Samantha Howarth

Boosting Biodiversity and Growth Rates by Intercropping

Introduction:

Biodiversity is at the core of nature. Without having different species supporting each other in

ecosystems there would be no way life would be possible. All animals on this earth have a role to play

whether that role is to be prey or to pollinate or many other jobs preformed everyday in the natural

environment. Without these different species with different jobs nature wouldn’t be able to sustain

itself. Therefore, every species is important in its own ecosystem because it plays a role and all the

species need to be protected. In order to ensure that life will continue. Scientists have spent two

decades studying biodiversity and its role in the environment hoping to understand it better as a whole

(Naeem, et. al. 2012).

Throughout nature plants grow mixed together in many different ecosystems. In some cases,

the different plants help each other. Some plants actually can put nutrients back into the soil which

helps all the other plants around it to grow. The Earth and every living organism on Earth rely on

biodiversity because it supports stable ecosystems. There are not acres of plots with just a single species

throughout nature that we see in agriculture. The problem with farming just one species at a time is that

all of those plants are competing for all the same nutrients in the soil. This can lead to a deficiency in in

key nutrients like nitrogen in the soil. Intercropping is the process of planting different species of plants

together that can benefit from each other. With intercropping there is less competition between

separate species because they need different amounts of nutrients. This allows the plants to be more

productive. Farmers choose to plant large amounts of the same species because of their harvesting

technics. Farmers use large machines to take up large amounts of one crop at a time, their machines

have no way to sort through and separate different crops as they are picked. That’s way farmers are
forced to plant monocultures. Even though they would get more in return intercropping it is not worth

the extra work when it comes to harvest time. The goal for researching biodiversity is to scientifically

support the fact that biodiversity benefits humans.

Hypothesis: We hypothesis that by intercropping, the plants will grow larger than the plants that are

competing with the same species.

Prediction: Based on our hypothesis we predict that the mixed pots filled with the tomatoes, alfalfa, and

Alaska peas will grow more than the pots with just one of each species planted in them.

Methods:

 Three different plant species are chosen to use in the experiment. Our group used tomatoes

(Solanum lycopersicum). In optimal conditions need eight hours of sunlight a day, 3 to 4 months

of warm clear weather to produce, even watering, and loose well drained soil. Second, we used

Alaska pea (Pisum sativum). Alaska pea grows best in cooler temperatures between 30-70

Fahrenheit in full sunlight and in soil rich with nitrogen. The third planted was alfalfa (Medicago

sativa). Alfalfa can tolerate many growing conditions and grows best in full sun with little

moister in the soil.

 We then filled sixteen small plastic pots (about 4’’x4’’x5’’) with potting soil.

 In four of the pots we planted three tomato seeds about ¼’’ deep. In another four pots we

planted three Alaska pea seeds about 1’’ deep, in another four pots we planted three alfalfa

seeds 1/8’’ deep, in the final four pots we planted one seed of each plant at the same depth

specific to each species.

 After all the pots were planted each received 50mL of water. They received the same amount of

water weekly in the mid-afternoon.

 Then they were placed in the green house and left to grow.
  At the end of the experiment the plants will be measured. Based on how much each plant has

grown we will be able to see which plants grew better in what situation.

Results

There was no significant difference between individual tomato plants in monocultures than in mixtures

(F=2.014, P= 0.178). Individual alfalfa plants grew taller in monocultures than in mixtures (F= 0.295,

P=0.596). Alaskan pea plants grew less in monocultures than in mixtures (F=0.225, P=0.642).

There was a significant difference in the mass obtained between tomato plants grown in monocultures

compared to mixtures (F= 0.029, P= 0.087). Alfalfa plants obtained a greater mass growing in mixtures

than in monocultures (F= 0.576, P= 0.460). Alaskan pea plants obtained less mass growing in

monocultures than in mixtures (F= 6.935, P= 0.019).

Discussion

Through this experiment we were testing how species of plants grow differently in monocultures and

mixtures. After weighing and measuring the results for the most part showed more growth in mixtures

as compared to the monocultures. However, the results did not show a significant difference between

them.

After measuring the plants from the ends of their roots to the top of the plants. The conclusion we came

to is that both the tomato plants and the Alaskan pea plants did not show a significant enough

difference to conclude whether they grew better in the mixtures or not. The alfalfa plant also did not

demonstrate a significant difference in the monoculture vs. the mixture. I believe that this result

could’ve happened because the plant growth was not affected by other competing plants around them.

When all the plants were weighed and compared we found that the tomato plant had significant
difference in mass between the monocultures and mixtures. Alaskan pea plants grew significantly more

in the mixtures. Surprisingly even though the alfalfa plants were smaller in the mixtures when

measured, after being weighed the alfalfa plants in the mixtures had a greater mass. This could be

possible because the mixture alfalfa plants may have had a greater root mass than the alfalfa plants in

the monocultures. Alfalfa plants are nitrogen fixers and this maybe the reason why other plants showed

slightly more growth in the mixtures, however there was not enough conclusive data to determine this

as a fact (Tilly, 2018).

Many different factors could have affected the growth rates of all of these plants. One factor is the

amount of time these plants were allowed to grow. If they were given the chance to grow longer maybe

some of the monoculture plants would have had the chance to catch up with the mixture plants.

Another factor could be the pot size. Some plants slow their growth due to limited space. In future

experiments different plants can be used or the experiment could be done on a much larger scale than

the small version we performed.

Cited:

Naeem, S, Duffy, E, and Zavaleta, E, (2012). The Functions of Biological Diversity in an Age of Extinction.

Science. 336: 1401-1406

Tilly, N, (2018). Growing Alfalfa – How To Plant Alfalfa.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/alfalfa/growing-alfalfa.htm