TY - CONF A1 - Mirck, Jaconette A1 - Kanzler, Michael A1 - Böhm, Christian A1 - Freese, Dirk A2 - Gosme, Marie T1 - Sugar beet yields and soil moisture measurements in an alley cropping system T2 - Celebrating 20 years of Agroforestry research in Europe, 3rd European Agroforestry Conference, Montpellier, 23-25 May 2016, Book of Abstracts N2 - Agroforestry for arable farmers is not a common practice in Germany. However, alley cropping for woody biomass production is of interest because of its high potential to concurrently provide a biomass feedstock and an arable crop. One of the systems that exists, although at an experimental level, is the integration of rows of fast growing trees, such as poplar or willow, with arable crops. The experimental plots were initially established as part of the German joint research project “AgroForstEnergie - Economic and Ecological Evaluation of Agroforestry Systems in Farming Practice“, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (AgroForstEnergie 2015). The goal of this project was to study alley cropping systems, which concurrently produce a woody biomass feedstock and conventional agricultural crops. Currently the work is continued through the AGFORWARD Project. The State of Brandenburg is known for its light sandy soils that are prone to wind erosion. The introduction of tree hedgerows within the agricultural landscape can reduce wind erosion (Böhm et al. 2014). In addition, microclimatic conditions such as soil moisture, wind speed reduction, relative humidity and air temperature have been more favourable for plant growth in crop alleys compared to reference crop areas (Böhm et al. 2014; Quinkenstein et al. 2009). Sugar beets are a common crop for conventional agricultural systems in Western Europe. As part of agroforestry systems, sugar beets have rarely been studied. Even though sugar beets can root up to a depth of 2 meter, their yields can be significantly reduced due to a lack of water (Hoffmann 2010; Bloch et al. 2006). Agroforestry systems that consist of tree hedgerows and crop alleys, also known as Alley Cropping Systems, have the potential to increase plant moisture in comparison to conventional agricultural systems (Quinkenstein et al. 2009). This study aims to assess tree hedgerow effects on sugar beets. The objectives of this study were to; 1) assess how tree hedgerows planted at three distances affected sugar beet yields; 2) to correlate soil moisture values of the top 15 cm with sugar beet yields at the same distance of the tree row; 3) to assess the effects of drought stress on sugar beet yield. Y1 - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-UBICO/frontdoor/index/index/docId/18410 UR - http://www.repository.utl.pt/bitstream/10400.5/11690/1/EURAF2016%20-%20Book%20of%20Abstracts%20final.pdf SN - 978-2-87614-717-1 SP - 282 EP - 285 ER -