Intercropping Improves Tea Quantity and Quality with Enhanced Soil Nutrients, Soil Enzyme Activity, and Bacterial Community Structure

Abstract

Background and aims The intercropping practice has drawn more attention in tea gardens and is expected to improve soil nutrient and tea quality and change the soil microbial community composition. However, the effects of clover or peanut intercropped in the tea plant and their effect on soil nutrients and bacterial community structure of tea plantation soil and tea quality and yield are not clear. Here in this study, the soil bacterial community structure, soil nutrient and enzyme activities, tea quality and yield were investigated and compared in different planting pattern. Methods The bacterial diversity and community composition and their changes were evaluated by high-throughput sequencing of the V4 region of soil 16S rDNA. Results The soil nutrient factors, namely the soil moisture content (MC), pH, organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TP), and soil peroxidase, acid phosphatase (ACP), and sucrase (SC) were found increased significantly in the intercropping pattern. The soil bacterial diversity was beneficially increased. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Bacteroidota, and Gemmmatimonates were found predominant in different cropping patterns but with significantly different abundance. Mantel test correlation analysis showed that the dominant differential bacteria matrix was significantly correlated to the matrix of physicochemical factors such as MC, TN, catalase (CAT), and urease (UE) (p < 0.05). The predicted metabolic function analysis showed that carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites, and cell growth/death were the main metabolic functional pathways. Further, tea quality and yield in intercropping practices were all promoted. Conclusion The study indicated that these two leguminous plants had compatibility with tea plants and can benefit soil microorganisms and nutritional function hence promoting tea growth. This report provides evidence that leguminous crops are beneficial for the long-term sustainable management and efficient production of tea plantations and are of great potential to raise the incomes of tea farmers and producers.