Rice Under Dry Cultivation-Maize Intercropping Improves Soil Environment and Increases Total Yield by Regulating Belowground Root Growth

Under the one-season-a-year cropping pattern in Northeast China, continuous cropping is one of the main factors contributing to the degradation of black soil. Previous studies (on maize-soybean, maize-peanut, and maize-wheat intercropping) have shown that intercropping can alleviate this problem. However, it is not known whether intercropping is feasible for maize and rice under dry cultivation, and its effects on yield and soil fertility are unknown. A three-year field-orientation experiment was conducted at Jilin Agricultural University in Changchun city, Jilin Province, China, consisting of three cropping regimes, namely rice under dry cultivation-maize intercropping (IRM), sole rice under dry cultivation (SR), and sole maize (SM). All straw was fully returned to the field after mechanical harvesting. Rice under dry cultivation-maize intercropping with a land-equivalent ratio of 1.05 (the average of three years values) increased the total yield by 8.63% compared to the monoculture system. The aggressivity (A), relative crowding coefficient (K), time-area-equivalent ratio (ATER), and competition ratio (CR) value were positive or >= 1, also indicating that the rice under dry cultivation-maize intercropping had a yield advantage of the overall intercropping system. This is because the intercropped maize root length density (RLD) increased by 33.94-102.84% in the 0-40 cm soil layer, which contributed to an increase in the soil porosity (SP) of 5.58-10.10% in the 0-30 cm soil layer, an increase in the mean weight diameter of soil aggregates (MWD) of 3.00-15.69%, an increase in the geometric mean diameter of soil aggregates (GMD) of 8.16-26.42%, a decrease in the soil bulk density (SBD) of 4.02-7.35%, and an increase in the soil organic matter content (SOM) of 0.60-4.35%. This increased the water permeability and aeration of the soil and facilitated the absorption of nutrients and water by the root system and their transportation above ground, and the plant nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium accumulation in the intercropping system were significantly higher than that in monoculture treatment, further promoting the total yield of intercropping. This suggests that rice under a dry cultivation-maize intercropping system is feasible in Northeast China, mainly because it promotes belowground root growth, improves the soil environment, and increases the total yield of intercropping.