Fu Zhidan, Chen Ping, Lin Ping, Li Yiling, Luo Kai, Gao Chao, Pu Tian, Li Yuze, Wu Yushan, Wang Xiaochun, Yong Taiwen, Yang Wenyu
College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University/ Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Crop Strip Intercropping System/ Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in Southwest China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Chengdu, 611130, China.
School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, China.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Sep;392:126707. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126707. Epub 2025 Jul 26.
Intercropping can improve nutrient utilization, but the mechanisms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use, and carbon footprint in rain-fed cereal-legume intercropping remain unclear. Hence, a two-year field trial was conducted to evaluate cropping systems' productivity, carbon footprint, energy inputs, and outputs. The cropping systems include monocropping maize (M) and soybean (S), maize-soybean relay strip intercropping (IMS), and maize-soybean alternate row relay intercropping (CMS). Results showed that the grain yield of the IMS system (9.1 t ha) was three times that of S and resulted from a complementary effect rather than a selection effect. Although the differences in yield between IMS, CMS, and M were insignificant, the land equivalent ratio (LER) of IMS and CMS was higher than one, mainly due to the partial LER of maize. Besides, the economic benefit of IMS was 41.2 % higher than CMS, 48.1 % higher than M, and 119.2 % higher than S, respectively. In IMS, the complementary effect mainly results from the advantages of decreasing direct CO equivalent emissions and indicating CO equivalent emissions, consequently obtaining a lower yield and economic benefit scaled greenhouse gas emissions intensity (GHGI). Furthermore, the net energy output, yield-scaled carbon footprints, yield economic benefit-scaled carbon footprints, and energy output-scaled carbon footprints were 31.4 %, 3.3 %, 25.5 %, and 30.3 % notably lower in IMS than in M, respectively. The complementary effect boosted the advantages in energy productivity, specific energy, energy profitability, and carbon footprint of IMS, but the net energy outputs and energy use efficiency were insignificant between IMS and CMS. The results indicate that the maize-soybean relay strip intercropping provides ways to achieve cleaner production in rain-fed areas.
间作可以提高养分利用效率，但雨养谷物-豆类间作中温室气体（GHG）排放、能源利用和碳足迹的机制仍不明确。因此，进行了为期两年的田间试验，以评估种植系统的生产力、碳足迹、能源投入和产出。种植系统包括单作玉米（M）和大豆（S）、玉米-大豆套种条带间作（IMS）以及玉米-大豆隔行套种（CMS）。结果表明，IMS系统的谷物产量（9.1吨/公顷）是S的三倍，这是由互补效应而非选择效应导致的。虽然IMS、CMS和M之间的产量差异不显著，但IMS和CMS的土地当量比（LER）高于1，主要是由于玉米的部分LER。此外，IMS的经济效益分别比CMS高41.2%、比M高48.1%、比S高119.2%。在IMS中，互补效应主要源于降低直接CO2当量排放和指示性CO2当量排放的优势，从而获得较低的产量和经济效益规模的温室气体排放强度（GHGI）。此外，IMS的净能量产出、产量规模碳足迹、产量经济效益规模碳足迹和能量产出规模碳足迹分别比M显著低31.4%、3.3%、25.5%和30.3%。互补效应提升了IMS在能源生产力、比能、能源盈利能力和碳足迹方面的优势，但IMS和CMS之间的净能量产出和能源利用效率差异不显著。结果表明，玉米-大豆套种条带间作为雨养地区实现清洁生产提供了途径。
