Agronomy

The sustainability of the wine chain in the southeast of Spain is evaluated through life cycle costing (LCC) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies. A winery model is established based on the information provided by representative companies in the area. The LCC and LCA are applied to the production of the wine bottle, and a sensitivity analysis is applied to evaluate the effect of the different types of vineyard, as well as the weight of the glass bottle. In the cellar phase, the processes are highly technical and are very efficient in relation to the consumption of energy, water, and other inputs. However, the weight of the glass bottle should be minimized as it has a great impact on both environmental and production costs. The socioeconomic importance of the wine chain is relevant, both in quantitative terms and for what it means as a brand transmission mechanism for the agri-food sector. It should also be taken into account that the environmental cost of the processes is low, and that the activity contributes to the conservation of the soil and landscape in a semi-arid area. Full article

Identifying the grade of Gastrodia elata in the market has low efficiency and accuracy. To address this issue, an I-YOLOX object detection algorithm based on deep learning and computer vision is proposed in this paper. First, six types of Gastrodia elata images of different grades in the Gastrodia elata planting cooperative were collected for image enhancement and labeling as the model training dataset. Second, to improve feature information extraction, an ECA attention mechanism module was inserted between the backbone network CSPDarknet and the neck enhancement feature extraction network FPN in the YOLOX model. Then, the impact of the attention mechanism and application position on model improvement was investigated. Third, the 3 × 3 convolution in the neck enhancement feature extraction network FPN and the head network was replaced by depthwise separable convolution (DS Conv) to reduce the model size and computation amount. Finally, the EIoU loss function was used to predict boundary frame regression at the output prediction end to improve the convergence speed of the model. The experimental results indicated that compared with the original YOLOX model, the mean average precision of the improved I-YOLOX network model was increased by 4.86% (97.83%), the model computation was reduced by 5.422 M (reaching 3.518 M), the model size was reduced by 20.6 MB (reaching 13.7 MB), and the image frames detected per second increased by 3 (reaching 69). Compared with other target detection algorithms, the improved model outperformed Faster R-CNN, SSD-VGG, YOLOv3s, YOLOv4s, YOLOv5s, and YOLOv7 algorithms in terms of mean average precision, model size, computation amount, and frames per second. The lightweight model improved the detection accuracy and speed of different grades of Gastrodia elata and provided a theoretical basis for the development of online identification systems of different grades of Gastrodia elata in practical production. Full article

The modification of secondary metabolites is crucial to the function of metabolites in tea (Camellia sinensis L.). The arabinan deficient (ARAD) encodes an arabinosyltransferase and is involved in the arabinan biosynthesis pathway. Two full-length sequences of CsARADs were cloned and obtained from tea plants through the rapid amplification of cDNA ends and named CsARAD1 and CsARAD2. CsARAD1 and CsARAD2 are predicted to be 2 membrane proteins containing N-glycosylation, phosphorylation, and N-myristoylation sites and are 2 homologs of the glycosyltransferases (GT) 47 family, according to various bioinformatic analyses. CsARADs showed higher transcription levels in nonlignified tissues (e.g., buds and young leaves) than in old leaves and stems. CsARADs also exhibited the highest expression level in autumn, indicating that CsARAD regulation is affected by environmental factors. The transcript levels of CsARADs were changed after various abiotic stress treatments, and CsARAD1 and CsARAD2 displayed different regulation patterns in temperature stress, saline, and drought-like conditions. CsARAD1 and CsARAD2 were both significantly downregulated after tea seedlings were treated with an ethylene precursor and abscisic acid. In addition, CsARAD2 was downregulated after being treated with methyl jasmonate and gibberellin. Collectively, our findings on the function of arabinosyltransferase serve as a basis for further research and breeding applications. Full article

