Agronomy for Sustainable Development最新文献

{"title":"Assessing production gaps at the tree scale: definition and application to mango (Mangifera indica L.) in West Africa","authors":"Julien Sarron,&nbsp;Emile Faye,&nbsp;Thibault Nordey,&nbsp;Jeanne Diatta,&nbsp;Frédéric Normand,&nbsp;Damien Beillouin,&nbsp;Eric Malézieux","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00920-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00920-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Fruit tree productivity is generally low and highly variable in the tropics. Quantifying yield gaps and their determining factors provides levers to increase production, but yield gap of fruit trees remains poorly explored at the tree scale. In order to bridge this knowledge gap, we adapted the concept of yield gap to define the production gap at the tree scale to integrate tree endogenous factors (cultivar, age, and crown dimensions). The production gap (<i>P</i>_g) was defined as the difference between potential tree production (<i>P</i>_p) and actual tree production (<i>P</i>_a). The concept was implemented for mango trees in West Africa. We estimated these production indicators on 280 mango trees for two years, covering a wide range of fruit load, age, cultivars, and cropping systems (extensive, diversified, and intensive) found in Senegal. Actual production was estimated yearly using ground tree image analysis. Attainable production (<i>P</i>_att, a locally constrained approximation of <i>P</i>_p) was estimated based on tree endogenous and climatic factors using stochastic frontier analysis. Our results showed that attainable production increased with tree crown area and trunk diameter, whereas the effects of tree density, temperature, and solar radiation were cultivar-dependent. On average, the actual production reached 63% of the attainable production. The production gap was higher in extensive orchards (<i>P</i>_g = 58% of <i>P</i>_att) compared to diversified (<i>P</i>_g = 29% of <i>P</i>_att) and intensive (<i>P</i>_g = 32% of <i>P</i>_att) orchards. Based on production gap estimation, we identified the drivers of mango production variation among cultivars and cropping systems in West Africa. This study demonstrates the usefulness of adapting yield gap methodology to the tree scale to analyze production gaps in diverse fruit tree-based cropping systems. Measurement of production gaps allows the integration of tree features and their variability to upscale and improve the estimation of yield gaps at the orchard scale.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50008821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Legume-based rotation enhances subsequent wheat yield and maintains soil carbon storage","authors":"Chunyan Liu,&nbsp;Ximei Feng,&nbsp;Yi Xu,&nbsp;Amit Kumar,&nbsp;Zhengjun Yan,&nbsp;Jie Zhou,&nbsp;Yadong Yang,&nbsp;Leanne Peixoto,&nbsp;Zhaohai Zeng,&nbsp;Huadong Zang","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00918-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00918-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Legume inclusion into cropping systems has been proposed to maintain high crop yields while offering multiple environmental benefits. However, the effect of legumes as pre-crop on subsequent wheat yield and soil has not been well explored. Thus, a 7-year field experiment was used to determine the interactive effects of mineral fertilization and legumes (peanut, mung bean, soybean, adzuki bean) inclusion on wheat productivity and soil quality. Our results showed that legume inclusion led to a higher wheat yield advantage (52% on average) than maize–wheat rotation under no fertilization but the advantage decreased to 26% with fertilization. All legume–wheat rotation systems supported stable wheat production, where a stronger effect was observed after peanut than after maize. Meanwhile, the wheat yield under legume–wheat systems was more resistant (i.e., less variability in the yield after ceasing fertilization) and more resilient (i.e., recovering more quickly after fertilizer re-application) relative to maize-wheat. Furthermore, soil ecosystem multifunctionality increased by 0.8 times in the topsoil while maintaining soil organic carbon stocks, even with low C and N inputs under legume–wheat. Interestingly, we also observed a positive correlation between wheat yield and soil ecosystem multifunctionality. In conclusion, legume inclusion as a sustainable practice can optimize crop yields by enhancing soil multifunctionality while maintaining soil organic carbon stocks, particularly for integration into low-yielding agroecosystems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-023-00918-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50008819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil health metrics reflect yields in long-term cropping system experiments","authors":"Catriona M. Willoughby,&nbsp;Cairistiona F. E. Topp,&nbsp;Paul D. Hallett,&nbsp;Elizabeth A. Stockdale,&nbsp;Robin L. Walker,&nbsp;Alex J. Hilton,&nbsp;Christine A. Watson","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00919-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00919-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Soil health metrics with strong links to ecological function and agricultural productivity are needed to ensure that future management of agricultural systems meets sustainability goals. While ecological metrics and crop yields are often considered separately from one another, our work sought to assess the links between the two in an agricultural context where productivity is a key consideration. Here, we investigated the value of soil health tests in terms of their relevance to agricultural management practices and crop yields at contrasting long term cropping systems experiments. One site was on a sandy loam Leptic Podzol and the other on a sandy clay loam Endostagnic Luvisol. Furthermore, the experiments had different management systems. One contained legume-supported rotations with different grass-clover ley durations and organic amendment usage, while the other compared a range of nutrient input options through fertiliser and organic amendments on the same rotation without ley periods. Metrics