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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>Push–pull is an intercropping technology that is rapidly spreading among smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The technology intercrops cereals with <jats:italic>Desmodium</jats:italic> to fight off stem borers, eliminate parasitic weeds, and improve soil fertility and yields of cereals. The above-ground components of push–pull cropping have been well investigated. However, the impact of the technology on the soil microbiome and the subsequent role of the microbiome on diverse ecosystem benefits are unknown. Here we describe the soil microbiome associated with maize—<jats:italic>Desmodium</jats:italic> intercropping in push–pull farming in comparison to long-term maize monoculture.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>Soil samples were collected from long-term maize—<jats:italic>Desmodium</jats:italic> intercropping and maize monoculture plots at the international centre for insect physiology and ecology (ICIPE), Mbita, Kenya. Total DNA was extracted before16S rDNA and ITS sequencing and subsequent analysis on QIIME2 and R.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Maize—<jats:italic>Desmodium</jats:italic> intercropping caused a strong divergence in the fungal microbiome, which was more diverse and species rich than monoculture plots. Fungal groups enriched in intercropping plots are linked to important ecosystem services, belonging to functional groups such as mycorrhiza, endophytes, saprophytes, decomposers and bioprotective fungi. Fewer fungal genera were enriched in monoculture plots, some of which were associated with plant pathogenesis and opportunistic infection in humans. In contrast, the impact of intercropping on soil bacterial communities was weak with few differences between intercropping and monoculture.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title> <jats:p>Maize—<jats:italic>Desmodium</jats:italic> intercropping diversifies fungal microbiomes and favors taxa associated with important ecosystem services including plant health, productivity and food safety.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>Diversification practices such as intercropping in woody cropping systems have recently been proposed as a promising management strategy for addressing problems related to soil degradation, climate change mitigation and food security. In this study, we assess the impact of several diversification practices in different management regimes on the main carbon fluxes regulating the soil carbon balance under semiarid Mediterranean conditions.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>The study was conducted in two nearby cropping systems: (i) a low input rainfed almond (<jats:italic>Prunus dulcis</jats:italic> Mill.) orchard cultivated on terraces and (ii) a levelled intensively irrigated mandarin (<jats:italic>Citrus reticulata</jats:italic> Blanco) orchard with a street-ridge morphology. The almond trees were intercropped with <jats:italic>Capparis spinosa</jats:italic> or with <jats:italic>Thymus hyemalis</jats:italic> While the mandarin trees were intercropped with a mixture of barley and vetch followed by fava bean. Changes caused by crop diversifications on C inputs into the soil and C outputs from the soil were estimated.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Crop diversification did not affect soil organic carbon stocks but did affect the carbon inputs and outputs regulating the soil carbon balance of above Mediterranean agroecosystems. Crop diversification with perennials in the low-input rainfed woody crop system significantly improved the annual soil C balance in the short-term. However, crop diversification with annual species in the intensively managed woody crop system had not effect on the annual soil C balance.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Our results highlight the potential of intercropping with perennials in rainfed woody crop systems for climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Aims</jats:title> <jats:p>Cracks and biopores in compacted soil such as plough pans could aid deep rooting, mitigating constraints to seasonal upland use of paddy fields for rice production. This research investigated how soil macropores through a simulated plough pan affects root growth of contrasting deep and shallow rooting rice genotypes.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>Deep rooting Black Gora and shallow rooting IR64 rice varieties were grown in packed cores of unsaturated soil in a controlled greenhouse. Simulated biopores and cracks (macropores) were inserted through the plough pan to form treatments with no macropores, biopores, cracks, and combined cracks and biopores. Different root parameters such as root length density (RLD), root volume, root diameter, number of root tips and branches were measured. The number of roots was calculated manually, including the number of roots growing through macropores in the plough pan layer.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Plough pans with macropores had 25–32% more roots than with no macropores. RLD was 55% greater in the plough pan layer if cracks were present compared to biopores. Conversely, RLD was 26% less in subsoil if the plough pan had cracks compared to biopores. Different root parameters were greatly influenced by the presence of macropores in the plough pan, and deep-rooted Black Gora produced 81% greater RLD, 30% more root numbers and 103% more branching than the shallow rooted rice genotype IR64 within the plough pan layer.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Macropores greatly improve rice root growth through plough pans for a deep rooting but not a shallow rooting rice variety. Whereas cracks produce a greater number of roots in the plough pan, biopores result in greater root branching and root numbers deeper in subsoil.</jats:p> </jats:sec>