Heat stress during the grain-filling stage seriously affects grain quality in rice. However, very limited information is available regarding the effects of short-term high nighttime temperature (HNT) on grain chalkiness formation in rice. In this paper, the effects of HNT at the early grain-filling stage (7 days after ear emergence) on rice chalkiness formation and the potential causes were investigated by using two rice varieties that differed in susceptibility to high temperature. Although the HNT treatment at night dramatically increased the grain chalkiness in Jiuxiangzhan (JXZ) and Huanghuazhan (HHZ), the increase was greater in JXZ compared to HHZ. The net photosynthetic rate and SPAD value were significantly reduced by HNT treatment in the flag leaves of JXZ, while no significant differences were observed in HHZ. Furthermore, HNT treatment reduced the antioxidant enzyme activity in the flag leaves of JXZ, while the opposite was observed in HHZ, exhibiting increased antioxidant enzyme activity. Moreover, HNT treatment altered the endogenous hormone levels, enhanced the enzymatic activities related to starch biosynthesis, and accelerated the filling rate in grains of JXZ when compared to HHZ. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation exhibited that the starch granules in the endosperm of JXZ were loosely packed together and more starch granules with small pits were produced after HNT treatment. Based on these data, we inferred that HNT stress during the early stage of rice grain filling accelerated the grain-filling rate but shortened the grain-filling duration by changing the endogenous hormone levels and enhancing the enzymatic activities responsible for starch biosynthesis, resulting in significant changes in the morphological structure and arrangement of starch granules and eventually causing the occurrence of grain chalkiness. Full article

The creeping perennial weed species Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. occurs in patches. Expanding creeping roots allow these patches to increase their covered area. This characteristic has rarely been addressed when investigating the effects of control options in arable fields. We designed a three-year field experiment (2019–2021) in north-eastern Germany, accounting for existing patch patterns. The experimental setup included an untreated control, a competition treatment (cover crop, CC), two disturbance treatments by mouldboard ploughing (PL), root cutting (RC), and four combined applications (RC + CC, PL + CC, PL + RC, PL + RC + CC). Root cutting was performed by a prototype tillage machine produced by “Kverneland”. Plots were defined by the species growth pattern and mapped by GPS and UAV. The experiment investigates the thistle response variables: “Expansion”, “Density”, “Coverage”, and “Height”. Treatments including disturbance by ploughing (PL, PL + CC, PL + RC, PL + RC + CC) reduced “Density” by the factor 0.15 and “Expansion” by 0.25, while those without ploughing (CC, RC, RC + CC) only reduced “Density” by the factor 0.68 and “Expansion” by 0.71. Adding root cuttings or cover crops did not further increase the reduction effect of ploughing. Treatments with competition by cover crops impacted “Expansion” more clearly than “Density”. When cover crops were combined with root cutting (RC + CC), “Expansion” was almost additively reduced, resulting in a reduction comparable to that of ploughing. The “Height” of the shoots was significantly reduced in four treatments (PL, RC + CC, PL + RC, PL + RC + CC), while “Coverage” did not change significantly. UAV patch monitoring proved to be accurate enough for thistle “Expansion” but not for thistle “Density” within the patch. The results of this study demand innovative research when controlling patch-forming creeping perennial weeds. The need for patches will limit small-scale experimental set ups. Full article

Physically-based parameter estimations are essential to improve the simulation performance of a hydrologic model and to produce physically reasonable parameters with spatial consistency. This study proposed a parameter derivation strategy to improve the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC-SMA) model simulation performance based on the publicly accessible Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). The HWSD soil properties were used to estimate the soil moisture characteristics, and the HWSD soil texture classifications and International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) land cover types were used to identify the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) runoff curve number (CN). After the soil moisture characteristics and CNs were identified, the major parameters of the SAC-SMA model were derived. The simulation results were evaluated using the Nash efficiency coefficient (NSEC), and Free Search (FS) algorithm was used to further adjust and calibrate the parameters. Compared with the simulation accuracy (NSEC = 0.66~0.88) and parameter transferability (NSEC = 0.22~0.83) obtained for the SAC-SMA model using directly calibrated parameters, the HWSD data-derived parameters allowed the SAC-SMA model to achieve a similar simulation accuracy (NSEC = 0.65~0.86) and a better transferability (NSEC = 0.61~0.85). Full article

