TY - JOUR

T1 - Yield advantage and carbon footprint of oat/sunflower relay strip intercropping depending on nitrogen fertilization

AU - Qian, Xin

AU - Zhou, Jie

AU - Luo, Bolun

AU - Dai, Hongcui

AU - Hu, Yuegao

AU - Ren, Changzhong

AU - Peixoto, Leanne

AU - Guo, Laichun

AU - Wang, Chunlong

AU - Zamanian, Kazem

AU - Zhao, Baoping

AU - Zang, Huadong

AU - Zeng, Zhaohai

N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful for the financial support from the earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-07-B-5), the Science and Technology Key Program of Inner Mongolia (2021SZD0017), and the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U21A20218). Contribution of Hongcui Dai was supported by the funding for Study Abroad Program by the Government of Shandong Province. We also thank Chen Wang, Qisheng Yang, and members of the Baicheng Academy of Agricultural Sciences for their field experiment assistance.

PY - 2022/12

Y1 - 2022/12

N2 - Purpose: Increasing crop yield to ensure global food security while decreasing carbon footprint (CF) is a challenge for sustainable agriculture. Although intercropping is suggested as a potential pathway in this regard, the balance between yield advantage and CF is unclear, especially under different nitrogen (N) application rates. Methods: A two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of oat/sunflower intercropping and N application rates (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg ha−1) on yield advantages, N uptake, and CF. Results: The overall land equivalent ratio of oat/sunflower intercropping decreased from 1.33 to 1.07 with increasing N fertilization, which implies the potential N reduction to maintain crop yield. Without fertilization, the yield advantage of intercropping was 28–32% and 18–47% higher for oat and sunflower, respectively compared with corresponding monocultures. However, this yield advantage decreased with increasing fertilization, especially for oat. The border rows contributed more than one-third of the yield for intercropped oat without N fertilization, but their contribution decreased with increasing N fertilization. However, the contribution of border rows to intercropped sunflower yield was independent of N fertilization and remained around 69–75%. Overall, oat/sunflower relay strip intercropping maximizes the productivity by border row effects due to reduced N fertilization demand. Furthermore, intercropping decreased the CF relative to monoculture, especially without N fertilization. Conclusion: Intercropping can act as a win–win strategy for sustainable agriculture in Northwest China with higher productivity and lower carbon footprint.

AB - Purpose: Increasing crop yield to ensure global food security while decreasing carbon footprint (CF) is a challenge for sustainable agriculture. Although intercropping is suggested as a potential pathway in this regard, the balance between yield advantage and CF is unclear, especially under different nitrogen (N) application rates. Methods: A two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of oat/sunflower intercropping and N application rates (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg ha−1) on yield advantages, N uptake, and CF. Results: The overall land equivalent ratio of oat/sunflower intercropping decreased from 1.33 to 1.07 with increasing N fertilization, which implies the potential N reduction to maintain crop yield. Without fertilization, the yield advantage of intercropping was 28–32% and 18–47% higher for oat and sunflower, respectively compared with corresponding monocultures. However, this yield advantage decreased with increasing fertilization, especially for oat. The border rows contributed more than one-third of the yield for intercropped oat without N fertilization, but their contribution decreased with increasing N fertilization. However, the contribution of border rows to intercropped sunflower yield was independent of N fertilization and remained around 69–75%. Overall, oat/sunflower relay strip intercropping maximizes the productivity by border row effects due to reduced N fertilization demand. Furthermore, intercropping decreased the CF relative to monoculture, especially without N fertilization. Conclusion: Intercropping can act as a win–win strategy for sustainable agriculture in Northwest China with higher productivity and lower carbon footprint.

KW - Border row effect

KW - Carbon footprint

KW - N fertilization

KW - Strip intercropping

KW - Yield

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136159859&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11104-022-05661-5

DO - 10.1007/s11104-022-05661-5

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85136159859

VL - 481

SP - 581

EP - 594

JO - Plant and soil

JF - Plant and soil

SN - 0032-079X

IS - 1-2

ER -