The first map of crop sequence types in Europe over 2012–2018

Abstract

Crop diversification is considered a key element of agroecological transition, whereas current dominant cropping systems are known to rely on only a few crop species – like cereals in Europe. To assess the benefits of crop diversification at a large scale, an accurate description of current crop sequences is required as a baseline. However, such a description is lacking at the scale of Europe. Here, we developed the first map of dominant crop sequences in Europe for the period 2012–2018. We used the Land Use Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS) dataset that provides temporally incomplete (2012, 2015 and 2018) land cover information from a stable grid of points covering Europe. Eight crop sequence types were identified using hierarchical clustering implemented on LUCAS data and mapped over Europe. We show, in France, that the relative importance of these eight crop sequence types (as estimated from LUCAS data) was highly consistent with those derived from an almost spatially exhaustive temporally complete national dataset (the French Land Parcel Identification System) for the same period, thus validating the method and typology for this country. Land use (i.e. crop production area) derived from our map of dominant crop sequences was also highly consistent with land use reported by official statistics at both national and European levels, validating the approach at a European scale. This first map of dominant crop sequences in Europe should be useful for future studies dealing with agricultural issues that are sensitive to crop rotations. The map of dominant crop sequence types in Europe derived from our work is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7016986 (Ballot et al., 2022).