Many studies have focused on the impacts of rainfall duration and intensity, while overlooking the role of rainfall patterns on intensive tillage erosion in hilly agricultural landscapes. The objective of this study was to determine the combined effects of rainfall patterns and tillage erosion on surface runoff and soil loss on sloping farmland in the purple soil area of China. Five simulated rainfall patterns (constant, rising, falling, rising–falling, and falling–rising) with the same total precipitation were designed, and the intensive tillage treatment (IT) and no-tillage treatment (NT) were subjected to simulated rainfall using rectangular steel tanks (2 m × 5 m) with a slope of 15°. To analyse the differences in the hydrological characteristics induced by tillage erosion, we calculated the flow velocity (V), Reynolds number (Re), Froude number (Fr), and Darcy–Weisbach resistance coefficient (f). The results indicate that significant differences in surface runoff and sediment yield were found among different rainfall patterns and rainfall stages (p < 0.05). The falling pattern and falling–rising pattern had a shorter time gap between the rainfall initiation and runoff occurrence as well as a larger sediment yield than those of the other rainfall patterns. The value of f varied from 0.30 to 9.05 for the IT and 0.48 to 11.57 for the NT and exhibited an approximately inverse trend to V and Fr over the course of the rainfall events. Compared with the NT, the mean sediment yield rates from the IT increased the dynamic range of 8.34–16.21% among the different rainfall patterns. The net contributions of the IT ranged from 2.77% to 46.39% in terms of surface runoff and 10.14–78.95% in terms of sediment yield on sloping farmland. The surface runoff and sediment yield were positively correlated with rainfall intensity, V, and Fr, but negatively correlated with f irrespective of tillage operation (p < 0.05). The results showed that the tillage erosion effects on soil and water loss were closely related to rainfall patterns in hilly agricultural landscapes. Our study not only sheds light on the mechanism of tillage erosion and rainfall erosion but also provides useful insights for developing tillage water erosion prediction models to evaluate soil and water loss on cultivated hillslopes. Full article

A two-year study (2020–2021) was conducted in the Erzurum province to investigate the feed quality parameters of 102 genotypes of Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) collected from different locations in natural flora. Two control cultivars were also examined in this study, namely Coastal and Survivor. Parameters such as the fresh herbage weight, dry herbage weight, crude protein (CP) ratio, acid detergent fiber (ADF) ratio, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) ratio, and relative feed values (RFVs) were analyzed. In the first year of this study, Bermudagrass populations collected from natural flora were rooted in pots under greenhouse conditions. In the second year, the rooted plants were transplanted into experimental fields at the Atatürk University Plant Production Implementation and Research Center. The present genotypes generally had superior crude protein, ADF, NDF ratios, and relative feed values (RFVs) than the control cultivar. The fresh herbage weights ranged from 9.20 to 95.37 g per plant, while the dry herbage weights varied from 5.22 to 45.24 g per plant. The findings of this study showed that most of the genotypes collected from natural flora had superior feed quality parameters to the control genotypes. Full article

The harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, is a valuable asset in integrated pest management (IPM); however, issues related to low-temperature storage and transportation have resulted in low hatching rate, while the use of pesticides may lead to non-target effects against this natural enemy during field application. Fluctuating thermal regimes (FTR) have been shown to be beneficial during the low-temperature storage, and the type and concentration of insecticides used are crucial for field application of H. axyridis. Despite this, little research has been conducted on the effects of FTR on the hatching rate of ladybird eggs, and the impact of pesticides on their egg viability remains unclear. To address these gaps, we investigated the effects of different thermal temperatures, recovery frequencies (the number of changes in temperature conditions per unit time), and recovery durations (the duration of the treated temperature condition) on egg hatching under constant low-temperature conditions. We also examined the toxicity and safety of seven commonly used insecticides on egg hatching. Our results indicate that the temperature during FTR application did not significantly affect egg hatching, but the interaction between temperature and recovery frequency can significantly affect egg hatching. Moreover, the recovery frequency and recovery duration had a significant impact on hatching. Under specific conditions, the hatching rate of eggs subjected to FTR was similar to that of eggs stored at 25 °C. Furthermore, we found that matrine (a kind of alkaloid pesticide isolated from Sophora flavescens) had low toxicity to ladybird eggs and is a safe pesticide for use in conjunction with this natural enemy. The study provides valuable information on effectively managing H. axyridis by taking into account both storage temperature and pesticide exposure. Full article

An apple-picking robot is now the most widely accepted method in the substitution of low-efficiency and high-cost labor-intensive apple harvesting. Although most current research on apple-picking robots works well in the laboratory, most of them are unworkable in an orchard environment due to unsatisfied apple positioning performance. In general, an accurate, fast, and widely used apple positioning method for an apple-picking robot remains lacking. Some positioning methods with detection-based deep learning reached an acceptable performance in some orchards. However, apples occluded by apples, leaves, and branches are ignored in these methods with detection-based deep learning. Therefore, an apple binocular positioning method based on a Mask Region Convolutional Neural Network (Mask R-CNN, an instance segmentation network) was developed to achieve better apple positioning. A binocular camera (Bumblebee XB3) was adapted to capture binocular images of apples. After that, a Mask R-CNN was applied to implement instance segmentation of apple binocular images. Then, template matching with a parallel polar line constraint was applied for the stereo matching of apples. Finally, four feature point pairs of apples from binocular images were selected to calculate disparity and depth. The trained Mask R-CNN reached a detection and segmentation intersection over union (IoU) of 80.11% and 84.39%, respectively. The coefficient of variation (CoV) and positioning accuracy (PA) of binocular positioning were 5.28 mm and 99.49%, respectively. The research developed a new method to fulfill binocular positioning with a segmentation-based neural network. Full article

