Ecological Intensification & Perennial Polyculture

At The Land Institute, we focus on everything from individual crop attributes, to how organisms interact with other organisms as well the soil and atmosphere in order to maximize what the ecosystem can be achieved through ecological intensification.

We’re working on three levels of ecological intensification to transform agriculture from having a degenerative to a regenerative impact:

Species Level

All species in natural ecosystems have undergone many cycles of natural selection resulting in adaptations to specific ecological conditions. For example, many grass species have developed resistance to specific plant diseases. Genes coding for disease resistance can be incorporated into perennial crops through breeding. Perennialism is another trait that occurs at the species level and is controlled by numerous genes.

Community Level

Plant communities in wild ecosystems usually feature many species. Biodiversity in plant communities helps to reduce disease and insect damage throughout the system, and helps plants take advantage of resources such as water, nutrients, and sunlight. Multi-species communities will help ensure more stable ecosystems for perennial grain agriculture.

Ecosystem Level

It is extremely rare for wild ecosystems to remain in a disturbed state for very long. After disturbances like fire, drought, or floods, perennial species either re-sprout or germinate and take over dominance from ephemeral annual plants. Below ground, the quality of soil organic matter changes during succession as does the community of microorganisms that it supports.

Ecological succession is a process of change that occurs after forests, grasslands, or other types of ecosystems have been disturbed by natural forces such as fire, floods, or drought. If disturbances are intense, ecosystems can be set back to very early stages of succession, often characterized by the proliferation of annual plant species, losses of nutrients, soil organic matter, and even topsoil itself.

In the wild, periods of high disturbance are almost always brief. No sooner does the ecosystem get knocked back with a disturbance such as a very hot fire, than perennial plants begin to sprout, soil organic matter begins to rebuild, soil microbes change, and the functioning of the ecosystem begins to improve.

In modern annual agriculture, we hold the ecosystem in the highly disturbed and highly compromised state indefinitely. By arresting succession, we make “permanent” a poorly functioning ecosystem that is extremely transient in natural ecosystems.

Perennial crops, which put far more energy into roots below ground and do not require frequent disturbance, allow for succession to take place once again. At The Land Institute, we are learning about the role succession plays in governing ecosystem functions in newly developed perennial polycultures.

The Crop Protection Ecology team is learning how we can use crop diversity paired with biological control agents to manage pests in our perennial crop systems to create the kind of agricultural habitat that will make these grains as sustainably pest-free and productive as possible.

Our Crop Protection Genetics Team is seeking to understand and control the diseases in our perennial crops by identifying potential pathogens, developing methods for monitoring their infection rates and measuring their damage, and determining which are most problematic.

The Soil and Intercrop Ecology program examines the critical functions of natural systems into agriculture: nutrient retention, carbon sequestration, and soil regeneration, and other indicators of soil health.

Additionally, The Land Institute is working to combine plantings of complimentary perennial species in “intercrops”. We are currently exploring Kernza and alfalfa bicultures and evaluating the biological nitrogen fixation of this intercrop.  Other grain-legume combinations are also being considered.