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Swiss National Science Foundation PP00P3_170645 Christian Schob

Analysis of institutional authors

SchÖb, ChristianAuthor

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October 24, 2022
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Rapid transgenerational adaptation in response to intercropping reduces competition

Publicated to:Elife. 11 e77577- - 2022-09-13 11(), DOI: 10.7554/eLife.77577

Authors: Stefan, Laura; Engbersen, Nadine; Schob, Christian

Affiliations

Agroscope, Plant Prod Syst, Nyon, Switzerland - Author
Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Inst Agr Sci, Zurich, Switzerland - Author
Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Area Biodiversidad & Conservac, Mostoles, Spain - Author

Abstract

By capitalising on positive biodiversity-productivity relationships, intercropping provides opportunities to improve agricultural sustainability. Intercropping is generally implemented using commercial seeds that were bred for maximal productivity in monocultures, thereby ignoring the ability of plants to adapt over generations to the surrounding neighbourhood, notably through increased complementarity, that is reduced competition or increased facilitation. This is why using monoculture-adapted seeds for intercropping might limit the benefits of crop diversity on yield. However, the adaptation potential of crops and the corresponding changes in complementarity have not been explored in annual crop systems. Here we show that plant-plant interactions among annual crops shifted towards reduced competition and/or increased facilitation when the plants were growing in the same community type as their parents did in the previous two generations. Total yield did not respond to this common coexistence history, but in fertilized conditions, we observed increased overyielding in mixtures with a common coexistence history. Surprisingly, we observed character convergence between species sharing the same coexistence history for two generations, in monocultures but also in mixtures: the six crop species tested converged towards taller phenotypes with lower leaf dry matter content. This study provides the first empirical evidence for the potential of parental diversity affecting plant-plant interactions, species complementarity and therefore potentially ecosystem functioning of the following generations in annual cropping systems. Although further studies are required to assess the context-dependence of these results, our findings may still have important implications for diversified agriculture as they illustrate the potential of targeted cultivars to increase complementarity of species in intercropping, which could be achieved through specific breeding for mixtures.

Keywords

AgricultureArticleBiodiversityBreedingCharacter displacementCompetitionCropCrop yieldCropping systemCrops, agriculturalCultivarDiversityEcologyEcosystemFacilitationFunctional traitsHumanIntercroppingMediated gene flowMonocultureNiche differentiationNonhumanOtherOutcrossing ratesPhenotypic plasticityPlant biologyPlant breedingPlant functional traitsPlant leafPlant-plant interactionsPositive interactionsTriticum-aestivum l.

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Elife due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 7/92, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Biology. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.53. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 4.37 (source consulted: Dimensions Aug 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-08-15, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 13
  • Scopus: 12
  • Europe PMC: 2

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-08-15:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 50.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 50 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 130.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 108 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 8 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Switzerland.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (Schöb, Christian).