Peach- Morchella intercropping mode affects soil properties and fungal composition

Haiyan Song; Dong Chen; Shuxia Sun; Jing Li; Meiyan Tu; Zihong Xu; Ronggao Gong; Guoliang Jiang

doi:10.7717/peerj.11705

Peach- Morchella intercropping mode affects soil properties and fungal composition

PeerJ. 2021 Jul 12:9:e11705. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11705. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Haiyan Song^{1

2}, Dong Chen¹, Shuxia Sun¹, Jing Li¹, Meiyan Tu¹, Zihong Xu¹, Ronggao Gong², Guoliang Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ Horticulture Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences & Key Laboratory of Horticultural Crop Biology and Germplasm Creation in Southwestern China of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Chengdu, China.
² College of Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to explore a three-dimensional planting mode in orchards and provide theoretical basis for the efficient peach-Morchella planting and soil management after Morchella cultivation.

Methods: Next-generation sequencing was performed to investigate the variations in soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities and fungal composition under peach-Morchella intercropping for one year and two years, by using the soil without peach-Morchella intercropping as the control group.

Results: Peach-Morchella intercropping decreased the soil bulk density, and significantly increased the maximum field capacity, non-capillary porosity and total porosity, organic matter, available potassium and available zinc, which together improved soil structure and soil fertility. Besides, the intercropping mode obviously enhanced soil enzyme activities and mineral absorption and transformation in peach orchard soils. The intercropping also resulted in a decline of soil fungal diversity, and the 2-year soil samples were of higher abundance of Zygomycota. More importantly, peach-Morchella intercropping elevated the yields of both peach and Morchella, bringing about obviously higher economic benefits.

Conclusion: Continuous peach-Morchella intercropping improves the soil structure and fertility while decreases soil fungal diversity, which can contribute to greater economic benefits of the peach orchard. Our findings shed new light on the intercropping-fungus-soil relationship, and may facilitate the further development of peach-Morchella intercropping.

Keywords: Enzyme activity; Fungual diversity; Intercropping; Morchella; Peach orchard; Soil physicochemical property.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by National Peach Industry Technical System (CARS-31-Z-12), Tackling Key Problems of Crop and Livestock Breeding in Sichuan Province During the 13th Five-year Plan (2016NYZ0034), Innovation Capability Upgrading Project of Sichuan’s Financial Department (2016ZYPZ-019), Sichuan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Research Team (20CXTD0041), Key Research and Development Support Plan in Chengdu (2020-YF09-00065-SN). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.