Effects of soybean cropping on floral diversity

Agriculture faces a serious challenge as species diversity in agricultural landscapes declines. Grain legumes are thought to contribute to farmland biodiversity. In a survey of the international literature we established that,with the exception of soybean, there is little information on the impact of grain legumes on floral diversity of agroecosystems. According to a quantitative analysis of available data, soybean reduces weed biomass, density, and seed production when compared to other single crops, but somewhat increased them when the cropping sequence was considered. The floral diversity parameters species richness, Shannon diversity, and evenness were unaffected by soybean cultivation.