Oaxaca, Mexico, is home to over 30 species of the genus Agave, and its cultivation is of great economic and social importance for the mezcal industry, which depends on its production. The incidence of the pest Scyphophorus acupunctatus causes severe losses and damage. Agrochemicals are used for its control, but a viable alternative is microbial control. The objectives of this study were to determine the natural occurrence of the entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae, isolated from S. acupunctatus in agave crops, and to evaluate the effect of vegetable oil in water emulsions containing conidia from the native fungi against adults of S. acupunctatus under laboratory conditions. Viability of the fungal isolates was determined at a concentration of ×10⁸ conidia/mL in avocado (Persea americana), mamey (Mammea americana), chia (Salvia hispanica), or olive (Olea europaea) oil in water emulsions at two concentrations, 20% and 40%. The most effective oil emulsion on S. acupunctatus adults was determined under laboratory conditions. Naturally occurring fungi in 900 field collected insects was 2.21%. Ninety-six hours after preparing a 20% emulsion in P. americana oil, B. bassiana and M. anisopliae had a viability of 75% and 66.5%, respectively, while the control conidia suspended in distilled water remained viable for only 48 h. Twenty-four hours after applying M. anisopliae conidia in a 40% P. americana oil emulsion, effectiveness was 100% on S. acupunctatus, followed by M. anisopliae in 20% P. americana oil emulsion with 75% effectiveness. At 72 h post-application, all fungus in oil emulsions achieved an accumulated insect mortality of 100%, while the control showed no effect on adult S. acupunctatus. The most promising combination was 40% P. americana oil emulsion, which achieved 50% viable B. bassiana or M. anisopliae conidia up to 96 h after preparation, and its accumulated effectiveness on S. acupunctatus adults was 87.5% after 24 h. Full article

In China, due to labor shortages and increasing labor costs, manual topping is gradually being replaced by chemical capping with mepiquat chloride (DPC). External chemicals can adjust plant growth by affecting endogenous hormones. Based on the hormone changes combined with the development of the main stem of cotton plants, a comparative experiment was conducted in 2019 and 2020 to determine the regulatory mechanism of the growth of the cotton main stem after chemical capping. In the experiment, two treatment times (T1: 12 July, T2: 18 July) and two treatment agents (CA [chemical capping agent] and DPC) were set, the hormone (auxin IAA, abscisic acid ABA, Gibberellin GA₃ and Zeatin ZR) concentrations at the top of main stem (0–5 and 5–10 cm) were continuously measured and the main stem development situation was observed and recorded. The results showed that after chemical capping, the IAA concentration decreased firstly and increased later, lower than that of CK. ABA concentration increased significantly and GA₃ concentration decreased significantly compared with CK. ZR concentrations fluctuated obviously at T1 and gently at T2. In terms of main stem growth, the plant height, number of fruit branches and average length of upper internode (fifth and above) were decreased compared with CK, while the CA treatment was inhibited more strongly than the DPC treatment. To conclude, chemical capping operation affected the hormone concentration at the plant apex significantly and effectively regulated plant development. In comparison with DPC treatment, CA regulated hormones effectively, which is favorable for conducive reasonable plant shaping. Full article

