Deriving general principles of agroecosystem multifunctionality with the Diverse Rotations Improve Valuable Ecosystem Services (DRIVES) network

Authors: Bybee-Finley, Kristine; Muller, Katherine; White, Kathryn; BOWLES, TIM - University Of California Berkeley; Cavigelli, Michel; Han, Eunjin; Schomberg, Harry; SNAPP, SIEGLINDE - International Maize & Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT); VIENS, FREDERI - Rice University

Submitted to: Agronomy Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/6/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: While long-term agricultural experiments have been conducted for nearly 150 years, there has been little coordination among these experiments. Analyzing data from multiple long-term agricultural experiments may help us get a better sense of how agroecosystems function. Here, we introduce the Diverse Rotations Improve Valuable Ecosystem Services (DRIVES) Project, which was designed to do this using data from 21 long-term field experiments (LTFEs) in North America that evaluate how crop rotational diversity impacts cropping system performance. As of 2024, the DRIVES Project database contains 495 site-years of data on crop yields, daily weather, soil analysis, and management information for the 21 LTFEs. The DRIVES database has been created in a way that is accessible and reusable by others and can integrate with other datasets. Initial research questions have focused on how rotational diversity impacts resilience in the face of adverse weather, future climate adaptability, nutritional quality, and economic feasibility. This work will be valuable to other scientists and producers will benefit from the scientific findings.

Technical Abstract: Long-term agricultural field experiments have been conducted for nearly 150 years. Yet lack of coordination means that synthesis across such experiments remains rare, constituting a missed opportunity for deriving general principles of agroecosystem structure and function. Here, we introduce the Diverse Rotations Improve Valuable Ecosystem Services (DRIVES) Project, which uses legacy data from long-term field experiments (LTFEs) in North America to address research questions about the multifunctionality of agriculture. The DRIVES Project is a network of researchers who have compiled a database of primary (i.e., observations) and secondary (i.e., transformed observations or modeling results) data from participating DRIVES sites. It comprises 21 LTFEs that evaluate how crop rotational diversity impacts cropping system performance. The network consists of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), university, and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) scientists (20 people) who manage and collect primary data from LTFEs and a core team (8 people) tasked with organizing the network, curating network data, and synthesizing cross-network findings. As of 2024, the DRIVES Project database contains 495 site-years of data on crop yields, daily weather, soil analysis, and management information for the 21 LTFEs. The structure of the DRIVES database is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), which allows integration with external datasets like surveys from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Initial research questions have focused on how rotational diversity impacts resilience in the face of adverse weather, future climate adaptability, nutritional quality, and economic feasibility. The DRIVES team's collaborative approach in handling LTFE data has established a model for data organization that facilitates broader synthesis studies and has codified methods for handling long-term data in peer-reviewed publications and in publicly accessible protocols and scripts, enhancing cross-site analysis capabilities.