included field tests (earthworm counts and visual evaluation of soil structure scores) with laboratory analysis of soil structure, chemistry and biology. This analysis included bulk density, macroporosity, pH, available phosphorus, exchangeable potassium, soil organic matter and potentially mineralizable nitrogen. Using a novel combination of long-term experiments, management systems and distinctive soil types, we demonstrated that as well as providing nutrients, agricultural management which resulted in better soil organic matter, pH, potassium and bulk density was correlated with higher crop yields. The importance of ley duration and potentially mineralizable nitrogen to yield in legume-supported systems showed the impact of agricultural management on soil biology. In systems with applications of synthetic fertiliser, earthworm counts and visual evaluation of soil structure scores were correlated with higher yields. We concluded that agricultural management altered yields not just through direct supply of nutrients to crops, but also through the changes in soil health measured by simple metrics.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-023-00919-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50008818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modeling soil-plant functioning of intercrops using comprehensive and generic formalisms implemented in the STICS model","authors":"Rémi Vezy,&nbsp;Sebastian Munz,&nbsp;Noémie Gaudio,&nbsp;Marie Launay,&nbsp;Patrice Lecharpentier,&nbsp;Dominique Ripoche,&nbsp;Eric Justes","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00917-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00917-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The growing demand for sustainable agriculture is raising interest in intercropping for its multiple potential benefits to avoid or limit the use of chemical inputs or increase the production per surface unit. Predicting the existence and magnitude of those benefits remains a challenge given the numerous interactions between interspecific plant-plant relationships, their environment, and the agricultural practices. Soil-crop models are critical in understanding these interactions in dynamics during the whole growing season, but few models are capable of accurately simulating intercropping systems. In this study, we propose a set of simple and generic formalisms (i.e. the structure and mathematical representation necessary for designing a model) for simulating key interactions in bi-specific intercropping systems that can be readily included into existing dynamic crop models. This requires simulating important processes such as development, light interception, plant growth, N and water balance, and yield formation in response to management practices, soil conditions, and climate. These formalisms were integrated into the STICS soil-crop model and evaluated using observed data of intercropping systems of cereal and legumes mixtures, including Faba bean-Wheat, Pea-Barley, Soybean-Sunflower, and Wheat-Pea mixtures. We demonstrate that the proposed formalisms provide a comprehensive simulation of soil-plant interactions in various types of bispecific intercrops. The model was found consistent and generic under a range of spring and winter intercrops (nRMSE = 25% for maximum leaf area index, 23% for shoot biomass at harvest, and 18% for grain yield). This is the first time a complete set of formalisms has been developed and published for simulating bi-specific intercropping systems and integrated into a soil-crop model. With its emphasis on being generic, sufficiently accurate, simple, and easy to parameterize, STICS is well-suited to help researchers designing in silico the agroecological transition by virtually pre-screening sustainable, manageable intercrop systems adapted to local conditions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50509830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A new Rothamsted long-term field experiment for the twenty-first century: principles and practice","authors":"Xiaoxi Li,&nbsp;Jonathan Storkey,&nbsp;Andrew Mead,&nbsp;Ian Shield,&nbsp;Ian Clark,&nbsp;Richard Ostler,&nbsp;Beth Roberts,&nbsp;Achim Dobermann","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00914-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00914-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Agriculture faces potentially competing societal demands to produce food, fiber and fuel while reducing negative environmental impacts and delivering regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem services. This necessitates a new generation of long-term agricultural field experiments designed to study the behavior of contrasting cropping systems in terms of multiple outcomes. We document the principles and practices of a new long-term experiment of this type at Rothamsted, established at two contrasting sites in 2017 and 2018, and report initial yield data at the crop and system level. The objective of the Large-Scale Rotation Experiment was to establish gradients of system properties and outcomes to improve our fundamental understanding of UK cropping systems. It is composed of four management factors—phased rotations, cultivation (conventional vs reduced tillage), nutrition (additional organic amendment vs standard mineral fertilization) and crop protection (conventional vs smart crop protection). These factors were combined in a balanced design resulting in 24 emergent cropping systems at each site and can be analyzed at the level of the system or component management factors. We observed interactions between management factors and with the environment on crop yields, justifying the systems level, multi-site approach. Reduced tillage resulted in lower wheat yields but the effect varied with rotation, previous-crop and site. Organic amendments significantly increased spring barley yield by 8% on average though the effect again varied with site. The plowed cropping systems tended to produce higher caloric yield overall than systems under reduced tillage. Additional response variables are being monitored to study synergies and trade-offs with outcomes other than yield at the cropping system level. The experiment has been