Effects of reduced nitrogen input on productivity and N2O emissions in a sugarcane/soybean intercropping system

• Sugarcane is an important crop for sugar and biofuel production.
• Biological N fixation by legumes in intercropping system could complement N usage.
• Intercropping could improve land use efficiency and improve the total yield.
• Intercropping and reduced N input could maintain sugarcane yield and soil stability.
• Reduced N fertilizer input could mitigate N2O emissions and greenhouse gas intensity.

A seven-year (2009–2015) continuous field experiment was established at the South China Agricultural University in order to identify the effects of sugarcane/soybean intercropping and reduced N rate on ecosystem productivity, yield stability, soil fertility, and N2O emissions. The randomized block experiment was designed with four cropping patterns (sugarcane monocropping (MS), soybean monocropping (MB), sugarcane/soybean (1:1) intercropping (SB1), and sugarcane/soybean (1:2) intercropping (SB2)) and two rates of N fertilization (300 kg hm−2 (N1, reduced rate) and 525 kg hm−2 (N2, conventional rate)). The results showed that the land equivalent ratio (LER) of all intercropping systems was greater than 1 (between 1.10 and 1.84), and the SB2-N1 optimally improved the land utilization rate among all treatments. The cropping patterns and N applied rates had no significant effect on sugarcane yield. The soybean yield was influenced by different cropping patterns because of different planting densities (4, 8 and 16 rows of soybean were plant under SB1, SB2, and MB, respectively) and was adopted in this experiment. In addition, under the SB2 cropping pattern, the soybean yield at the reduced N application rate was higher than that at the conventional N application rate. Wricke’s ecovalence (Wi2), the sustainable yield index (SYI) and the coefficient of variation (CV) were used to evaluate yield stability. Different treatments had no significant effects on sugarcane yield stability, as demonstrated by three indicators (Wi2, SYI and CV), which indicated that intercropping with soybean and reduced N rate had no effect on sugarcane yield. For soybeans, the value of Wi2 demonstrated that the stability of the intercropping system was higher than its counterpart monocropping system, as SYI and CV values indicated that SB2 had higher stability than SB1. During seven years of experiments, there was no significant difference in the soil fertility between MS and SB patterns. The soybean monocropping had a higher available K, pH and lower available P content than sugarcane inter- and mono-cropping. Different cropping patterns had a slight impact on N2O emissions and the greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) value. Higher N input promoted N2O emissions and increased GHGI values. In conclusion, the present study observed that a 40% reduced nitrogen input combined with intercropping soybeans could maintain sugarcane yield and soil sustainable utilization, and that higher N fertilizer additions induced negative impacts on greenhouse gases emissions. Sugarcane intercropping with soybeans can reduce chemical fertilizer input and simultaneously maintain crop productivity; thus, it can be considered to be a reasonable practice for field management.