Rubber-based agroforestry systems modify the soil fungal composition and function in Southwest China

Highlights

● Rubber-based agroforestry systems increased the complexity of fungal networks.

● Fungal community structure was strongly correlated with soil pH and SOC.

● Rubber-based agroforestry systems reduced the presence of certain pathogens.

Abstract

Rubber-based agroforestry systems have been recognized as a practical and sustainable solution to promote the development of agriculture and the environment. However, interactions between fungal communities and these systems are still not sufficiently investigated. In this study, we compared the abundance, diversity, and community composition of soil fungi in four treatments, including rubber monoculture and three rubber-based agroforestry treatments involving intercropping with Camellia sinensis, Coffea liberica, and Theobroma cacao. The results revealed that the community composition exhibited significant variation between the four different treatments, while the overall soil α-diversity was relatively stable across all treatments. Soil pH and soil organic carbon were significantly related to the structure of the fungal community. In particular, the complexity of the functional fungal network increased in response to agroforestry treatments, promoting beneficial fungi and suppressing certain plant pathogens. These results suggest that rubber-based agroforestry systems can promote the health of soil microbial community composition, and therefore provide an effective approach to enhancing soil quality.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

agroforestry system with intercropping / rubber monoculture / fungal community / fungal function / tropical forest

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Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFC2604502), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 32371733, 31971497), the Xingdian Scholar Fund of Yunnan Province, the Project for Talent and Platform in Yunnan Province Science and Technology Department (Grant No. 202205AM070005), and the Double Top University Fund of Yunnan University.

Authorsʼ contributions

JW designed the experiment. DL, ZH, and XL collected and analyzed the data. The authors jointly contributed to the completion of the manuscript.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42832-023-0224-0 and is accessible for authorized users.

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