established as a long-term resource for inter-disciplinary research. By documenting the design process, we aim to facilitate the adoption of similar approaches to system-scale agricultural experimentation to inform the transition to more sustainable cropping systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-023-00914-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10112177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adapting agriculture to climate change: which pathways behind policy initiatives?","authors":"Raphael Belmin,&nbsp;Maeva Paulin,&nbsp;Eric Malézieux","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00910-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00910-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate change is increasingly affecting agriculture worldwide, causing yield losses and undermining food security. Behind the international consensus on the urgent need for ambitious policies to adapt agriculture to climate change (AACC) hides a competition between three agricultural models—agroecology, climate-smart agriculture, and conventional agriculture—each carrying distinctive perspective on how agriculture should adapt to climate change. To date, no study has shown which of these three agricultural models is promoted the most by climate change adaptation policies. To shed light on this question, we undertook semi-structured surveys with resource persons, a literature review and a multi-criteria analysis, identifying and characterizing 226 AACC policy initiatives in seven countries or regions in the north (Andalusia, Occitanie, California, Guadeloupe) and the south (Colombia, South Africa, Senegal). Our aim was to identify (1) concrete strategic options mobilized by policy initiatives to adapt agriculture to climate change and (2) agricultural models that are implicitly or explicitly promoted by these policy initiatives. We identified 14 climate change adaptation options that mobilize a set of three complementary levers of action: (i) transforming production systems or enabling access to productive resources, (ii) providing access to knowledge that is useful for AACC, and (iii) coordinating and financing adaptation actions at territorial or sector scale. Agroecology and climate-smart agriculture are the two agricultural models favored in the mix of policy initiatives in all the studied sites. Despite conceptual differences, in real-life situations, these models do not conflict with each other since they are often promoted concomitantly. AACC policy initiatives, although diversified, seem too fragmented and not sufficiently restrictive to bring about rapid and profound change. This paper presents a new classification of AACC adaptation options, and is the first to reveal which agricultural models are promoted by policy initiatives in a wide range of regions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50509345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil organic carbon stock change following perennialization: a meta-analysis","authors":"Imran Ahammad Siddique,&nbsp;Diego Grados,&nbsp;Ji Chen,&nbsp;Poul Erik Lærke,&nbsp;Uffe Jørgensen","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00912-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00912-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Perennial crops replacing annual crops are drawing global attention because they harbor potential for sustainable biomass production and climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration. At present, it remains unclear how long perennial crops can sequester carbon in the soil and how soil carbon stock dynamics are influenced by climate, soil, and plant properties across the globe. This study presents a meta-analysis synthesizing 51 publications (351 observations at 77 sites) distributed over different pedo-climatic conditions to scrutinize the effect of perennialization on organic carbon accumulation in soil compared with two annual benchmark systems (i.e., monoculture and crop rotation). Results showed that perennial crops significantly increased soil organic carbon stock by 16.6% and 23.1% at 0–30 cm depth compared with monoculture and crop rotation, respectively. Shortly after establishment (&lt; 5 years), perennial crops revealed a negative impact on soil organic carbon stock; however, long duration (&gt; 10 years) of perennialization had a significant positive effect on soil organic carbon stock by 30% and 36.4% at 0–30 cm depth compared with monoculture and crop rotation, respectively. Compared with both annual systems, perennial crops significantly increased soil organic carbon stock regardless of their functional photosynthetic types (C₃, C₄, or C₃-C₄ intermediates) and vegetation type (woody or herbaceous). Among other factors, pH had a significant impact on soil organic carbon; however, the effect of soil textures showed no significant impact, possibly due to a lack of observations from each textural class and mixed pedoclimatic effects. Results also showed that time effect of perennialization revealed a sigmoidal increase of soil organic carbon stock until about 20 years; thereafter, the soil carbon stocks advanced towards a steady-state level. In conclusion, perennial crops increased soil organic carbon stock compared with annual systems; however, the time since conversion from annual to perennial system decisively impacted soil organic carbon stock changes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-023-00912-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50101955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Increasing wheat proteins sustainably by rotation with forage legumes","authors":"Robert James Harrison,&nbsp;John G Howieson,&nbsp;Tom J Edwards,&nbsp;Emma J Steel,&nbsp;Chris M Poole,&nbsp;Ronald J Yates","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00913-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00913-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h2>Abstract </h2><div><p>Wheat proteins provide around 20% of all human dietary protein, but their end-use qualities are determined by the form and quantity of nitrogen in the endosperm. In the developed world, there is a heavy reliance in grain production on nitrogen