Introducing Legumes into Wheat–Maize Rotation Complicates Soil Microbial Co-Occurrence Network and Reduces Soil Allelochemicals in Succeeding Wheat Season

Yaqian Yan, Haiyang Jin, Fei Zheng, Xiwen Yang, Hang Song, Jiarui Wang, Baoting Fang, Hongjian Cheng, Xiangdong Li () and Dexian He ()
Additional contact information
Yaqian Yan: College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Haiyang Jin: Wheat Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Fei Zheng: Wheat Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Xiwen Yang: College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Hang Song: Wheat Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Jiarui Wang: Wheat Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Baoting Fang: Wheat Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Hongjian Cheng: Wheat Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Xiangdong Li: Wheat Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Dexian He: College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Increasing species richness through rotation is considered a promising measure to enhance agroecosystem functions and services. However, the legacy effects of introducing legumes into a wheat–maize rotation in the North China Plain on soil microecology, especially the soil metabolome, in the succeeding wheat season have not been elucidated. This study established three cropping systems: (1) a continuous winter wheat–summer maize rotation (M), (2) a winter wheat–summer peanut (summer maize) rotation (PM), and (3) a winter wheat–summer soybean (summer maize) rotation (SM). The soil physicochemical properties, microbial communities, and metabolomes were analyzed at the stage of the succeeding wheat crop. Introducing peanuts or soybeans into a wheat–maize rotation significantly reduced the soil bacterial abundance and increased the soil fungal Shannon index. This rotation adjustment had a substantial impact on the structure and taxa composition of the soil microbial community. Crop diversification increased the number of total edges, the average degree, and the average number of neighbors in the soil microbial co-occurrence network. Different crop rotations significantly affected the soil metabolic profiles in the positive and negative ion modes. Crop diversification significantly reduced the abundance of coumarin and coumaric acid in the soils. In conclusion, introducing peanuts or soybeans into a wheat–maize rotation could increase the soil fungal community diversity, change the soil microbial community structure and taxa composition, increase the complexity of the soil microbial ecological network, and reduce the abundance of soil allelochemicals. Our study demonstrated the continuity of the impact of crop rotation on soil ecology, and revealed the ecological advantages of crop diversification from the perspective of soil microbiology and metabolomics.

Keywords: crop rotation; legacy effect; soil; microbial community; metabolomics (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: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/12/1307/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/12/1307/ (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:15:y:2025:i:12:p:1307-:d:1681689

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 ().