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Greenhouse gas emissions from soil under maize–soybean intercrop in the North China Plain

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Abstract

Intercrop systems can exhibit unique soil properties compared to monocultures, which influences the microbially-mediated processes leading to greenhouse gas emissions. Fertilized intercrops and monocultures produce different amounts of N2O, CO2 and CH4 depending on their nutrient and water use efficiencies. The objective of this study was to compare the fluxes and seasonal emissions of N2O, CO2, and CH4 from a maize–soybean intercrop compared to maize and soybean monocultures, in relation to crop effects on soil properties. The experiment was conducted during 2012, 2013 and 2014 at the WuQiao Experimental Station in the North China Plain. All cropping systems received urea-N fertilizer (240 kg N ha−1 applied in two split applications). The cropping systems were a net source of CO2 and a net sink of CH4, with significantly (P < 0.05 in 2012) and numerically (2013 and 2014) lower N2O flux and smaller seasonal N2O emissions from the maize–soybean intercrop than the maize monoculture. The proportion of urea-N lost as N2O was lower in the maize–soybean intercrop (1.6% during the 3-year study) and soybean monoculture (1.7%), compared to maize monoculture (2.3%). Soybean reduced the soil NO3−–N concentration and created a cooler, drier environment that was less favorable for denitrification, although we cannot rule out the possibility of N2O reduction to N2 and other N compounds by soybean and its associated N2-fixing prokaryotes. We conclude that maize–soybean intercrop has potential to reduce N2O emissions in fertilized agroecosystems and should be considered in developing climate-smart cropping systems in the North China Plain.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0300210 and 2016YFD0300203). YS acknowledges financial support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, No.2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193, China

    Yawen Shen, Peng Sui, Dong Wang & Yuanquan Chen

  2. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada

    Yawen Shen & Joann K. Whalen

  3. Research Center for Utilization of Under-forest Resources, Rubber Research Institute of China Tropical Agriculture Science Institute, Danzhou, 571737, Hainan, China

    Jianxiong Huang

Authors
  1. Yawen Shen
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  2. Peng Sui
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  3. Jianxiong Huang
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  4. Dong Wang
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  5. Joann K. Whalen
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  6. Yuanquan Chen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Joann K. Whalen or Yuanquan Chen.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

A1

Seasonal variation in soil water content from maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop from 2012 to 2014 (EPS 16565 kb)

A2

Seasonal variation in soil NO3−–N concentration from maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop from 2012 to 2014 (EPS 16096 kb)

A3

Seasonal variation in soil temperature from maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop from 2012 to 2014 (EPS 16576 kb)

A4

Seasonal variation in soil dissolved organic carbon concentration from maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop from 2012 to 2014 (EPS 14748 kb)

A5

Seasonal variation in soil pH from maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop from 2012 to 2014 (EPS 14715 kb)

A6

Seasonal variation in soil NH4+–N concentration from maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop from 2012 to 2014 (EPS 16163 kb)

A7

Soil properties in plots cultivated with maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop, averaged across three growing seasons (2012) at the Wu Qiao Experimental Station, Cangzhou, China. Data are box and whisker plots, where boxes represent data between the 25th and 75th percentiles and show the median (solid line) and mean (dotted line) values for each soil parameter. The whiskers are error bars representing values falling in the 10th and 90th percentiles of the distribution (EPS 8274 kb)

A8

Soil properties in plots cultivated with maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop, averaged across three growing seasons (2013) at the Wu Qiao Experimental Station, Cangzhou, China. Data are box and whisker plots, where boxes represent data between the 25th and 75th percentiles and show the median (solid line) and mean (dotted line) values for each soil parameter. The whiskers are error bars representing values falling in the 10th and 90th percentiles of the distribution (EPS 8877 kb)

A9

Soil properties in plots cultivated with maize, soybean and maize–soybean intercrop, averaged across three growing seasons (2014) at the Wu Qiao Experimental Station, Cangzhou, China. Data are box and whisker plots, where boxes represent data between the 25th and 75th percentiles and show the median (solid line) and mean (dotted line) values for each soil parameter. The whiskers are error bars representing values falling in the 10th and 90th percentiles of the distribution (EPS 8877 kb)

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Shen, Y., Sui, P., Huang, J. et al. Greenhouse gas emissions from soil under maize–soybean intercrop in the North China Plain. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 110, 451–465 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-018-9908-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-018-9908-8

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