Global evidence that plant diversity suppresses pests and promotes plant performance and crop production

Abstract

The diversity-productivity relationship suggests that increasing plant species could increase primary productivity, with this effect being explained in part by the suppression of plant antagonists. We conducted a global synthesis of 609 studies to investigate how plant diversity affects plants and their antagonists. Here we show that increasing plant species consistently promotes plant performance and suppresses antagonist performance in agro-ecosystems, grasslands and forests, for herbaceous and woody plants, across tropical and temperate zones, and for replacement series and additive experimental design studies. Crop diversification (for example, intercropping and cover cropping) indirectly promotes crop production through the suppression of pests. This shows that diversifying planting systems can increase productivity while reducing reliance on synthetic pesticides, offering a sustainable pathway for agriculture from subsistence to large-scale agriculture. Overall, these results suggest that crop diversification has considerable potential to support sustainable agro-ecosystems that benefit productivity while reducing reliance on synthetic pesticides.