Black walnut alley cropping is economically competitive with row crops in the Midwest USA.

The maize-soybean rotation (MSR) dominates the Midwest United States and degrades many ecological functions. Black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) plantation forestry (PF) and alley cropping (AC) are two alternative land-uses that can enhance productivity and restore ecosystem services.

Frontiers in alley cropping: Transformative solutions for temperate agriculture.

Annual row crops dominate agriculture around the world and have considerable negative environmental impacts, including significant greenhouse gas emissions. Transformative land-use solutions are necessary to mitigate climate change and restore critical ecosystem services. Alley cropping (AC)-the integration of trees with crops-is an agroforestry practice that has been studied as a transformative, multifunctional land-use solution.

Diversity in stomatal function is integral to modelling plant carbon and water fluxes.

Stomatal pores on leaf surfaces respond to environmental and physiological signals to regulate leaf gas exchange. Mathematical models can predict stomatal conductance (g ), with one parameter (m or g ) reflecting the sensitivity of g to the photosynthetic rate (A), atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and atmospheric humidity, and a second parameter (g ) representing the minimum g . Such models are solved iteratively with a photosynthesis model to form the core of many models of crop or ecosystem carbon and water fluxes.