Feasibility of Tea/Tree Intercropping Plantations on Soil Ecological Service Function in China
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
3.1. What Are Those Intercropping Tea Plantations?
3.2. Where Are Those Tea Plantations?
4. Discussion
4.1. Supply Services—Maintaining Fundamental Water-Holding Capacity
4.2. Support Services—Effects on Mineral Elements in Soil
4.3. Regulating Services
4.3.1. Impacts on Microorganisms’ Activities and Energy Transformation
4.3.2. Regulating Environment Conditions
4.4. Intercropping Tea Plantations vs. Monoculture Tea Plantations
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Appendix A.1. Glossary
Scientific Name | Common Name |
---|---|
Agastache rugosa | Wrinkled giant hyssop |
Ageratum conyzoides | Billygoat weed |
Alnus glutinosa | European alder |
Camellia sinensis L. | Tea tree |
Capsicum annuum L. | Red pepper |
Castanea mollissima | Chestnut |
Chamaecrista rotundifolia | Round-leaf cassia |
Cinnamomum camphora | Camphor tree |
Cinnamomum pathenoxylum | Yellow camphor tree |
Citrus reticulata Blanco | Tangerine |
Claroideoglomus etunicatum | Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) I |
Cunninghamia lanceolata | Cedar |
Dianthus barbatus | Sweet William |
Diospyros kaki | Persimmon tree |
Ectropis obliqua (Prout) | Tea geometrid |
Eriobotrya japonica | Loquat |
Funneliformis mosseae | Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) II |
Ganoderma lucidum | Red Lingzhi |
Gentiana rigescens | Gentiana |
Gigaspora rosea | Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) III |
Ginkgo biloba L. | Ginkgo tree |
Glomus intraradices | Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) IV |
Glycine max | Soybean |
Jasminum sambac | Jasmine |
Litsea cubeba | Mountain pepper |
Lolium perenne L. | Perennial rye-grass |
Lucuma nervosa | Canistel |
Malus pumila | Apple tree |
Medicago sativa | Alfalfa |
Myrica rubra | Waxberry |
Phlox drummondii | Annual phlox |
Pisum sativum | Pea |
Prunus americana | North American plums |
Salvia japonica | Common sage |
Saponaria officinalis | Common soapwort |
Solanum tuberosum | Potato |
Stropharia yunnanesis | Yunnan roundheads mushroom |
Trifolium repens | White clover |
Vicia faba | Broad bean |
Vicia glabrescens | Smooth vetch |
Vigna radiata | Mung bean |
Vulpia myuros | Rattail grass |
Zea mays | Corn |
Appendix A.2. Criteria
- a.
- Study exclusion/inclusion criteria
- Related research topics: including research on the cultivation mode of intercropping tea gardens. Research must be conducted in China.
- Relevant research methods/design: The research uses relevant, transparent, and repeatable quantitative or suitable qualitative methods.
- Comparators of related research: with and without the correlation comparison between the intercropping tea garden and the monoculture tea garden.
- Relevant research results: The research measures and reports relevant results. These results show that the existence of intercropping tea gardens has obvious positive, negative or neutral effects on the function of the soil ecosystem in the tea garden.
- b.
- Exclusion criteria
- Research compound/general ecological tea gardens in China;
- Exploratory research, conceptual framework, methodological papers;
- Published research on the benefits of intercropping tea gardens for soil ecological service functions without (re)representing the original data;
- Research on whether the intercropping tea garden is sustainable or whether there is research on biodiversity;
- The absence of links/data on the role of forests and trees, research on ecosystem services and the provision of services in agricultural systems.
- c.
- Potential effect modifiers and reasons for heterogeneity
- Intercropping tea garden types: tea herb compound type, tea fruit compound type, tea forest compound type, tea fungus compound type;
- Inconsistency in the altitude and climate of the tea area studied;
- Inconsistency in the implementation time of compound cultivation technology.
- d.
- Study quality assessment
- Trial time;
- Perfect experimental setup and analysis;
- Containing suitable control treatments;
- Taking into account the degree of accidental environmental pollution;
- Quality of the samples of the experimental units (randomness and representativeness);
- Numbers of copies, etc.
- e.
