Maize-soybean intercropping improved maize growth traits by increasing soil nutrients and reducing plant pathogen abundance.

Introduction: Maize ( L.)-soybean ( L.) intercropping has been widely utilized in agricultural production due to its effectiveness in improving crop yield and nutrient use efficiency. However, the responses of maize rhizosphere microbial communities and the plant pathogen relative abundance to maize growth traits in maize-soybean intercropping systems with different chemical nitrogen fertilizer application rates remain unclear.

Methods: In this study, a field experiment was conducted, and the bacterial and fungal communities of maize rhizosphere soils in maize-soybean intercropping systems treated with different N fertilization rates were investigated using Illumina NovaSeq sequencing. Maize growth traits, soil physicochemical properties and soil enzyme activities were also examined.

Results And Discussion: We found that intercropping and N fertilizer treatments strongly influenced soil microbial diversity, structure and function. The PLSPM (partial least squares path modeling) confirmed that soil nutrients directly positively affected maize biomass and that intercropping practices indirectly positively affected maize biomass via soil nutrients, especially NH-N. Intercropping agronomic approaches also improved maize growth traits by reducing the plant pathogen abundance, and the relative abundance of the plant pathogen significantly decreased with intercropping treatments compared to monocropping treatments. These results confirmed the benefits of maize-soybean intercropping treatments for agricultural production.