About

Current trends in agriculture foster intensification of the cultivation management that often results in monoculture cultivation, nitrate leaching, soil erosion, and biodiversity decline.

Also, the European woody biomass economy indicates that wood produced in for­ests, both for energy and for timber, will not cover future demand. Hence, new land use approaches are needed to enhance the sustainability of agriculture and the production of lignocellulosic biomass. One approach to achieve this goal lies in the optimised management of agroforestry systems, i.e. growing trees in combination with other crops on the same land unit.

SidaTim assesses the potential of agroforestry systems that consist of valuable timber trees grown in combination with biomass plants such as Sida and Silphium.

Results

Key practical findings of SidaTim:

• Enabled the development of a terrestrial laser scanning tool for generating high-resolution 3D models of trees to model shade cast in agroforestry systems.
• Provided reliable estimates of Sida’s growth potential under different climatic conditions in Europe.
• Published first management guidelines for Sida in four languages.
• Provided first answers about Sida’s competitive and invasive potential – so far, a largely neglected issue of crucial importance.
• Provided new insight into the pollinator and soil arthropod biodiversity of Sida and Silphium.