- Data extraction strategy
- Title;
- Author(s);
- Journal;
- Publication date;
- Study location;
- Type of tea plantations (type of tea–herb connection, type of tea–fruit connection, type of connection of tea–forest, type of connection of tea–fungus);
- Classification of climatic regions;
- The nature of the examined function of the soil ecosystem;
- Methodology (quantitative experiment, farmer’s field test, participatory experiment);
- Type of investigation (main investigation, review, or meta-analysis);
- Main landscape environment (e.g., the tree species in the tea forest compound type);
- Types of results and effects (increased soil fertility, increased tea production).
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Main Terms | Expanded Terms |
---|---|
1. Agroforestry | Agroforestry OR agroforest* OR “agro-forest*” |
2. Soil ecosystem service function | Soil OR “soil regulat*” OR “soil enhanc*” OR “soil protect*” OR “soil fertility” OR “soil quality”OR “soil nutrient*” OR “soil stabiliz*” OR “plant nutri*” OR “nutrient cycling” OR decompos* OR “nitrogen cycling” OR “nitrogen fix*” OR “nitrogen captur*” OR “atmosphere* nitrogen fix*” OR “atmosphere* N* fix*” OR “atmosphere* nitrogen captur*” OR “atmosphere* N* captur*” OR erosion control OR “erosion control” OR “water retention” |
3. Intercropping tea garden | compound ecological tea garden* OR “intercrop*” OR “intercrop* tea garden*” OR “intercrop* tea plantation*” OR “compound ecological tea plantation *” |
3a. | tea grass compound* OR “tea grass compound plantation*” OR “tea grass compound garden*” OR “tea herb compound plantation*” OR “tea herb compound garden*” OR “grass intercrop* tea plantation*” OR “grass intercrop* tea garden*” OR “grass intercrop* tea*” OR “herb intercrop* tea plantation*” OR “herb intercrop* tea garden*” OR “herb intercrop* tea*” |
3b. | tea fruit compound* OR “tea fruit compound plantation*” OR “tea fruit compound garden*” OR “fruit intercrop* tea plantation*” OR “fruit intercrop* tea*” OR “fruit intercrop* tea garden*” |
3c. | tea forest compound* OR “tea forest* compound plantation*” OR “tea forest* compound garden*” OR “tea* tree* compound plantation*” OR “tea* tree* compound garden*” OR “forest* intercrop* tea plantation*” OR “forest* intercrop* tea garden*” OR “forest* intercrop* tea*” OR “tree* intercrop* tea plantation*” OR “tree* intercrop* tea garden*” OR “tree* intercrop* tea*” |
3d. | tea fungus compound* OR “tea fung* compound plantation*” OR “tea fung* compound garden*” OR “fung* intercrop* tea plantation*” OR “fung* intercrop* tea*” OR “fung* intercrop* tea garden*” |
4. Sustainability | “sustainab*” OR “biodivers* enrich*” OR “biodivers* increas*” OR “environment* conserv*” OR “conserv* manag*” |
5. China | “China” OR “PRC” |
Aspects | Monoculture Tea Plantations | Intercropping Tea Plantations |
---|---|---|
Use of water | Higher water consumption | Lower water consumption |
Biodiversity | Scarcity of biodiversity | Abundant biodiversity |
Resistance to natural disaster | Low resistance to natural disasters | High resistance to natural disasters |
Soil conditions | Soil erosion, soil acidification, soil deterioration | Increased soil fertility, increased soil water content, and mitigation of acidification |
Cost | Less labor and cost | More labor and cost |
Planting requirements | Low planting requirements, requiring little expertise | High implantation requirements and complex expertise required |
Is success guaranteed? | Long history and high credibility | Each type of intercropping tea plantation requires pre-experiments to confirm whether the desired objectives can be achieved, which is time-consuming. |
Financial benefits | Fundamental income | Valuable fruits and wood materials, the raw material for organic tea. |
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Feng, Y.; Sunderland, T. Feasibility of Tea/Tree Intercropping Plantations on Soil Ecological Service Function in China. Agronomy 2023, 13, 1548. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13061548
Feng Y, Sunderland T. Feasibility of Tea/Tree Intercropping Plantations on Soil Ecological Service Function in China. Agronomy. 2023; 13(6):1548. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13061548
Chicago/Turabian StyleFeng, Yutong, and Terry Sunderland. 2023. "Feasibility of Tea/Tree Intercropping Plantations on Soil Ecological Service Function in China" Agronomy 13, no. 6: 1548. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13061548