Soil Organic Matter, Aggregates, and Microbial Characteristics of Intercropping Soybean under Straw Incorporation and N Input

Benchuan Zheng, Ping Chen, Qing Du, Huan Yang, Kai Luo, Xiaochun Wang, Feng Yang, Taiwen Yong () and Wenyu Yang
Additional contact information
Benchuan Zheng: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Ping Chen: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Qing Du: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Huan Yang: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Kai Luo: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Xiaochun Wang: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Feng Yang: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Taiwen Yong: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Wenyu Yang: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Soil organic matter (SOM), soil aggregates, and soil microbes play key roles in agriculture soil fertility. In intercropping systems, the influences of straw incorporation and N input on the dynamics of soil physicochemical and microbial properties and their relationships are still unclear. We explore the changes in soil physicochemical and microbial properties with two straw managements, i.e., wheat straw incorporation (SI) and straw removal (SR), and four N supply rates for intercropped soybean, i.e., 60 (N60), 30 (N30), 15 (N15), and 0 (N0) kg N ha −1 , in the wheat–maize–soybean relay strip intercropping systems. The results showed that SOM and SOM fractions contents, soil macroaggregate stability, and microbial and fungal α-diversity, e.g., Chao1 and Shannon indices, increased through straw incorporation and N input. The α-diversity was significantly positively correlated with soil physicochemical characteristics. Compared with SR, the relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Mortierellomycota in SI increased, but the relative abundance of Proteobacteria , Acidobacteria , and Ascomycota in SI decreased. In SI treatment, soil physicochemical characteristics and microbial diversity improved through N input, but that difference was not significant between N60 and N30. In conclusion, SI+N30 was the most effective way to maintain soil fertility and reduce the N fertilizer input in the wheat–maize–soybean relay strip intercropping.

Keywords: straw incorporation; nitrogen; soil organic matter; soil aggregate; soil microbial; relay strip intercropping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/9/1409/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/9/1409/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:9:p:1409-:d:908796

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().