Intercropping can improve field microclimates, decrease the incidence of crop diseases, and increase crop yields, but the reasons for this remain unknown. Solar radiation is the most important environmental influence. To understand the mechanisms of intercropping we established an experiment consisting of three cropping patterns： a monocropping control {treatment A） and two intercropping treatments （B： two rows of maize and two rows of soybean intercropping; C： two rows of maize and four rows of soybean intercropping）. Results show that compared to monocropping, intercropping increased the amount of light penetrating to inferior leaves in maize plants. Light intensity reaching maize plants at the heading stage in intercropping increased over two-fold at 30 cm above ground and 10-fold at 70 cm above ground, compared with monocropping. At the flowering to maturity stage, light intensity at 110, 160 and 210 cm above ground among maize plants was greatly increased in intercropping compared with monocropping, by some five-fold, two-fold and 12%, respectively. Moreover, light intensity declined more slowly at the measured heights in the intercropping system compared with monocropping. From the 7-18th leaf, light intensity per leaf increased two-fold in intercropping compared with monocropping. Daily light duration increased more than a mean of 5 h per day per leaf in intercropping compared with monocropping. The biological characters of maize including thousand kernel weight, yield per plant and area of ear leaves were all greater in intercropping than monocropping. These results suggest that, for maize, intercropping improves light density and duration significantly and this may contribute to biomass and yield increases.
Ecological and cultural factors have strong impacts on the distribution and cultivation of agricultural cultivar., In this paper, the correlation between diversity centers of rice cultivar and ecological, cultural factors was probed, based on datasets of rice cultivar in Yunnan, Southwest China. The results showed that diversity centers of rice cultivar were observed in Southwest Yunnan, South Yunnan and Southeast Yunnan, which may be related to the local culture of rice production and warm, humid climate. For the diversity center in South Yunnan, culture of rice production of Dai and Hani people may play important roles. The diversity center in Southwest Yunnan may relate to the culture of rice production of Dai, Jingpo and Lahu people, and for the diversity center in Southeast Yunnan, Miao, Yao and Zhuang people＇s culture in rice production can not be underestimated. Traditional culture promoted the cultivation of rice cultivars, and high diversity of rice cultivars facilitate the preservation and continuation of the traditional culture as well.
Knowledge of the geographic distribution and frequency of avirulence genes will contribute to the development of strategies to effectively use rice varieties that carry various resistances genes, including combinations of varieties in mixture cropping systems. Here, we analyzed the geographic distribution and frequencies of avirulence genes in rice blast fungus using samples collected from 11 prefectures across Yunnan province, China. A total of 467 single spore isolates were assayed for pathotypes based on their reaction to 20 rice blast resistance monogenic lines. The results revealed that frequencies of avirulence genes among 10 prefectures showed insignificant difference, but frequencies of avirulenee genes in Xishuangbanna showed significant differences compared to the remaining 10 prefectures. The avirulence genes Avr-Pi9, Avr-Piz and Avr-Pizt were observed at the highest frequency in blast isolates from the 11 prefectures; their average frequency was greater than 80%. Our results imply that the composition and distribution of rice genetic diversity are more important than climate and other environment conditions for formation and maintenance of rice blast fungus genetic diversity. Using average frequencies, the avirulence genes can be categorized into 4 groups. There were significant differences of frequencies of avirulence genes among different groups, while insignificant differences observed within any group. These results will provide useful information for evaluation of resistance genes and effective management of rice blast disease.