Fertilizer sources may have variable effects on soil aggregation, aggregated-associated C and N, and wheat yield. A 34-year field experiment was performed to evaluate the influences of chemical and organic fertilization on soil aggregates and associated carbon and nitrogen under winter wheat in a Cumulic Haplustoll of the Loess Plateau, China. Treatments included unfertilized control (CK), inorganic N fertilizer (NF), inorganic P fertilizer (PF), inorganic N and P fertilizer (NP), organic manure (M), inorganic N fertilizer plus manure (NM), inorganic P fertilizer plus manure (PM), and inorganic N plus P fertilizers plus manure (NPM). Compared to CK, long-term fertilization significantly increased the proportion of soil macro-aggregates, mean weight diameter (MWD), and geometric mean diameter (GMD), but decreased the proportion of micro-aggregates and fractal dimension, especially fertilizer plus manure. Compared to CK, manure treatments (M, NM, PM, and NPM) had a better improvement on soil organic carbon (SOC), soil total nitrogen (STN), particle organic C, and microbial biomass C in all aggregates than the fertilizer alone. The SOC in different aggregates increased with the increased aggregate size, which was because the larger aggregates formed by the binding of the smaller aggregates and organic matter. PON increased in NM and NPM, and MBN was more sensitive to N fertilizer. The C/N ratio in bulk soil and aggregates decreased with fertilization, especially in fertilizer with manure and in macro-aggregates. The improved soil structure was related to the increased SOC and STN, which was proved by the positive correlations among SOC and STN with macro-aggregates and MWD. A correlation analysis also showed that the contribution rate of SOC and STN in macro-aggregates was positively associated with the macro-aggregate and stability. Therefore, the sequestration of C and N in soil was related to aggregate size and was mainly affected by larger aggregates. The results demonstrated that fertilizer with manure improved the soil structure and fertility better than fertilizer alone, thus increasing crop yield. Full article

The application of biochar is one of the promising management practices to alleviate soil acidification and improve soil fertility. However, it has been found to reduce the content of ammonium nitrogen (${\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+}$−N) in the soil, which is the most important form of nitrogen (N) for tea tree growth. To investigate the response of soil ${\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+}$−N content to the combined application of biochar and pruned tea plant litter, a pot trial was performed with three treatments: control (CK); biochar (BC); biochar + tea plant litter (BC + L). Soil chemistry properties and ammonification rates were determined, and the microbial community composition was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that the ${\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+}$−N content in BC + L treatment was 1.7–9.5 fold higher than CK and BC treatments after 15 days of application, with no difference in the proportion of ammonia oxidation phyla such as Nitrospirae. The proportion of soil fungus Ascomycota was strongly correlated with the content of soil available nitrogen (p = 0.032), and the relationship was well described by a linear equation (R² = 0.876, p = 0.01). Further redundancy analysis revealed that soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), the ratio of SOC to total nitrogen and the ratio of SOC to alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen appeared to be important factors influencing the separation of BC + L from CK and BC groups. In summary, the addition of biochar and pruned tea plant litter alters soil properties and may influence the composition of microorganisms with various trophic groups, thus affecting ecosystem function. Our results also highlight the importance of returning pruned materials with biochar application in tea plantation ecosystems. Full article

The repeated cultivation of asparagus in the same field can severely reduce yield. A complex of predominantly microbial causes is suspected. Limited plant development, establishment problems, and yield loss may occur, particularly in light sandy soils. In order to address this replant problem and evaluate alternative cultivation conditions, two asparagus fields were treated with different supplements and were cultivated for 5 years to investigate their impact on yield. The results from the pot trials using soils from these fields are presented, along with the field trial findings. The trials included the incorporation of mushroom substrate (champost), Fimonit (clay mineral), mustard meal (biofumigation), and Micosat F Uno (including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, Trichoderma viride, and rhizosphere bacteria species). In the pot trials, the sterilised soil exhibited a growth benefit over the original soil. However, the tested additives had no significant effects in the short period of 8 weeks. At one of the tested field sites, the marketable asparagus yields following champost, Fimonit, biofumigation, and Micosat treatments were 14, 6, 16 and 12% higher than that of the control soil, respectively, but no significant differences in treatment effect were observed in the second test field. Biofumigation using mustard meal and champost was most successful in reducing the impact of replanting on yields. Full article

The storage of soil organic carbon (SOC) in cropland soils is an essential strategy that serves the dual purpose of enhancing soil fertility and mitigating climate change. However, how the stability of stored carbon is altered under long-term fertilization has not been well understood, especially in the double rice cropping system in Chinese paddy soils. In this study, we explored the SOC storage and consequent stability of SOC under long-term fertilization. The soil samples were fractionated chemically to isolate various fractions and constituent pools of SOC (i.e., very labile C/VLC, labile C/LC, less labile C/LLC, and non-labile C/NLC). The following treatments were tested: control (CK), recommended rate of inorganic fertilizer (NPK), double the amount of recommended rate of inorganic fertilizer (2NPK), and NPK combined with manure (NPKM). The results showed that, relative to the initial level, the application of NPKM significantly improved the SOC storage as compared to the control. The long-term NPKM increased the total SOC in the paddy soil and this increased SOC was mainly stored in LLC, as revealed by the highest increase (142%) over the control. Furthermore, the highest proportion of labile pool was associated with unfertilized CK, while the reverse was true for the recalcitrant pool, which was highest under NPKM. This supports the role of combining manure with NPK to improve the stability of SOC, further verified by the high recalcitrance index under NPKM (56.75% for 0–20 cm and 57.69% for 20–40 cm) as compared to the control. Full article

