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Plant-soil feedback contributes to intercropping overyielding by reducing the negative effect of take-all on wheat and compensating the growth of faba bean

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Abstract

Background and aims

Overyielding in intercropping compared to monoculture has been widely reported. One of the mechanisms may be the alteration of the microbial community in intercropping and especially the amelioration of the negative effects of pathogens that can accumulate in monocultures. Here we test whether inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and wheat take-all disease influences overyielding and whether changes in the microbial communities generate feedbacks on plant growth.

Methods

In Experiment 1, wheat and faba bean were grown in monoculture or intercropping to form three planting patterns. Plants were inoculated with or without wheat take-all disease (Gaeumannomyces graminis), and one, six, or no AM fungi, to create 6 soil conditioned treatments. Soils from Experiment 1 were used as inocula in Experiment 2 to test the feedback on plant growth from monocultures and the legacy benefits of intercropping.

Results

No significant influence of AMF on plant growth was observed in either experiment. In Experiment 1, AMF had no significant effect in suppressing take-all but take-all tended to decrease AMF colonization. Shoot biomass and competitive ability of wheat was suppressed by take-all in both experiments. Wheat and faba bean showed overyielding in both the take-all and non-take-all treatment in Experiment 1 but only overyielding in the take-all treatment in Experiment 2. Growth of wheat and faba bean were suppressed in conspecific soil, and this negative feedback was observed across all take-all and AMF treatments, and regardless of competition. Biomass of wheat and faba bean was higher in soil from intercropping than in monoculture soil, and this positive legacy benefit of intercropping did not depend on take-all, AMF or plant competition.

Conclusions

We find support for alterations of the soil community causing negative plant soil feedback and positive legacy benefits of intercropping. Our results are consistent with microbial dynamics generating overyielding in intercropping by reducing the negative influence of soil pathogen build-up on conspecific host plants and simultaneously compensatively improving growth of neighbor plants.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Projects of the International Cooperation and Exchanges Program of NSFC (31210103906), the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (2015CB150405), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31272251, 31421092). Guangzhou Wang thanks the China Scholarship Council for a Visiting Scholarship. We thank Professor Youshan Wang (Institute of Plant Nutrition and Resources, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Research, Beijing, China) for providing us with the AMF inoculum and Professor Zhensheng Kang (College of Plant Protection, Northwest A & F University, Shaanxi, China) for the take-all.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Nutrition, Centre for Resources, Environment and Food Security, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, 2 Yuan-ming-yuan West Road, Beijing, 100193, China

    Guang Zhou Wang, Hai Gang Li, Peter Christie, Fu Suo Zhang & Jun Ling Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100193, China

    Guang Zhou Wang, Hai Gang Li, Peter Christie, Fu Suo Zhang & Jun Ling Zhang

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    James D. Bever

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  1. Guang Zhou Wang
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  2. Hai Gang Li
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  3. Peter Christie
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  4. Fu Suo Zhang
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Correspondence to Jun Ling Zhang or James D. Bever.

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Wang, G.Z., Li, H.G., Christie, P. et al. Plant-soil feedback contributes to intercropping overyielding by reducing the negative effect of take-all on wheat and compensating the growth of faba bean. Plant Soil 415, 1–12 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3139-z

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