supplied from synthetic fertilisers, and this fertiliser can contribute up to 50% of the on-farm emissions of greenhouse gasses in agriculture. However, despite increasing rates of application of synthetic nitrogen to cereals, wheat grain protein levels, in developed nations, have been frequently failing to reach the premium grade required by the bread-making market. Here, for the first time, we report that biological nitrogen fixation from a new generation of hardseeded annual forage legumes, when grown in rotation with cereal crops, can replace fertiliser N without compromising grain protein. The forage legumes were grown in rotation with <i>Triticum aestivum</i>, and compared with rotations that included a fallow, or a cereal crop at three rainfed sites in Western Australia with differing soil types for 2–4 years. The wheat received low, medium and high rates of urea to indicate if forage legumes can provide sufficient nitrogen for sustainable wheat production. At all sites and years studied, we discovered that cereal grains produced following a year of forage legumes had significantly higher protein levels than when grown as part of a continuous cereal rotation. These results were achieved in combination with a reduction in on-farm emissions (by over 200 kg/ha of CO₂) without compromising yield as indicated by emissions accounting. Including appropriate forage legumes in farming systems allows production of low emission intensity grain proteins in dryland farming.</p></div></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50031632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How do work challenges interact with health management in dairy farms?","authors":"Vinciane Gotti,&nbsp;Claire Manoli,&nbsp;Benoît Dedieu","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00907-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00907-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Herd health management is a critical issue for the future of dairy systems. The right combination of preventive and curative practices will depend on management system, level of work productivity, and self-sufficiency objectives, and will entail specific skills and work organizations. However, the combination of work dimensions and animal health management has rarely been explored in the literature on a livestock farming system scale. The <i>Grand Ouest</i> region of France spans a diverse array of livestock farming systems that can serve to design herd health management indicators, farming objectives and work arrangements, and explore their linkages. Here we ran semi-structured interviews on 10 dairy farms, analyzed the farmers’ discourses, and built 7 variables and 25 modalities that, for the first time, cover three components, namely herd health, farming objectives and work arrangements, and we tested various associations between these variables. Our interview data confirms that consultants and veterinarians have a key role to play in building a pool of skills adapted to various types of health management system. Data suggests linkages between prevention measures, alternative or conventional curative interventions, and work-related parameters.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-023-00907-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50031633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhanced phosphorus-fertilizer-use efficiency and sustainable phosphorus management with intercropping","authors":"Ran An,&nbsp;Rui-Peng Yu,&nbsp;Yi Xing,&nbsp;Jiu-Dong Zhang,&nbsp;Xing-Guo Bao,&nbsp;Hans Lambers,&nbsp;Long Li","doi":"10.1007/s13593-023-00916-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13593-023-00916-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Establishing desirable cropping systems with higher fertilizer-use efficiency and lower risk of environmental pollution is a promising approach for more sustainable agriculture development. Intercropping may facilitate phosphorus (P) uptake and reduce P-fertilizer application rates. However, how root-root interactions mediate enhanced P-fertilizer-use efficiency in intercropping under field conditions remains poorly understood. Using a long-term field experiment established in 2009, where there have been three P-fertilizer application rates (0, 40, and 80 kg P ha⁻¹) and nine cropping systems (four intercropping combinations and corresponding monocultures), we calculated aboveground biomass, grain yield, aboveground P content, P-use efficiency indicators, e.g., the apparent recovery efficiency of applied P, and diversity effects. We also investigated the P-related physiological and morphological traits of crop species and linked root traits with agronomic indicators. We found that 12 years of intercropping significantly increased productivity, shoot P content, agronomic efficiency of applied P, and the apparent recovery efficiency of applied P in all combinations compared with the weighted means of corresponding monocultures; intercropping with 40 kg P ha⁻¹ application showed relatively high productivity, P content and P-use efficiency. The P-uptake advantage in intercropping was mainly related to the positive complementarity effect. The companion crop species (i.e. faba bean, oilseed rape, chickpea, and soybean) exhibited greater P-mobilizing capacity than sole maize. Intercropped maize exhibited greater root physiological, e.g., rhizosheath phosphatase activity and carboxylates (proxied by leaf manganese concentration), and morphological traits (e.g., specific root length) than sole maize, partly related to facilitation by efficient P-mobilizing neighbors. The greater P-use efficiency was mainly contributed by morphological traits of maize rather than traits of companion crop species. We highlight that the enhanced P-use efficiency in intercropping systems is partly mediated by belowground facilitation, and desirable intercropping systems have the potential to save P-fertilizer input and improve the sustainability of P management in agroecosystems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"43 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13593-023-00916-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50486192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}