我国生态农业历史中利用植物辅助效应的实践

我国有着悠久的生态农业历史,农、林生态系统中的植物种间关系被关注最多。种间关系主要有3种,即竞争、辅助和中性。过去,竞争关系是被研究最多的一种。近20年来,辅助关系逐渐受到重视并被引入主流生态学理论中。本文分析了这些经验记载的生态学机理,其中描述最多的是植物幼苗的遮阴以及土壤养分的改良(豆科植物固氮作用)。此外,在缓冲极端温度(夏季高温以及冬季低温)、减少杂草竞争、防止动物捕食、减少水分胁迫等方面也有少量记录。我国古代不仅有利用两种植物种间辅助效应的丰富记载,还有利用多种植物综合和复合的种间辅助关系,以及植物与动物之间的复杂关系构建生态系统的记载。特别是华南地区具有利用多种植物与动物间关系来构建基塘生态系统、复合果园生态系统、茶园生态系统等方面传统经验的记载。深入挖掘我国传统植物间辅助效应的记载,并对其进行科学研究,是生态学中非常有价值的课题。因此,本文从社会-生态记忆的角度,对古代文献中关于植物间辅助效应的记载进行梳理与分析,希望引起学界同仁对这些传统经验的重视,并在此基础上通过现代生态学的实验方法验证这些记载的真实性与适用性,为生态恢复、生态农业、现代林业及生态系统管理等提供有益的借鉴。

Adoptation of plant facilitation effect on ancient ecological agricultural records in China

Most of the records on interspecific relationship in agriculture and forest ecosystems were conserved during the long agricultural history of China. The interspecific association is divided into competition, facilitation and neutrality, where competition is studied in a greater depth. There was an increasing attention on facilitation introduced by the mainstream ecology theories in the past 20 years. China owns voluminous ancient books in which the historical documents left a whole lot of relevant records concerning relationships among species. The records were ancient and accumulated over a long term in the productive practices of observations and experiences. This paper analyzed the ecological mechanisms of these records, most of which were about seedling shading and soil nutrients improvement using legume nitrogen fixation. There was also a small volume of record on buffering extreme temperature (high temperatures in summer and low temperatures in winter), reducing weed competition, preventing predation and alleviating water stress. There was not only rich records about the utilization of facilitation effect between the two plant species in ancient China, but also on the integrated and complex relationship among several plant species as well as the complex relationships between plants and animals in the ecosystem. This was especially the case for southern China which owned the records on traditional experiences on building complex ecosystem of orchards, tea plantations and other aspects of the ecosystem by the diverse plants and animals. The study sorted and analyzed ancient literatures on plant facilitation effect based on ecological theory. The study hoped to draw more attention on traditional experiences, especially those of ecologists. We hoped that more and more researchers investigate and verify the authenticity and applicability of the records on the basis of the theories of modern ecology and experimental methods to provide more useful references for ecological agriculture and modern forestry.