s cycle ................................................... 9 Annexes 7: Scheme of the experimental field and the plantation of twin rows trees ............................ 10 Annexes 8: Statistic ............................................................................................................................... 11 3. Earthworms’ Assessments ......................................................................................................... 11 2. The assessment of the ground beetles ....................................................................................... 12 6. Weeds’ assessments .................................................................................................................. 34 Annexes 9: Scheme of the loacation of the pitfall
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