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Plants
Special Issues
Interactions Between Crops and Resource Utilization
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Interactions Between Crops and Resource Utilization

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 2249

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lingyang Feng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University Beijing, Fangzi District, Weifang 261000, China
Interests: maize-soybean intercropping; molecular biology; stress physiology
Dr. Muhammad Ali Raza

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Ghansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730070, China
Interests: intercropping; cereals; legumes; sustainable agriculture; agroforestry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global agricultural systems face the imperative to enhance productivity while conserving finite natural resources. While modern monocropping has increased crop yields, it often leads to soil degradation and inefficient nutrient and water use, highlighting a critical need to optimize resource utilization across all farming systems. Understanding the fundamental interactions between crops and their resources, including light, water, nutrients, and soil biota, is essential for this optimization. These interactions, governed by plant physiology and system management, ultimately determine the efficiency, resilience, and sustainability of agricultural production.

This Special Issue explores the physiological, ecological, and economic mechanisms that govern these crop–resource interactions. We investigate how factors such as planting configurations, root architecture, and soil microbial communities influence resource-use efficiency and system resilience. Furthermore, we seek to understand how these biophysical processes translate into economic outcomes, evaluating the profitability and viability of different management strategies.

We invite original research and reviews that advance the science of crop–resource dynamics. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: root architecture and nutrient foraging, water dynamics, plant–soil–microbe feedbacks, modeling approaches to resource allocation, the economic effects of different cropping systems and management practices, and the impact of planting design and spatial arrangement on system performance.

Submissions integrating field experimentation with molecular, mechanistic, or socio-economic insights are highly encouraged.

Dr. Lingyang Feng
Dr. Muhammad Ali Raza
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Publisher’s Notice

The Special Issue, together with its publications, has been removed from Section Plant Nutrition on 16 January 2026. The publications remain available in the regular issues in which they were originally published. The Editorial Office confirms that these articles adhered to MDPI’s standard editorial process (https://www.mdpi.com/editorial_process).

Keywords

  • crop–resource interactions
  • resource-use efficiency
  • sustainable intensification
  • system resilience
  • economic viability

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 3936 KB  
Article
Exogenous Gibberellic Acid (GA3) Enhances Mango Fruit Quality by Regulating Resource-Related Metabolic Pathways
by Lina Zhai, Lixia Wang, Ghulam Abbas Shah, Tao Jing, Hafiz Faiq Bakhat, Yan Zhao and Yingdui He
Plants 2026, 15(3), 482; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15030482 - 4 Feb 2026
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1053
Abstract
Efficient resource allocation during fruit expansion and ripening is critical for enhancing mango (Mangifera indica L.) productivity and fruit quality. A study was conducted to quantify the effects of foliar-applied GA3 at concentrations of 0 (control), 50 (GA50), 100 (GA100) and [...] Read more.
Efficient resource allocation during fruit expansion and ripening is critical for enhancing mango (Mangifera indica L.) productivity and fruit quality. A study was conducted to quantify the effects of foliar-applied GA3 at concentrations of 0 (control), 50 (GA50), 100 (GA100) and 200 (GA200) mg L−1, applied at 15, 25 and 35 days after full bloom, on fruit physiochemical attributes during the fruit expansion and ripening phases. In addition, metabolic profiling and pathway analysis were conducted after fruit ripening. Compared with the control, GA3 application at 50, 100, and 200 mg L−1 increased fruit length by 8, 12, and 14%, and fruit diameter by 5, 11, and 14%, respectively. The mean single-fruit weight was increased by 5–11% at physiological maturity. During the fruit expansion phase, GA3 treatment decreased starch and total acidity by up to 11% and 29%, respectively, while increasing the soluble sugar content by 21%. Furthermore, enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, POD, and CAT), accompanied by a reduction in malondialdehyde (MDA) contents in leaves, were observed. At the ripening stage, GA3-treated fruits exhibited lower weight loss, higher firmness, more uniform color development, and reduced disease incidence, although vitamin C content and total soluble solids declined. PCA analysis identified GA100 as the optimal treatment. Metabolomics analysis revealed 287 differentially regulated metabolites between GA100 and the control. Sweet, fruity, and floral compounds were upregulated, whereas terpenoids and aldehydes were downregulated. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that GA100 modulated key resource-related metabolic pathways, including nitrogen, carbon and energy metabolism, thereby promoting efficient resource allocation toward fruit growth, quality, and aroma development. Overall, preharvest foliar application of GA3, particularly at a concentration of 100 mg L−1 (GA100), markedly improved mango fruit growth and quality but tended to simplify the aroma profiles by favoring ester production over complex terpenoid-derived notes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions Between Crops and Resource Utilization)
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19 pages, 5108 KB  
Article
Effects of Strip Width on Inter-Row Heterogeneity in Light Interception and Utilization of Intercropped Soybeans
by Yue Li, Yao Zhang, Jiamiao Shi, Ruizhe Zhang, Lisha Zhang, Yuan Yang, Haichang Li, Lihua Wang, Tianyu Yuan, Sirong Huang, Xiaochun Wang, Feng Yang, Jiang Liu, Taiwen Yong, Yanhong Yan, Wenyu Yang and Yushan Wu
Plants 2026, 15(2), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15020182 - 7 Jan 2026
Viewed by 547
Abstract
Strip intercropping improves productivity through enhanced light interception. In this study, we quantified the effects of strip width on light interception of soybean across six strip widths (2.2 m, 2.5 m, 2.8 m, 3.1 m, 3.4 m, 3.7 m) when intercropped with maize. [...] Read more.
Strip intercropping improves productivity through enhanced light interception. In this study, we quantified the effects of strip width on light interception of soybean across six strip widths (2.2 m, 2.5 m, 2.8 m, 3.1 m, 3.4 m, 3.7 m) when intercropped with maize. Results showed that photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in western rows of intercropped soybeans peaked at 11:30 a.m., whereas in eastern rows, it occurred at 1:00 p.m. Across 2.2 m to 3.7 m, PAR in the western rows of intercropped soybeans was 6.1% higher than that of the eastern rows for the whole growth period. During the R5 stage, compared to eastern rows, radiation use efficiency (RUE), dry matter accumulation, and leaf area of soybean in western rows increased by 4.0%, 7.4%, and 6.7%, respectively. Compared to the 2.2 m strip width, grain yields in eastern rows of 2.5–3.7 m strip widths were 8.5%, 54.7%, 56.5%, 63.4%, and 69.0% higher than those of the 2.2 m strip width, respectively. PAR had the strongest influence on dry matter and leaf area at a 3.7 m strip width, while RUE had the strongest influence at 3.1 m strip widths. These findings advance our understanding of light partitioning in strip intercropping and support future climate-adaptive intercropping systems’ modeling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions Between Crops and Resource Utilization)
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