Agroforestry Systems - Call for Papers: From Agroforestry to Agrivoltaics: what shade for what crops?

What do agroforestry and agivoltaics have in common? They are both agricultural systems in which understory crops are cultivated under the shade of a top story layer, and thus light is usually the most limiting factor for understory plant growth. Optimization of both systems requires knowledge about crop shade adaptation and response.  Most studies available on the subject consider only radiation in the PAR range and provide quantitative information on the PAR transmitted over time, at varying but coarse time steps (from hourly to yearly), and with poor spatial definition.  However, the radiation transmitted under trees is neither uniform in time and space, nor of the same spectral composition as the incident radiation above the trees.

Tree canopies have gaps, which result in very heterogeneous radiation transmittance, both in space and time, at a scale too fine to be considered in most studies and models. Photovoltaic panels, instead, provide a more uniform shade, yet the transmitted radiation varies with panel type, size, density, and placement design, aside from season, latitude, climate, and time of day. Tree canopies are also selective absorbers: they absorb predominantly red and blue radiation, thus the transmitted radiation is relatively enriched in green and far red. Changes in radiation composition are known to affect plant performance, for instance by inducing morphological and physiological adaptations to shade. Not being green, photovoltaic panels are unlikely to alter radiation composition in the same way as tree canopies, but not much data is available. New kinds of photovoltaic panels are now available (semi-transparent, radiation selective, bifacial, etc..) and their impact on the shade patterns and quality need to be assessed.

Is a more detailed knowledge on the quality, quantity, and dynamic distribution of the transmitted radiation, useful to enhance the design and performance of agroforestry and agrivoltaic systems?  What shade is best for what crops?

This special issue welcomes all papers dealing with the quantitative and qualitative characterization of the radiation transmitted under agroforestry and/or agrivoltaics, and papers assessing whether differences in radiation quality, quantity and dynamic distribution affect understory crop physiology and performance. The interaction between light limitation and other abiotic stresses (air temperature, air humidity, wind velocity, soil water availability, soil temperature, etc) or biotic stresses (diseases, pests) may also be considered as shaded crops experience different conditions from full sun grown crops.

Please note that all submitted manuscripts will follow peer-review criteria per standard journal submissions. The Special Issue will close for submissions 30 June 2024.

To submit your manuscript to this Special Issue please follow the link here. (this opens in a new tab)

In the ‘Details’ tab, authors must and select 'SI: From Agroforestry to Agrivoltaics: what shade for what crops?' from the drop-down menu under ‘Collection’.

For any enquiries about the suitability of papers, please contact the Guest Editors:

Christian Dupraz, INRAE, France christian.dupraz@inrae.fr (this opens in a new tab)
Adolfo Rosati, CREA, Italy adolfo.rosati@crea.gov.it (this opens in a new tab)
Greg Barron-Gafford, University of Arizona, USA gregbg@email.arizona.edu (this opens in a new tab)
Stephano Amaducci, UniCatt, Italy stefano.amaducci@unicatt.it (this opens in a new tab)