Impact of fruit-tree shade intensity on the growth, yield, and quality of intercropped wheat.

Agroforestry is a common traditional practice in China-especially in the southern Xinjiang of Northwest China. However, the productivity of many agroforestry systems has been lower than expected in recent years, highlighting the need for an actionably deep mechanistic understanding of the competition between crops and trees. Here, three different fruit tree/wheat (jujube/wheat, apricot /wheat, and walnut /wheat) intercropping agroforestry systems were chosen to investigate influence of different fruit tree shade intensity on the growth, yield and quality of intercropping wheat.

Enhancement of faba bean competitive ability by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is highly correlated with dynamic nutrient acquisition by competing wheat.

The mechanistic understanding of the dynamic processes linking nutrient acquisition and biomass production of competing individuals can be instructive in optimizing intercropping systems. Here, we examine the effect of inoculation with Funneliformis mosseae on competitive dynamics between wheat and faba bean. Wheat is less responsive to mycorrhizal inoculation.