Since impurities produced during walnut processing can cause serious harm to human health, strict quality control must be carried out during production. However, most detection equipment still uses photoelectric detection technology to automatically sort heterochromatic particles, which is unsuitable for detecting endogenous foreign bodies with similar colors. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved YOLOv4 deep learning object detection algorithm, WT-YOLOM, for detecting endogenous impurities in walnuts—namely, oily kernels, black spot kernels, withered kernels, and ground nutshells. In the backbone of the model, a lightweight MobileNet module was used as the encoder for the extraction of features. The spatial pyramid pooling (SPP) structure was improved to spatial pyramid pooling—fast (SPPF), and the model size was further reduced. Loss function was replaced in this model with a more comprehensive SIoU loss. In addition, efficient channel attention (ECA) mechanisms were applied after the backbone feature map to improve the model’s recognition accuracy. This paper compares the recognition speed and accuracy of the WT-YOLOM algorithm with the Faster R-CNN, EfficientDet, CenterNet, and YOLOv4 algorithms. The results showed that the average precision of this model for different kinds of endogenous impurities in walnuts reached 94.4%. Compared with the original model, the size was reduced by 88.6%, and the recognition speed reached 60.1 FPS, which was an increase of 29.0%. The metrics of the WT-YOLOM model were significantly better than those of comparative models and can significantly improve the detection efficiency of endogenous foreign bodies in walnuts. Full article

Soil nitrogen (N) is a common limiting factor where soil N-cycling is a key component of agroecosystems. Soil N transformation processes are largely mediated by microbes, and understanding bacteria involvement in soil N-cycling in agricultural systems has both agronomic and environmental importance. This 2 yr field-scale study examined the abundances and spatial distributions of the total bacterial community (16S rRNA), bacteria involved in nitrification (amoA) and denitrification (narG, nirK, and nosZ), and soil physicochemical properties of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–soybean (Glycine max L.) double-crop with 2–3 weeks of spring grazing (WGS) and without grazing (WS) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea (L.) Schreb.) pasture (TF) managed to near-natural conditions with similar grazing. The TF soil had a significantly higher abundance of 16S rRNA, amoA, narG, nirK, and nosZ genes than the WS and WGS soils, which had similar levels between themselves. Soil organic matter (OM) and soil pH had stronger effects on the N-cycling bacteria gene abundance. All bacterial gene concentrations and soil pH showed nonrandom distribution patterns with a 141–186 m range autocorrelation. These results indicate that biological N transformation processes are more important in natural agricultural systems and the abundance of N-cycling bacteria can be manipulated by field-scale management strategies. Full article

This study focuses on the development of more cropping systems in response to global warming and food security concerns. A two-year field experiment (2017–2018) was conducted to investigate the effects of greenhouse gases (GHGs), soil environmental factors and yield on traditional double-cropping rice (DR), maize rice (MR) and ratooning rice (Rr). The results showed a significant annual effect of temperature and rainfall on GHG emissions under different cropping systems. Annual CH₄ emissions under MR and Rr were significantly lower than under DR. Compared to DR, the highest cumulative N₂O emissions were observed in MR (14.9 kg·ha⁻¹) with a reduction of 23.7% in Rr. In addition, the upland crops significantly reduced CH₄ emissions for late rice, while N₂O emissions increased by 20.6%. Compared with DR and Rr, global warming potential (GWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) were significantly lower for MR (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the annual yield of MR (16.40 t·ha⁻¹) was 8.1% and 2.4% higher than that of DR and Rr, respectively. This study further found that soil temperature and NH₄⁺-N content were positively correlated with CH₄ and N₂O emissions, and soil moisture was positively correlated with N₂O emission. Thus, we concluded that MR has the greatest potential to improve crop yield and mitigate GHG emissions in central China. Full article