Abstract
A positive interaction between plant populations is a type of population relationship formed during long-term evolution. This interaction can alleviate population competition, improve resource utilization in populations, and promote population harmony and community stability. However, cultivated plant populations may have insufficient time to establish a positive interaction, thereby hindering the formation of the positive interaction. As current studies have not fully addressed these issues, our study established soybean/wheat intercropping populations beneficial for growth and explored the effects of nutrient level and planting density on the positive interaction between the two crops. Changes across population modules in both sole cropping and intercropping populations of soybean and wheat were analyzed. Results using nutrient levels of ½- or ¼-strength Hoagland solution indicated that soybean/wheat intercropping population modules significantly increased at low planting densities (D20 and D26) and significantly decreased at high planting densities (D32 and D60). Therefore, as planting density increased, the modules of both intercropping populations initially increased before decreasing. Similarly, positive interaction initially strengthened before weakening. Moreover, at an intermediate planting density, the population modules reached their maxima, and the positive interaction was the strongest. Under the same planting density, ¼-strength Hoagland solution recorded better growth for the soybean/wheat intercropping population modules compared to results using the ½-strength Hoagland solution. These findings indicated that low nutrient level can increase the positive interaction of intercropping populations at a given planting density, and that environmental nutrient level and population planting densities constrain the positive interaction between soybean and wheat populations in the intercropping system. This study highlights issues that need to be addressed when constructing intercropping populations.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Intercropping modules increased at low density with the stated nutrient levels.
- Taxon
- soybean/wheat
Glycine max
Triticum aestivume0 - Outcome
- intercropping population modulese0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedSetting
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“soybean/wheat intercropping population modules significantly increased at low planting densities (D20 and D26)”
Claim · model-written summary
Intercropping modules decreased at high density.
- Taxon
- soybean and wheatGlycine maxTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- intercropping population modulese1
- Direction
- decreasede0
Not reportedSetting
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“significantly decreased at high planting densities (D32 and D60)”
t0“soybean and wheat intercropping populations”
e1“soybean/wheat intercropping population modules significantly increased at low planting densities (D20 and D26)”
Claim · model-written summary
Modules first rose and then fell as planting density increased.
- Taxon
- soybean and wheatGlycine maxTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- planting densitye0
- Outcome
- modules of both intercropping populationse0
- Direction
- initially increased before decreasinge0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“as planting density increased, the modules of both intercropping populations initially increased before decreasing”
t0“soybean and wheat intercropping populations”
Claim · model-written summary
Positive interaction first strengthened and then weakened.
- Taxon
- soybean and wheatGlycine maxTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- positive interactione0
- Direction
- initially strengthened before weakeninge0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“positive interaction initially strengthened before weakening”
t0“soybean and wheat intercropping populations”
Claim · model-written summary
Modules reached their maxima at intermediate density.
- Taxon
- soybean and wheatGlycine maxTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- intermediate planting densitye0
- Outcome
- population modulese0
- Direction
- maximae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“at an intermediate planting density, the population modules reached their maxima”
t0“soybean and wheat intercropping populations”
Claim · model-written summary
Positive interaction was strongest at intermediate density.
- Taxon
- soybean and wheatGlycine maxTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- intermediate planting densitye0
- Outcome
- positive interactione0
- Direction
- strongeste0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“at an intermediate planting density, the population modules reached their maxima, and the positive interaction was the strongest”
t0“soybean and wheat intercropping populations”
Claim · model-written summary
Quarter-strength nutrient solution gave better module growth than half-strength solution.
- Taxon
- soybean/wheatGlycine maxTriticum aestivume0
- Treatment
- ¼-strength Hoagland solutione0
- Outcome
- growth for the soybean/wheat intercropping population modulese0
- Direction
- bettere0
- Comparator
- ½-strength Hoagland solutione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“¼-strength Hoagland solution recorded better growth for the soybean/wheat intercropping population modules compared to results using the ½-strength Hoagland solution”
Claim · model-written summary
Low nutrients increased positive interaction at a given density.
- Taxon
- soybean and wheatGlycine maxTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- low nutrient levele0
- Outcome
- positive interactione0
- Direction
- increasee0
- Qualifier
- at a given planting densitye0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“low nutrient level can increase the positive interaction of intercropping populations at a given planting density”
t0“soybean and wheat intercropping populations”