There is an increasing need for genetic resources to provide ecosystem services in agricultural systems. Brachypodium is a promising grass cover species used in olive and fruit grooves in Mediterranean agroecosystems. In this agricultural context, they provide winter soil protection and moisture retention, and terminate their cycle in early spring, minimizing water competition with the tree crop (Gomez et al. 2020).

In this work, we characterized the performance of four Brachypodium varieties in five environments (both field- and semicontrolled environments) in Southern Spain (IAS-CSIC farm). This would provide data on the effects of climatological conditions and management practices (sowing date, irrigation) on soil cover, biomass, and seed and yield traits using traditional and digital phenotyping tools. A strong genotypic influence was detected for the traits observed, while climatic effects (specially heat and drought) were also detected. This will help to identify the possibilities and ecosystem services provided by this grass cover crop's genetic resources in Agromediterranean conditions.

Acknowledgements: We gratefull acknowledge the financial support from grant TED2021-131496B-C22 (BRACHYCOVER) funded by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by the “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR”, and from the European Union’s Horizon project Soil-O-Live (Grant agreement ID: 101091255).

References

Gómez, J.A., Soriano, M.A. 2020. Evaluation of the suitability of three autochthonous herbaceous species as cover crops under Mediterranean conditions through the calibration and validation of a temperature-based phenology model. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 291, art. no. 106788.