Optimizing trade-offs between light transmittance and intraspecific competition under varying crop layouts in a maize–soybean strip relay cropping system

作者：Liang Feng, Kai Shi, Xin Liu, Huan Yang, Pu Tian, Yushan Wu, Taiwen Yong, Feng Yang, Xiaochun Wang, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Wenyu Yang · 发表于：The Crop Journal · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.cj.2024.10.010 · 被引用次数：18 · 研究领域：Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems、Crop Yield and Soil Fertility、Soil Management and Crop Yield

Light is one of the most important environmental factors for plant growth and development. In relay cropping systems, crop layouts influence light distribution, affecting light use efficiency (LUE). However, the response of light interception, light conversion, and LUE for relay maize and relay soybean to different crop layouts remains unclear. We aimed to quantify the effect of crop layout on intraspecific and interspecific competition, light interception, light conversion, LUE, and land productivity between relay maize and relay soybean. We conducted a field experiment for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020 in Sichuan province, China, comparing different crop layouts (bandwidth 2.0 m, row ratio 2:2; bandwidth 2.4 m, row ratio 2:3; bandwidth 2.8 m, row ratio 2:4), with sole maize and sole soybean as controls. The results showed that relay maize in the 2.0 m bandwidth layout had the largest leaf area index and plant biomass, the lowest intraspecific competitive intensity and the highest aggressiveness. Compared to a bandwidth of 2.0 m, a bandwidth of 2.8 m significantly decreased relay maize leaf area index by 11% and plant biomass by 24%, while a 2.4 m bandwidth caused roughly half these reductions. The 2.0 m bandwidth layout also significantly improved crop light interception and LUE compared to sole maize. The light interception, light interception rate, light conversion rate and LUE in relay maize all decreased significantly with increasing bandwidth, but they incre...