Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Intercropped Systems Between Melon and Cowpea

There is a need to assess alternative cropping systems for climate change mitigation. Hence, we aimed to evaluate if cowpea, a legume crop with high climate adaptability and active rhizodeposition, can reduce GHG emissions when intercropped with melon, if different intercropping patterns can affect these soil GHG emissions, and elucidate if GHG emissions are related by soil and crop properties. We compared a cowpea and melon monocultures with different melon-cowpea intercropping patterns during two crop cycles. The different melon-cowpea intercropping patterns were: row intercropping 1:1 (melon:cowpea), row intercropping 2:1 (melon:cowpea) and mixed intercropping (alternate melon/cowpea plants within the same row), receiving 30% less fertilizers than monocrops. Results showed that CO2 emission rates were higher in the row 2:1 and row 1:1 intercropping systems compared to mixed intercropping, melon monocrop and cowpea monocrop, with the lowest emissions, likely due to the highest density of both plant species, which may stimulate microbial communities. Soil N2O emission rates were not affected by crop diversification, with very low values. Soil CO2 and N2O emissions were not correlated with environmental factors, soil properties or crop yield and quality, suggesting that crop management and plant density and growth were the main factors controlling GHG emissions. When the GHG emissions were expressed on a crop production basis, the lowest values were observed in mixed intercropping, owing to higher crop production. However, the 1:1 and 2:1 cowpea intercropping systems, with the lowest overall crop production, showed higher values of GHG emissions per unit of product, compared to cowpea monocrop. Thus, intercropping systems, and mostly mixed intercropping, have the potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture by increasing land productivity, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and decreasing GHG emissions per unit of product. These results highlight the importance of considering both agricultural productivity and greenhouse gas emissions when designing and implementing intercropping systems.