Description
Phosphorus is a non-renewable source of fertilization, which will challenge the future of food production and cropland sustainability worldwide. Crop diversity is known to promote food production, yet its capacity to alleviate the dependence of multiple ecosystem services on non-renewable fertilization remains virtually unknown. Here, we conducted a field experiment to quantify the contribution of maize-alfalfa intercropping to support multiple ecosystem services under contrasting levels of phosphorus fertilization. We showed that unfertilized intercropping systems can support larger levels of multiple ecosystem services such as soil microbial habitat, plant-soil mutualism, nutrient cycling, and soil carbon storage compared with phosphorus-fertilized single crops. Intercropping also helped to reduce important tradeoffs in productivity and soil biodiversity compared with fertilized single crops. Together, our results provide evidence that intercropping systems are efficient in maintaining multiple ecosystem services and can help alleviate our global dependence on non-renewable fertilization.
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Maize-Alfalfa Intercropping Promote Ecosystem Services Than Fertilized Single Crops
Phosphorus is a non-renewable source of fertilization, which will challenge the future of food production and cropland sustainability worldwide. Crop diversity is known to promote food production, yet its capacity to alleviate the dependence of multiple ecosystem services on non-renewable fertilization remains virtually unknown. Here, we conducted a field experiment to quantify the contribution of maize-alfalfa intercropping to support multiple ecosystem services under contrasting levels of phosphorus fertilization. We showed that unfertilized intercropping systems can support larger levels of multiple ecosystem services such as soil microbial habitat, plant-soil mutualism, nutrient cycling, and soil carbon storage compared with phosphorus-fertilized single crops. Intercropping also helped to reduce important tradeoffs in productivity and soil biodiversity compared with fertilized single crops. Together, our results provide evidence that intercropping systems are efficient in maintaining multiple ecosystem services and can help alleviate our global dependence on non-renewable fertilization.
