Living mulches present tradeoffs between soil nutrient cycling and competition during establishment of tea in an organic production system

McAmis, Shannon; Bae, HeeSung; Ogram, Andrew; Rathinasabapathi, Bala; Richter, Brantlee Spakes

doi:10.1016/j.apsoil.2024.105350

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…As a suitable cropping mode for developing sustainable agriculture, intercropping has several key advantages, namely, better crop yield and quality, improved soil nutrient cycling, greater soil fertility, and higher microbial diversity in soil [ 1 , 2 ]. To date, over 100 intercropping combinations have been demonstrated in China alone [ 3 ]. Among them, combining Gramineae and Fabaceae (Leguminosae) plants is common with maize/soybean intercropping shown to help in not only improving light energy utilization [ 4 ] but also increasing the richness and species number of soil microorganisms while bolstering the available content of soil nutrients and their conversion rates, thereby promoting the aboveground plant growth and development of the target crop [ 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maize/Soybean Intercropping with Straw Return Increases Crop Yield by Influencing the Biological Characteristics of Soil

Cui,

Li,

Baoyin

et al. 2024

Microorganisms

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With mounting demand for high-quality agricultural products and the relentless exploitation of arable land resources, finding sustainable ways to safely cultivate food crops is becoming ever more important. Here, we investigated the effects of the integrated cropping technique “straw return + intercropping” on the soil aggregates as well as the microbial biomass carbon (MBC) content, enzyme activities and microbial diversity in soils of maize and soybean crops. Our results show that in comparison to straw removal and monoculture, straw return and intercropping increase the rhizosphere’s MBC content (59.10%) of soil, along with urease (47.82%), sucrase (57.14%), catalase (16.14%) and acid phosphatase (40.66%) activities as well as the microbial diversity under maize and soybean. Under the same straw treatment, the yield of maize when intercropped surpassed that when grown in monoculture, with the land equivalent ratio of the intercropping treatment under straw return being highest. Overall, the intercropping of maize and soybean is beneficial for the healthy development of sustainable agriculture in the black soil region of northeast China, especially when combined with straw return to fields.

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