ALBERT

Beschreibung: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Aims〈/h3〉 〈p〉Mycorrhizae and root exudates have been considered the two important pathways for nitrogen (N) transfer from legume to non-legume plants. The present study aimed to investigate contribution of the relative importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and root exudates in short-term N transfer.〈/p〉 〈/span〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Methods〈/h3〉 〈p〉A field experiment was conducted to explore N transfer from alfalfa to maize under two different N application levels using 〈sup〉15〈/sup〉N leaf labeling.〈/p〉 〈/span〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Results〈/h3〉 〈p〉N transfer amount ranged from 7 to 10 mg N plant〈sup〉−1〈/sup〉 from alfalfa to maize and significantly decreased (by 11%–22%) with N fertilizer application. Intercropping of 4 rows of maize and 6 rows of alfalfa with 30 cm intra-row spacing (IMA43) was the optimal intercropping mode, which increased N transfer, total N uptake and yield by 18%, 15% and 11%, respectively. The relative importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and root exudates on N transfer was dependent on soil N availability. Under no N addition, hyphal length density (HLD) of rhizosphere soil explained the largest significant amount (50%) of the variability in N transfer and crop yield. However, root exudates explained 77% of the variability in N transfer and crop yields with N fertilizer application.〈/p〉 〈/span〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Conclusions〈/h3〉 〈p〉Our findings highlighted that N transfer is reliant more on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi than root exudates in N-deficient soil, whereas root exudates play a more important role in N-fertilized soil.〈/p〉 〈/span〉