Maintaining the productivity of co-culture systems in the face of environmental change

Co-culture systems can address food security issues by sustainably intensifying production of crops and animal protein without requiring additional land area. We show how a graph-theoretic optimization model based on ecological network analysis can determine robust co-culture strategies by controlling the presence of key species. Results of simulations on a hybrid rice and crayfish production system indicate that comparable levels of productivity can be achieved with different ecological network structures.